Business 4: Organizational Needs Assessment Flashcards
What are five important components of IT?
1) Hardware
2) Software
3) Data
4) Network
5) People
How would you categorize a monitor and a mouse?
Hardware
What is hardware?
Actual physical computer or computer peripheral device
What does software include?
Systems and programs that process data and turn that data into info
True or false.
Software can be for general use or for specialized use.
True
What is a network made up of?
Communication media that allows multiple computers to share data and info
What is data?
Raw facts (e.g. quantity, name, or a dollar amount)
In a computer environment, data stored on devices is often described as either what two types of data?
- Production data (live/real)
- test data (staging/fake)
What is production data a result of?
- results from production processing
- stored in production systems
What is test data a result of?
- results from test processing
- stored in test systems
What is information created from?
Data that have been processed and organized
What are the four primary roles that business information systems play in business operations?
1) Process detailed data
2) Provide info used for making daily decisions
3) Provide info used for developing business strategies
4) Take orders from customers
What does TPS stand for?
Transaction processing system
What does an integrated system allow for?
Less redundancy of data entry and storage
From a functional perspective, business information systems might be divided into what four categories?
1) Sales and marketing systems
2) Manufacturing and production systems
3) Finance and accounting systems
4) Human resources systems
What is the first step in processing business transactions?
Data capture
What are two data capture techniques?
1) Manual entries
2) Source data automation
Is a well-designed input screen a good technique to ensure that data are captured accurately and completely?
Yes
Are auto-entry fields a good technique to ensure that data are captured accurately and completely?
YES
Once data about a business activity has been collected and entered into the system, what happens next?
Data processing
Business info systems allow a business to perform what five functions on data?
1) Collect
2) Process
3) Store
4) Transform
5) Distribute
What is the name of the business information system that is most important to an accountant?
Accounting information system (AIS)
What is an AIS?
- Type of management information system
- Also partly a transaction processing system
- Also partly a knowledge system
A well-designed AIS creates what sort of trail?
- Audit trail for accounting transactions
What does an audit trail allow a user to do?
- trace a transaction from a source document to ledge
- vouch from ledger back to source document
True or false.
One of the objectives of an AIS is to record invalid transactions.
False (“valid”)
True or false.
One of the objectives of an AIS is to properly classify recorded transactions.
True
What is the general sequence of events in an AIS?
Input >»_space; Output
- Source doc
- Journal
- Ledger
- Trial balance
- F/S reports
Similar economic events are typically grouped for repetitive processing into what five transaction cycles?
1) Revenue cycle
2) Expenditure cycle
3) Production cycle
4) HR/payroll cycle
5) Financing cycle
Transaction processes are generally divided into what four functional areas that make up the data processing cycle?
1) Data input
2) Data storage
3) Data processing
4) Info output
True or false.
A basic issue associated with data input is ensuring that all transactions of interest are accounted for.
True
True or false.
A basic issue associated with data input is ensuring that all transactions of interest are accounted for and in the correct amounts.
True
True or false.
A basic issue associated with data input is identifying all the people originating the transactions.
True
Transactions associated with equity and debt financing including issuance of stock or debt, payment of dividends or debt service payments are part of what transaction cycle?
Financing cycle
Source documents and turnaround documents assist in what?
Input verification
Give an example of a source document.
- purchase orders
- customer orders
- time sheets
What is used to make data in the AIS more accessible and useful?
Coding
What are three different types of coding methods?
1) Sequence codes
2) Block codes
3) Group codes
Sequence codes ensure what?
That a list of transactions include neither duplicates nor gaps in the number sequence
What do block codes use to group similar items?
Blocks of numbers to group similar items (e.g. assets might be coded 100-199)
True or false.
In group codes, different groups of numbers have meaning.
True
What do charts of accounts represent?
- A form of coding that summarizes accounting data by ledger classification (e.g. assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, etc.) for the purposes of financial analysis and presentation
What does chart of accounts allow a business to do?
Customize classification of data in the ways that best meet the info requirements of the business
Define entity (w/r/t computer storage).
Subject of the stored info (e.g. employee, customer, etc.)
Define attributes (w/r/t computer storage).
The specific items of interest for each entity (e.g. rate of pay for employees, credit rating for customers, etc.)
Define field (w/r/t computer storage).
- A field contains a single piece of info (an attribute) of the entity.
- E.g. FirstName, LastName, City
Define record (w/r/t computer storage).
- Includes all attributes about a single instance of an entity (e.g. an employee)
Define data value (w/r/t computer storage).
- The contents of fields are typically referred to as data values.
Define file (w/r/t computer storage).
Records are grouped into files
Define master file (w/r/t computer storage).
- Similar to a ledger
- Master file stores cumulative info and info that is relatively permanent (e.g. customers, vendors, inventory)
Define transaction file (w/r/t computer storage).
- Similar to a journal
- The transaction file stores individual transactions
Define database (w/r/t computer storage).
- Files that are interrelated and coordinated are referred to as a database
True or false.
Transactions are processed to keep info current, and include various functions and methods.
True
What does OLRT stand for?
Online real-time processing
What is a query?
Request for specific data (e.g. day’s sales)
What are three different types of info output?
1) Documents
2) Reports
3) Query
Reports can come in what two forms?
1) Internal (e.g. sales analysis)
2) External (e.g. f/s)
What are three common types of reports generated by AIS?
1) Budgets
2) Production and delivery schedules
3) Performance reports
In a computerized environment, what two methods can be used to perform file maintenance on master files, including databases?
1) Batch processing
2) Online, Real-Time processing (OLRT)
True or false.
There is never a time delay b/w the time the transaction is initiated and the time that it is fully processed with batch processing
False (“always”)
True or false.
There is never a time delay b/w the time the transaction is initiated and the time that it is fully processed with batch processing
False (“always”)
What does EUC stand for?
End-user computing
How often and to whom are periodic scheduled reports made available?
- On a regular basis
- To end users of the system
Give an example of a periodic scheduled report.
- Weekly commission report
- Monthly financial statement
When are exception reports produced?
- When a specific condition or exception occurs
Give an example of when an exception report may be produced?
- When a customer’s credit balance is greater than the credit limit
When is a demand report made available?
On demand
What is a demand report also referred to as?
Response report (b/c an end user can log onto a workstation and obtain a response in the form of a report w/o waiting for scheduled report creation)
Define an ad hoc report.
- One that does not currently exist but that can be created on demand
- W/o having to get a software developer or programmer involved
What is a query?
- A set of criteria that the end user can send to the system to extract all transactions or other info that meet these criteria
What is a query?
- A set of criteria that the end user can send to the system to extract all transactions or other info that meet these criteria
True or false.
Under push reporting, info can be “pushed” and sent to a computer screen or computer desktop.
True
How are dashboard reports used by organizations?
- To present summary info necessary for management action
What does XBRL stand for?
Extensible Business Reporting Language
What is XBRL derived from?
XML (Extensive markup language)
What do XBRL tags define?
- Define the data (provide meta-data)
- E.g. tags could indicate the taxonomy used (GAAP or IFRS), the currency, the time period, as well as the definition of the element
