Instructor: Glen L. Gray Office: BB3211
Office hours: 9:45 to 10:45 TTh Telephone:885-3948 (off.)
2:00 to 4:00 T 885-2461 (sec.)
(or by appointment) email: ggray@hucy.csun.edu
Required:
1. Page & Hooper, Accounting andlnformation Systems, 4th Ed., Prentice-Hall, 1992.
2. Viescas, Ratming MicrosoftAccess 2, Microsoft Press, 1994
Recommended:
1. An auditing textbook
2. A financial accounting textbook
3. A managerial accounting textbook
Prerequisites-
MIS 324. It is also assumed that you know how to use an MM PC and how to use the available oncampus computers.
Course Objectives and Overview:
Most business-related systems have significant accounting components. The impact of an accounting information system (AIS) is not limited to just the accounting department. AIS is strategically critical to the whole organization. Top management uses accounting infon-nation to measure the ongoing performance of every department, product and service. Accounting information also provides a basis to develop future budgets and planning forecasts.
The objective of course is to prepare MIS majors to build a strong, yet flexible, accounting information systems that can meet the daily transaction processing requirements of an organization as well as support the decision making activities of top management.
This course also stresses the importance of controls. As companies move toward "paper-less" offices, the control and error detecting aspects of the AIS have grown in importance. Undetected errors can have a detrimental affect on future decisions based on the erroneous data.
As part of the leaming process, some off-the-shelf accounting packages will be used as an example of a commercial AIS. Then each student will develop an accounting module using a database language.
This course is divided into five parts:
Part I - Foundation
This part provides a brief overview of accounting activities with coverage of both the transaction processing and decision making activities of accounting systems.
Part H - Accounting Modules
This part addresses primary accounting modules (GL, AP, AR, PR) and other modules likely to be encounter in a comprehensive AIS (e.g., inventory control, order entry, etc.).
Part III - Controls and Auditability
This part addresses both general computer and application controls that must be considered in the design of an AIS. This part also addresses auditing concepts that should be considered in the design of an AIS.
Part IV - System Development
This part brings all the prior information together and discusses AIS system develop and selection.
Part V - The Strategic Impact of AIS
This part addresses the strategic importance of AIS in an organization beyond the transaction processing aspect of AIS. AIS provides essential input into both short- and long-range decisions, therefore, it is critical that the AIS designer be sensitive the potential uses of the data.
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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS
Week Topics Assignnments
Part I - Foundation
1 Introduction to AIS 1, Appendix A
2 Programming w/ Access [Access book]
3 AIS programming w/ Access
Part II- Automated Accounting Modules
4 Information flow in AIS 9, 1 0, Appendix B
5 AIS Applications 11,12
6 AIS Applications 13
Part III - Controls and Auditability
7 Introduction to controls 2
8 General EDP Internal Controls 4
(MID-TERM EXAM, Tuesday March 21)
9 Computer Auditing Overview 17, Notes and handouts
Part IV - AIS System Development
10 System Development 14, 15
11 Spring Break
12 System Dev. as related to AIS (con't) 16
Part V - Strategic Impact of AIS
13 Organization-wide Impacts Notes and handouts
14 New tec nologies (Expert systems) 8, Notes and handouts
15 New technologies (OOPS) & Class presentations (Projects due May 9)
16 Class presentations Quick review
GRADING
Final grade will be based on the following weights:
AIS Project 30%
Md-Term EXAM 35%
FINAL EXAM 35%
Total 100%
The final course letter grade be assigned competitively (on a curve). + and - grading will be used.
The exams are closed-book. The final exam will be comprehensive. The exams are essa y-type exams. Bring LARGE (81/2x 11) bluebooks to the exams. NO @KE-UP MIID-TERM EXAMS WTLL BE GIVEN. If the mid-term is missed for an acceptable reason, then the weight for the mid-term will be added to the final exam weight. Failure to notify me with documented support for missing the midterm will result in a zero on the mid-term.
THE BIG AIS/DATABASE PROJECT
For this project, you are required to submit: (1) your program disk, (2) copies of any reports your program produces, and (3) brief user instructions, and (4) a printout of all your programs. KEEP
COPIES OF EVERYTHING YOU TURN IN.
This project can (and should) be done in teams of 2 or 3. Organize your group and get started early! Because the same grade will be assigned to everybody in the same group, it is your responsibility to ensure that your partners contribute. At the end of the term, your relative contribution to the project will be evaluated by your teammates. Your grade for the project could be adjusted downward if your teammates believe that you did not do your fair share. You may choose to work individually, but you will be evaluated just as if you worked with a group.
LATE PROJECTS WIELL NOT BE ACCEPTED -- Just turn in what you have on the due date for partial credit.
MAKE FREQUENT BACKUP COPIES OF YOUR PROJECT!
KEEP SEVERAL PAST GENERATIONS OR VERSIONS OF YOUR PROGRAMS!