Assignment: ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS& CONTROLS
BUEINSS CYCLES& INTERNAL CONTROL
The strategic objectives of the project are:
• To master and apply the course material
• To provide you with the opportunity to reach out to the real business world and work with a real organization
• To gain experience with real-life constraints and opportunities
• To practice communicating your work orally and in writing
1. Introduction
Requirement: Your final document should include:
• A web link to a video about your client or similar to your client's business (if you cannot find a video for your client).
• Introduction to your client and your relationship with the client (e.g., show why the business cycles you are going to study are critical for your client's success).
• Importance of your work: Explain how your client will benefit from your work
2. Business Cycle Documentation
If necessary, visit your client and conduct interviews with people involved in the businesscycles that you wish to study. We have applied three systems documentation techniques in Chap 3 (Data Flow Program, Flowcharts, and Business Process Diagram) to four business cycles: The Revenue Cycle (Chap 12), The Expenditure Cycle (Chap 13), The Production Cycle (Chap 14), andHRM/Payroll Cycle (Chap 15).
Your goal is to understand the business processes in depth:
• The step-by-step activities
• The flows of physical products or services
• The ways of informationcollection, storage and process
Requirement: Your final document should include:
• Four business cycles of your clients:
(a) Use all three systems documentation techniques (Data Flow Program, Flowcharts, and Business Process Diagram) to document the first business cycle of your choice for your client (e.g., the Revenue Cycle);
(b) Use Data Flow Program (one of three systems documentation techniques) to document the second business cycle of your choice for your client (e.g., the Expenditure Cycle);
(c) Use Flowcharts (one of three systems documentation techniques) to document the third business cycle of your choice for your client (e.g., the Production Cycle); and
(d) Use Business Process Diagram (one of three systems documentation techniques) to document the fourth business cycle of your choice for your client (e.g., the HRM/Payroll Cycle);
• Business cycle overview: Discuss the objectives of the business cycles and their alignment with your client goals, inputs and outputs, interactions with other cyclesand external entities
• Narrative description and tables: Describe business cycle activities and use table of entities and activities in order to reduces the narrative to a list of simple sentences delineating "who does what"
3. Internal Control Mechanism
When visiting your client, you also need to understand your client's internal control mechanisms. The internal control mechanisms involvecontrols against Control and AIS such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, COSO's Internal Control Framework, COSO's ERM Framework, COBIT Framework, etc. (Chap 7), Controls for Information Security (Chap 8), Confidentiality and Privacy Controls (Chap 9), and Processing Integrity and Availability Controls (Chap 10).
Requirement: Your final document should include:
• Five internal control mechanisms of your client:
(a) Control and AIS;
(b) Controls for Information Security;
(c) Confidentiality and Privacy Controls; and
(d) Processing Integrity and Availability Controls
• Internal control overview: Discuss the objectives of the internal control mechanism and their alignment with your client goals.
• Narrative description and tables: Describe business cycle activities and use table of entities and activities in order to reduces the narrative to a list of simple sentences delineating "who does what."
4. Conclusion and Recommendations
Requirement: Your final document should include:
• Any possible ethical issues about your client; if there is no ethical issue about your client, discuss ethical issue about some company in your client's industry.
• Any interesting things about your clients.
• An Executive Summary of your work and Recommendation to your client.
• Your client's feedback on your work, if applicable.Your client's feedback is a great addition to your final report. If your client provides you with formal or informal feedback, describe it in your own words in a paragraph or two. However,it is not always possible to receive your client's feedback; if you do not have your client's feedback, do not fake it!
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.