D$5$ Consulting is a small grant$-$writing business that was founded two years ago by Dion Davenport. Since

then, Dion has performed a wide range of activities, including business development, grant writing, and

invoicing. Because D$5$ began as a home$-$based business, with only a few clients, Dion has been generating

simple invoices using Microsoft Word. He then uses a manual process to follow up on invoices to ensure

they are being paid in a timely manner.

Over the last two years, however, D$5$ Consulting has grown significantly. The company now works with more

than $50$ clients on a variety of jobs ranging from small, simple projects to larger, more complex projects

requiring multiple invoices. As the company grew, Dion found himself spending as much time creating and

tracking down invoices as he did generating billable hours. As a result, he has been putting in very long

hours to keep up with the work. D$5$ also now has several contractors doing work for the firm. Each contractor

submits submit monthly invoices for their work, which means Dion has even more administrative tasks to

keep track of$.$ In the last several months, Dion has been late paying a few of the contractors because he has

gotten behind processing their invoices or because he did not realize that they had not submitted their

invoices in a timely manner.

Dion is frustrated with the inefficiencies in the business and fears that it will either result in lower client

satisfaction or him exiting the business due to the long work hours. As a consultant, describe how you would implement a Transaction Processing System $($TPS$)$ at D$5$

Consulting to automate invoicing. Discuss the functions that a TPS need to perform in order to alleviate the

issues at D$5$ Consulting?