POB 4050, Atlanta GA 30302-4050
Winter 1995: 5:30-7:45 pm Comp. Nbr. 0829
Dr. A. F. Borthick
Office hours: 3-4:30 pm Tu./Th., by appointment, by email
Class meetings: Sparks 137 Hall
Date Topic Reading In-class discussion Assignments due
R 1/5 Information system concepts LD 1,* 2
Controlling spreadsheets LD pp. 316-317
LD pp. 402-404
T 1/10 Batch and online processing LD pp. 167-180 7-3
Documenting information systems LD 8 8-7, 8-13
R 1/12 File management LD 9 9-3, 9-1 Cerrovee
Working with Windows PS 1
T 1/17 Introduction to Paradox PS 2 Patriot
Data modeling and normalization PS 3
R 1/19 Data modeling and normalization PS 3
Exam 1 (through LD 9; requires Scantron)
T 1/24 Transaction cycles PS 5
Purchasing cycle PS 7
R 1/26 Paradox at work PS 4 16-4 PO Plan
Automating database procedures PS 10
T 1/31 Database systems LD 10 10-9
R 2/2 Systems analysis/design LD 12
Exam 2 (through LD 10; requires Scantron)
T 2/7 Systems analysis/design LD 12 12-13, 12-4 PO Implementation
R 2/9 Design/implementation LD 13 13-9, 13-12, 13-15
T 2/14 Internal control structure LD 11 11-1, 10-8 Project I
R 2/16 Internal control procedures LD 11 11-25, 16-5
T 2/21 Internal control: SDLC LD 11 20-7, 11-7, 11-9
R 2/23 Computer auditing LD 20 20-2, 20-4 Project II
T 2/28 Information technology LD 5 5-13
R 3/2 Distributed processing LD pp. 180-192 Project III
Micros/LANS LD 6, 19 19-1, 11-22
Client/server computing Borthick/Roth 1994 11-23
T 3/7 Electronic data interchange LD 18 18-1, 18-2
Borthick/Roth 1993
R 3/9 Project presentations Project IV
T 3/14 Final exam 6 pm (requires Scantron)
Policies: Attendance, Assignments, Activities, and Participation
You are expected to attend class because the most valuable and enjoyable learning experiences often occur in class. Class time is valuable because being with other students in structured activities such as lectures, discussions, and project tasks helps you focus your attention on the most important ideas and their relationships. Class time is enjoyable and interesting because you get to share the experience of learning with others and thus do not have to do all the work yourself. Attending class helps you organize your learning, which helps you perform better on exams.
The schedule above shows topics, readings, and due dates. Study the readings and the designated in-class discussion cases (at the end of the chapters in Leitch/Davis) in advance of the class for which they are assigned. Use the review questions at the end of each chapter of Leitch/Davis to help you make sure you understand the material.
You are expected to participate in class solutions to the designated cases. Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the days indicated. Submit only your own original work for assignments. Include appropriate citations to anyone else's work you rely on in your assignments.
You are expected to read the Wall Street Journal daily to develop your understanding of organizations, their information needs, and the kinds of systems they use to satisfy their information needs.
As you read Perry/Schneider, complete the exercises embedded in each chapter and be sure you can answer the multiple choice questions and discussion questions at the end of each chapter and can complete the exercises at the end of each chapter. In the group project, you will be assumed to have mastered the use of Paradox as documented in Perry/Schneider. Other publishers also offer manuals on Paradox, e.g., Programming Paradox 4.5 for Windows by C. Jensen and L. Anderson, Sybex Inc. (1994) is a good one.
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations may be necessary.
Prerequisites BA 201 (Introduction to computer-based information systems) and Accounting 421 (Cost/managerial accounting); Computing Skill Prerequisites (CSP): I (basic microcomputing), II (beginning spreadsheet), III (intermediate spreadsheet), IV (beginning database)
Texts Leitch and Davis (LD), Accounting Information Systems, 2nd ed. (1992)
Perry and Schneider (PS), Building Accounting Systems: A Transaction Cycle Approach (1994)
Borthick, A. F., and Roth, H. P. EDI for reengineering business processes, Management Accounting (October 1993), 32-38
Borthick, A. F., and Roth, H. P. Understanding client/server computing, Management Accounting (August 1994), 36-
Micro Labs Kell Hall; Library South; North Metro: hours as scheduled for each lab
Current Reading Wall Street Journal
References Borthick, Sample Projects, 4 volumes, Library
Exams
The exams will have questions based on the text material (all items listed in the Reading column on the first page of this syllabus), class discussions, and assignments you submit for grading. No make-up exams will be given.
Grading
Graded components of the course will be weighted as shown below. The performance required for grades is: A, 90%; B, 80%; C, 70%. At the instructor's discretion, the levels may be slightly lower.
Component Percent
Cerrovee 5%
Patriot 5%
Exam 1 10%
PO Plan 5%
Exam 2 15%
PO Implementation 5%
Group project 20%
Final exam 25%
Class participation 10%
100%
February 10, 1995 is the last day to withdraw and receive a "W", if passing.
February 27, 1995 is the last day to withdraw with a "WF", except for hardship status.
Course Objectives
The objective of the course is for you to learn to use accounting information to solve problems in organizations. To achieve this objective, you will (1) use accounting information systems (AISs) and (2) contribute to inter-disciplinary team effort in justifying, designing, implementing, maintaining, and enhancing AISs. AISs encompass the development and distribution of economic information about organizations for internal and external decision making.
