acis – prelim information generation

 interpreting, reporting, and communicating

the study of accounting information systems
information.
accounting
information system
 it is the principal way of organizing and reporting
 is a framework in which data is collected,
financial information. it has been called the
processed, controlled and managed through
“language of business.”
stages in order to provide information to users
 accounting and information systems comprise
 it evolves over time and becomes more
the functional area of business responsible for
formalized as a firm grows and becomes more
providing information to the other areas to enable
complex. it can be a manual or computerized
them to do their jobs and for reporting the results
system
to interested parties.
 firms depend on information systems in order to
 to that end, an accounting system is used to
survive and stay competitive
identify, analyze, measure, record, summarize,
and communicate relevant economic information accounting information system
to interested parties.  is a unified structure that employs physical
resources and components to transform
systems
economic data into accounting information for
 is an entity consisting of interacting parts that are
external and internal users.
coordinated to achieve one or more common
objectives. Systems must possess input, roles of accountants with respect to an ais
process, and output.
financial accountants
data  prepare financial information for external
 data are raw facts and figures that are processed decision-making in accordance with GAAP.
to produce information.
managerial accountants
information  prepare financial information for internal decision-
 is data that have been processed and are making.
meaningful and useful to users. The terms
“meaningful” and “useful” are value – laden terms auditors
and usually subsume other qualities such as  evaluate controls and attest to the fairness of the
timeliness, relevance, reliability, consistency, financial statements.
comparability, etc. accounting managers
functional steps in transforming data into information  control all accounting activities of a firm.

data collection tax specialists

 capturing, recording, validating and editing data  develop information that reflects tax obligations
for completeness, and accuracy. of the firm.

data maintenance/processing consultants

 classifying, sorting, calculating data.  devise specifications for the AIS.

data management transaction processing: the data processing cycle

 storing, maintaining and retrieving data. data input
data control  steps in processing input are:
 safeguarding and securing data and ensuring the  capture transaction data triggered by a
accuracy and completeness of the same. business activity (event).
  make sure captured data are accurate and
complete.
 ensure company policies are followed (e.g.,
source data automation devices
approval of transaction)
 captures transaction data in machine-readable
data capture form at the time and place of their origin.
 information collected for an activity includes:
data storage
 activity of interest (e.g., sale)
 resources affected (e.g., inventory and cash)  important to understand how data is organized
 people who participated (e.g., customer and  chart of accounts
employee)  coding schemas that are well thought
 information comes from source documents. out to anticipate management needs
are most efficient and effective.
source document  transaction journals (e.g., sales)
 captures data at the source when the transaction  subsidiary ledgers (e.g., accounts
takes place receivable)
 paper source documents  general ledger
 turnaround documents note: with the above, one can trace the path of the
 source data automation (captured data from transaction (audit trail).
machines, e.g., point of sale scanners at
ledgers
grocery store)
 general ledger- contains summary-level data for
common business activities & source documents every asset, liability, equity, revenue and
expense account.
business activity source documents
revenue cycle subsidiary ledger
take customer order sales order  contains detailed data for any general ledger
deliver or ship order delivery ticket or bill of account with many individual subaccounts.
landing
receive cash remittance advice or remit. coding techniques
list  data in ledgers are organized logically using
deposit cash receipt deposit slip coding techniques.
adjust customer credit memo  coding is the systematic assignment of numbers
account or letters to items to classify and organize them.

business activity source documents 1. sequence code

expenditure cycle  items are numbered consecutively to account for
request items purchase requisition all items. any missing items cause a gap in the
order items purchase order numerical sequence.
receive items receiving report 2. block code
pay for items check or electronic fund transfer  blocks of numbers are reserved for specific
categories of data.
common business activities & source documents- 3. group code
human resource cycle  two or more subgroups of digits used to code
business activities source documents items, are often used in conjunction with block
record time worked by time cards codes.
employees 4. mnemonic code
record time spent of job time tickets or time sheet  letters and numbers are interspersed to identify
specific jobs an item. the mnemonic code is derived from the
 description of the item and is usually easy to  financial reporting
memorize.
systems documentation techniques
system implementation
chart of accounts  involves the actual carrying out of the design
 a list of the numbers assigned to each general plan.
ledger account. documentation
 is one of the most important parts of systems
general journal
implementation
 used to record infrequent or nonroutine
transactions. flowchart.
specialized journal  is a symbolic diagram that shows the data flow
 records large numbers of repetitive transactions and sequence of operations in a system.
such as sales, cash receipts, and cash  probably the most common systems technique.
disbursements.
symbol
audit trail  used in a flowchart to represent the functions of
 a traceable path of a transaction through a data an information or other type of system.
processing system from point of origin to final
output, or from final output to point of origin. normal direction of flow
 it is used to check the accuracy and validity of  from left to right and top to bottom.
ledger postings. analytic flowchart
information output  identifies all significant processing in an
 the data stored in the database files can be application, emphasizing processing tasks that
viewed apply controls.
 online (soft copy)  flow of processing is depicted using symbols
 printed out (hard copy) connected with flowlines.

document – records of transaction or other document flowchart

company data (e.g., sales invoice)  similar in format to an analytic flowchart but
contains less detail about the processing
report – used by employees to control functions of each entity shown on the chart.
operational activities and by managers to make  the only symbol used in a document flowchart is
decisions and to formulate business strategies the document symbol.
(e.g., monthly sales report)
flow distribution chart
query – is used to provide the information  illustrates the distribution of multiple copy forms
needed to deal with problems and questions that with an organization.
need rapid action or answers. (question for  the emphasis is on who gets what forms rather
specific information in a database, e.g., what than on how these forms are processed.
division had the most sales for the month?)
social engineering attacks
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
 Integrates activities from the entire organization phishing
 production  is a fraudulent attempt, usually made through
 payroll email, to steal your personal information.
 sales  is a cyber-attack that uses disguised email as a
 purchasing weapon. the goal is to trick the email recipient
 into believing that the message is something
they want or need — a request from their bank,
for instance, or a note from someone in their
company — and to click a link or download an
attachment.
 obtains personal information such as names,
addresses, social security numbers.
 use shortened or misleading links that redirect
users to suspicious websites that host phishing
landing pages.
 incorporate threats, fear and a sense of urgency
in an attempt to manipulate the user into
responding quickly.
5 categories of phishing
1. vishing – voice + phishing
2. smishing – SMS phishing
3. search engine phishing
4. spear phishing – email or electronic
communications scam targeted towards a
specific individual, organization or business.
although often intended to steal data for
malicious purposes, cybercriminals may also
intend to install malware on a targeted user’s
computer.
5. whaling – this technique targets C-suite posts like
CEO, CFO, COO – or any other senior
management positions – who are considered to
be big players in the information chain of any
organization, commonly known as “whales” in
phishing terms.
phishing
 a broad, automated attack that is less
sophisticated.
spear-phishing
 a customized attack on a specific employee &
company.