ACCT 326 Accounting System Review

This project requires you to evaluate a PC-based accounting system to see how the system handles recording transactions, collecting data, and generating reports and information. The accounting system you use is up to you. Several suggestions are given below.

STEP 1. SELECT A SOFTWARE PACKAGE

QuickBooks (http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/ProductUpdates.aspx)

STEP 2. EXPLORE THE SOFTWARE

Check to see if the application has a tutorial that demonstrates some of the features of the application, and if so, review the tutorial. Review any online documentation regarding how to use the application.

STEP 3. TRY OUT THE SOFTWARE USING A SAMPLE COMPANY

Use with a sample company

Revenue Activities (e.g., sales, collections, billing)

How can you maintain customers?

How can you make customer invoices/bills?

How can you process customer payments?

What are the reports available to support your revenue activities?

Expenditure Activities (e.g., purchasing, invoicing / payments)

How can you maintain vendors?

How can you maintain purchases?

How can you generate payments to vendors?

What are the reports available to support your expenditure activities?

Reporting Activities

How can you maintain your chart of accounts?

How can you generate financial statements?

How can you use Excel to extract data from your AIS to generate your customized reports?

STEP 4. DOCUMENT YOUR RESULTS (YOUR PAPER)

Once you have completed your evaluation, you must develop a report using the following layout.

Section 1 (Overview of the Accounting System): Provide a general overview of the accounting system that you are evaluating. Ensure the overview provides the reader with a general understanding of the application, including the projected purchase price and any particular hardware and software requirements. Finally, discuss the ease of use of this system for accountants and non-accountants. You should include why you selected the application.

Section 2 (Review of Revenue Activities): Describe how the system selected handles processing & recording accounting transactions related to revenue-related activities. You should provide at least one detailed example of how one would record a specific accounting transaction/ business activity. Your summary should be general and not "how one does this in the system."

Section 3 (Review of Expenditure Activities): Describe how the system selected handles processing & recording accounting transactions related to expenditure-related activities. You should provide at least one detailed example of how one would record a specific accounting transaction/ business activity. Your summary should be general and not "how one does this in the system."

Section 4 (Review of Reporting Activities): Describe how the system selected handles financial reporting activities such as financial statements and posting journal entries. Your summary should be general and not "how one does this in the system."

Section 5 (Accounting System's Strengths & Weaknesses): In this section, you will identify and discuss at least two strengths and weaknesses of the system. Also, you will locate at least one technology advancement that this system lacks. Examples of technology advances include but are not limited to (a) digital signatures, (b) single sign-on and bio-metrics, (c) bloc chain, and (d) data analytics.

Section 6 (Other Features): This section discusses how you can use Microsoft Office and other products (e.g., tax programs) with your AIS.

Paper Guidelines

Page Length: Your response should not exceed five pages. Each paragraph must be single spacing with double-spacing between paragraphs. References: You must include at least four literary references and in-text citations to support your paper. These references must be related directly to the topics covered in the paper. References & citations must be formatted appropriately, as noted below. Headings: You will need to use headings (short, brief, and centered) to separate each area of your paper. Your headings should be something genetic like i.e, Section 4. Margins & Font Sizes: Use standard margins (minimum .5"; maximum 1.5") and standard font size (minimum 10 point; maximum 12 point) in your paper.

Writing Style: APA7 is the preferred writing style. Please consult the UMGC Effective Writing Center (http://www.umgc.edu/writingcenter/index.cfm)for assistance regarding formatting your paper and references via APA7.