| Description | The design of accounting systems necessarily reflects differences in the needs of sole traders or family-owned businesses, small to medium enterprises, and multi-national business firms. Elements of those systems include methods of documenting transactions, transformations and events; internal control procedures designed to safeguard human physical and financial resources; recording methods (manual, semi-automated or fully automated); and methods of periodic reporting on financial and operating activities to managers or governing bodies. The unit examines issues associated with the design of accounting systems and associated business processes in order to harness the capabilities of contemporary business applications software in a cost-effective and secure manner. Topics include the design of charts of accounts, maintaining audit trails; records management and compliance; history of financial applications software; illustrations of the use of inexpensive commercial off-the shelf software in developing budget models, maintaining records to enable compliance with tax rules; examination of the risks that arise with the use of some contemporary software packages, and how those risks might be addressed or managed; illustrations of the capabilities of contemporary enterprise resource planning systems. |
