Tameran Bruch

Upper Iowa University

Advanced Accounting Information Systems

Dr. Leland

Week 1 Assignment

3. a. Consider the five business processes described in the chapter. Which one best applies to the

activities described? Why?

The Sales/collection process best applies to the actives described. As stated in the book, the

sales/collection process comprises activities from taking the customer’s order to colleting

payment from the customer. All the activities performed by Richie’s employees are done to

provide a service and collet payment for those services.

b. Does Richie’s need an accounting information system? Why or why not?

Yes. All businesses should have AIS in place because they help business to be successful by

capturing data on the elements of financial statements, then transforms that data into reliable and

relevant information. AIS also helps business to recognize and adapt to the cost benefit

constraint; there is always more data and different data or processes that can be used but not all

work for all business. Management doesn’t want to waste resources on collecting data or using

processes that don’t provide them with the best returns.

c. If you were an accountant for Richie’s, how might you demonstrate the AICPA core

competencies discussed in the chapter in your interaction with management?

As an accountant for Richie’s I would use resource management to reduce food costs. Food

costs are largest problem that restaurants face; spoilage, theft, and poor inventory control all

drive up a restaurants food costs. Resource management is also important when it comes to

staffing. Having the right amount of staff with the right skills are imperative to business success.

I would use strategic/critical thinking to look at the restaurant as whole to try to determine where

there are failings and successes so that we can focus on maintaining/increasing on the successes

and reducing the failings. Without the ability to see the restaurant as a whole minor issues can

be overlooked and allowed to become major issues. As an accountant research is incredibly

important to ensure that the business is competitive within the market, following laws or

regulations of the industry, and understanding customer needs or concerns. Lastly, I would use

communication to explain the “numbers” to management or to convey process and procedures to

staff so that they understand why things need to be done a certain way and how.

d. Suggest one example of each generic AIS element within the context of Richie’s. The generic

elements are input, process, output, storage, and internal control.

Inputs are documents such as sales invoices or purchase orders. This is true for Richie’s. They

will have purchase orders, food and drink orders, sales receipts, bank deposits, and other sources

of data.

Processes are tools used to perform daily activities, as well as procedures for how those tools are

used and activities are done. Richie’s uses manual tools such as pen and paper to take customer
order and given to cooks. Staff also uses manual tools to prepare the customers’ bills. They

likely use computerized POS systems for their register system and to collect payment via

debit/credit cards. As for procedures, Richie’s likely has an employee hand book and recipe

book that describes each employee’s job duties, uniform, and other important information

employees need to perform their duties.

Outputs are financial statements or other documentation like internal reports. A good example

would the daily sales report.

Storage is how a company stores it important data. It can be done digitally, manually on paper,

or a combination of both. From my experience it is likely that Rickie’s would use paper to store

their important data. They are a small business and wouldn’t need anything super sophisticated.

e. Do a Google search on “operating a successful restaurant.” Pick one of the articles it produces

and evaluate it using the UMUC criteria.

The article I chose is “4 Keys to Opening a Successful Restaurant” and using the UMCU criteria

I feel that is a sound reference. The article has authority as it is published be a well-known

publication, Entrepreneur, and provides the authors name, title, and contact information. The

article is an opinion article and does not provide citations for the author’s opinions. The

website/article seems to be fairly objective as it doesn’t have advertising for anything other than

other articles on the site. The article is a little dated as it was created in February 2017 and

doesn’t seem to have been updated. However, the imbedded links are still good and the material

covered is what I would consider “timeless,” advice that never goes out of date. Lastly, as for
coverage, I found the article to be informative without being overly complex or wordy, and

complete. It didn’t feel like anything was left out or needed to be added.

Medal, A. (2017, February 14). 4 Keys to Opening a Successful Restaurant. Retrieved January

24, 2021, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288885

4. A. Sebastian and Viola should invest in a computer(s) and software like Quickbooks to easily

input and track their data. This would allow them to analyze revenues, how much they are

where they are coming from, and their expenses, what they are spending money on and if

it’s too much. This would give them an organized bookkeeping system, e-data storage, and

easy access to their transaction records, as well as client and vendor lists. The costs would

be for the equipment, the computer and software they use.

b. The article I chose used the acronym ACCURATE to illustrate what they believe are

characteristics of good information.

 Accurate- information should be fair and free of bias, and it shouldn’t have any errors.

 Complete – facts and figures should not be missing or concealed.

 Cost-beneficial – information should be analyzed for its benefits against the cost of

obtaining it.

 User-targeted – information should be communicated in style, format, detail, and

complexity which addresses the needs of users.

  Relevant – information should be communicated to the right person and have the right

context.

 Authoritative – information should come from reliable sources.

 Timely – information should be communicated in time to that the user has enough time to

use it. Some industries evolve faster than others so information should follow the pace of

its content.

 Easy to use – information should be understandable to users. Style, sentence structure,

and jargons should be used keeping the user in mind.

I feel that this article is closely in line with the UMCU criteria we learned from the book. They

both impress the importance of accurate information that is authoritative, reliable, relevant,

objective, and timely. The article brings forth some additional characteristics that I believe are

important to keep in mind, even if they are not included in the UMCU criteria. For example,

cost-beneficial is important because sometimes there is a need to pay for information or

publication. This doesn’t necessarily mean the information is biased but users need to keep in

mind that it could be. I also feel that ease of use and user targeted is important because

information needs to be useable to anyone that might need it. On the other hand authors

wouldn’t to “talk down” to users.

Tosin Harold AkingbemisiluFollowM&E/ICT Health Specialist | Data Analyst |

AdvisorLike52Comment8ShareLinkedInFacebookTwitter0, Follow, & Tosin Harold

AkingbemisiluM&E/ICT Health Specialist | Data Analyst | AdvisorFollow. (2014, October

28). Characteristics of Good Quality Information (ACCURATE). Retrieved January 24,

 2021, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141028075709-241876614-characteristics-

of-good-quality-information-accurate

6. “Xelltec Reports Laptop Security Microchip.” Wireless News, 25 February 2011.

This example is the worst of the lot and would not be an acceptable resource. It doesn’t meet the

criteria of authoritative, accurate, objective, current, or coverage.

Bollinger, M. “Implementing Internal Controls.” Strategic Finance, January 2011.

I believe this article would be an acceptable resource. It provides the author’s name and

credentials, is objective, and has a depth of coverage.

Cascone, J., et al. “Equipped to Sustain.” Internal Auditor, December 2010.

I believe this article would be considered a perfect example of a good resource. It ticks all the

boxes on the check list. It is authoritative, accurate, objective, current(ish), and provides

coverage. In fact this article has been used as a reference in several other papers.

Johansmeyer, T. “Top 4 Small Business Accounting Software for 2008.” CPA

Magazine,November 2008.

This article would make a good reference. It is a accurate, objective, and contained enough

depth. This article does not seem to provide the author or author information, but that might be

due to the age of the article.

Weisman, A., and M. Brodsky. “Fighting Fraud with Both Fists.” The CPA Journal, January

2011.
I was unable to locate information about this article. Based on other articles I read from the CPA

Journal I would expect this article to be a good resource.

11.

a. Comprehensive income

b. Materiality

c. Asset

d. Economic Entity

e. Relevance

f. Qualitative characteristics

g. Expenses

h. Consistency

i. Purpose

j. Matching