Guidelines:

1. Word count: The upper word limit for this individual coursework is 1500 words.

The coursework consists of 5 separate questions, and a suggested possible allocation of these words  by  question  is  given  below.  This  takes  into  account  the  different  nature  of  the questions, and likely approaches to answering them.

Q1: 500 words

Q2: 500 words

Q3: 150 words

Q4: 150 words

Q5: 200 words

2. Content: Note that although the expected exam has been replaced by coursework, the same learning outcomes will be assessed.

3. The changed assessment format will apply to both on campus students and off campus students.

4. The individual coursework only replaces the examination component. This module has more than one form of assessment, the individual coursework will only carry the weighting of the examination. Other components are not affected.

5. The individual coursework due at 3.00pm on Thursday 12 January 2023. Students will be required to submit the coursework through Moodle.

6. Please put all your answers on a separate answer book.

Attempt ALL questions

Total marks available = 100

1. Discussion (25 marks)

a)       Outline the nature and benefits of an IT based Accounting Information System. (7 marks)

b)       Explain in your own words how a supermarket business might make use of this kind of AIS that could help increase its profit.                                                (9 marks)

c)       Compare and contrast your answer in b) to the impact of an AIS on a Hair Salon. (9 marks)

Note: A Hair salon provides hair cutting and styling services.

2. Internal Controls (Short Scenarios) (25 marks)

Scenario 1

A computer programmer working in the purchasing department created a fake supplier number and entered this supplier into the purchase database. The programmer then arranged for the purchase system to pay this fake supplier and deposit the funds into one of his own bank accounts.

Required:

Identify two control procedures that could have prevented the problem, and explain how each of these controls would have helped. (5 marks each control, 10 marks in total)

Scenario 2

You are a senior manager at NUBS China Ltd. In the most recent review of accounting records to evaluate the effectiveness of internal controls, you found the following :

a) Some purchases were personally initiated and approved by the department manager, and there was no system to request and approve purchases.

b) There were many sales returns due to poor product quality.

c) Many employees could access business processes in which they were not involved.  For example, many employees have a key to open the warehouse.

Required:

For each of a, b and c, identify two possible causes and suggest two control procedures that could prevent the condition from happening again (i.e. minimise/eliminate the causes) with explanations. (15 marks)

3. REA Diagram with Cardinality (20 marks)

Assume  that you  own  five  apartments  in  Dongqian  Lake. Your  business  provides  holiday apartment rental to people who take short-term holidays in Dongqian Lake. This is your main source of income. You want to design and build a database to keep track of your business. The following describes how your business operates.

First, a customer reserves a holiday home (i.e. one of your five apartments) for his/her vacation with family and friends. Reservations are made for specific days, and each day is associated with a specific cost. The entire rental must be paid at the time of reservation.

Customers then come to the lake, stay in the holiday home and enjoy their holiday. Feedback and satisfaction rating forms are available in the apartment; customers can fill out the form if they would like to or if they have any complaints when staying in the holiday home. After customers leave the apartment, one of your employees checks the apartment and identifies anything that has been damaged. You keep a record of the condition of each apartment after each rental and an estimate of the repair costs after each rental. You have three employees who

maintain, clean and check the condition of the apartments.

Assume that there are no cancellations.

Required:

Given the above brief overview, draw an E-R Diagram for your business, and briefly explain your diagram. Remember to use the REA methodology of identifying resources, events and agents. Your diagram should also include cardinalities.

4. Table Normalisation (20 marks)

Use the following attributes to create normalized tables. Note: you do not need to create any new attributes. This is only a portion of a database. The database stores the data for repairs made to fibre optic cable.

Repair#,  Date  of  Repair, Address  of  Repair,  Price  of  Repair,  Cost  of  Repair,  Employee#, Employee Name, Employee Home Address, Supply#, Supply Description, Supply Quantity on Hand, Supply Quantity Used for Each Repair

Note: each Repair# only needs one employee, and it is required to record which employee made the (specific) repair; each Repair# can use multiple supplies; each Supply# can be used in multiple repairs.

Required:

Clearly indicate all primary and foreign keys in your tables, and briefly explain your answer. Use the following notation:

•   Tables in ( )

•    Primary keys Underline

•    Foreign keys in Italics

5. Query (10 marks)