The specific objectives of the course are to learn to:
1. Document information systems and information needs
2. Evaluate different methods of developing information systems for particular circumstances
3. Participate in the development of an information system with a life cycle approach
4. Evaluate internal control in proposed and existing information systems
5. Use database systems to represent and manipulate enterprise data to solve organizational problems
During the course, you will study (1) systems theory, (2) system development principles, (3) the technological capabilities of computer hardware and software, (4) the design and organization of database systems, (5) the design and implementation of system controls, and (6) accounting systems for large and small organizations. Understanding these concepts and principles prepares you for analyzing situations to uncover the fundamental relationships involved and organize that knowledge into information systems for internal and external decision making.
Learning about information systems is good, but actually applying your learning is even better. You will put your learning about accounting systems to work in the course assignments and project, which require you to design and implement portions of accounting systems. Being able to use computers to design and implement accounting systems will make you much more valuable to all your potential employers.
About the Course
In earlier accounting courses, you learned to account for transactions. In this course, you will learn to use computing to incorporate transactions into accounting systems. This course prepares you to use information systems in auditing, financial and managerial accounting, taxation, and consulting. It does not train you to be a computer programmer although a minimum level of programming competence is essential. The course requires you to learn enough technical aspects of computing to know how computing might be useful in specific accounting contexts, how to identify appropriate uses of computing, and how to work with information system professionals who develop accounting applications.
This course differs from your previous accounting courses in that systems problems may have no single obvious solution and, in some cases, no solutions at all. Solving systems problems is a process requiring your creativity to design systems to meet uncertain, changing organizational needs. You may experience higher levels of uncertainty and ambiguity than in previous accounting courses. The reward for your hard work and growth will be a faster entry into the work world or increased effectiveness in your current position.
Your future employers and accounting professors will expect you to have the systems skills required for accounting applications in computer environments. The better your skills, the less time (in this course or on the job) you will have to spend acquiring them. Regardless of your systems background, you can master the skills in this course by applying yourself diligently from the first day of the term. Learning and applying systems expertise forces you to think about what you do with clarity and precision. To instruct a computer to perform, you must first think through what the computer should do and how it should do it.
Each year, employers expect more from accounting graduates with respect to their ability to use computers to retrieve, manipulate, and report information for problem solving. Employers expect more each year because more is expected of them. After a decade's experience with PCs, managers sense that they ought to have the information they want, when they want it, in the form they want it. They are confident that the information they need to solve today's problem, often a new problem requiring a novel solution, exists in one or more computer systems if they could only get to it. Therefore, employers are looking for accounting graduates that are equally comfortable thinking with the computer to get information and preparing traditional reports. In the future, there will likely be less work in preparation of traditional reports because there will be software to do it. Employers will, however, always need people that can use information and information systems to solve new problems as they arise.
To succeed in this course, (1) study all the material thoroughly, which means multiple readings of the text material, (2) prepare solutions to all the designated review questions, discussion questions, and assignments in order as scheduled, and (3) review prior material periodically. Course topics and assignments are arranged so that each one builds on its predecessors. If you complete each question and assignment as scheduled, you will be able to work confidently on the next one. For example, being an effective contributor to your group project depends on your experience in the earlier assignments.
The Order of the Course
The topics in the lecture portion of the course have been arranged so that lectures prepare you for the computer projects. For example, the first day's lecture is on design principles and audit techniques for spreadsheets (based on material in the Leitch/Davis text), which gets you ready for the first project, Cerrovee, which requires you to prepare financial statements with QuattroPro.
Similarly, documentation techniques (data flow diagramming and flowcharting) are covered in lecture just as you are starting to work on the Patriot project, which requires you to prepare a data flow diagram and a flowchart. On the first exam, you will be tested on the knowledge and skills they gained by having completed Cerrovee and Patriot. For the spreadsheet skills, the exam may contain a spreadsheet analogous to the one you prepared, with questions that prompt you to examine the materials and identify errors and correction approaches. For the documentation skills, the exam may presented a data flow diagram or a flowchart, with questions that test how well you understand a process/procedure represented with a data flow diagram/flowchart.
The next segment of the course prepares you to do data modeling and create and use databases in Paradox. The text for this portion comprises chapters from the Perry/Schneider text and one chapter from Leitch/Davis. From this material, you learn to design normalized data tables with the appropriate primary and foreign key designations and use Paradox to create tables, as they do in the PO Plan project. From the Perry/Schneider text, you learn to prepare forms and methods to implement database systems, which you do in the PO Implementation project. The exam over this course segment may include questions about database concepts, including examples of data structures with questions about normalization and examples of contexts with questions about the most appropriate data structures.
The next course segment you understand the concepts of and phases in a systems development life cycle, which prepares you to undertake a group project (6-8 students) in which the group prepares each deliverable for a system of the group's choosing. The next lecture portion covers internal control, just in time to get you ready to incorporate controls into your group projects. The last lectures treat other important topics such as information technology, distributed systems, and micros/LANs and emerging topics such as client/server computing and electronic data interchange. On the last regular class day, the groups present their systems to the class with PC projection of their Paradox systems. The last exam covers the topics occurring since the second exam.