Nanyang Business School

Nanyang Technological University

2018/2019 Semester 1

AC2401 – Accounting Information Systems

Course Project Specifications

Select a business firm of your choice and conduct a thorough analysis of its Expenditure
cycle, and recommend an appropriate solution for implementing a system for the firm as
appropriate.

Project Guidelines

• Project should be done in groups of 4-5 students. The grouping will be assigned by the
instructors.
• Report for the first part of the project is due by Monday, 8 October 2018, 5.00 pm
(immediately after the recess week)
• Presentations for the second part of the project will be scheduled in week 13, i.e., the week
beginning 12 November, 2018.
• Pay attention to grammar, structure and clarity in writing your reports. Be creative in the
preparation of your reports.
• The names of the team members, the project group number, the seminar group number, and
the name of your instructor should be clearly shown on the cover of the reports.
• All references should be shown at the end of the reports.
• State all assumptions at the beginning of the reports.
• Plagiarism and copying will be severely penalized.
• Peer review - At the end of the project, instructors will survey each group to ensure fair
contribution by each team member. Free-riding behaviors or inactive participation will be
dealt with.
• The project is worth 30% of the AC2401 course.
• The evaluation rubric for both the group and individual components of the project are
provided in Appendix A.

Selecting the Firm

You must be specific when selecting the firm for your project. You can choose either an SME
(small-medium enterprise) or a large organization, but you should be aware of the trade-offs
between studying a small organization with a simple business process versus a large
organization with complex business processes. In the case of SMEs, especially if the business
process is very simple, you would want to document exceptions and ensure completeness in
your study of all aspects of the business process. If you choose to study a large organization
with complex business processes, you may wish to scope your project such that you look at
only one type of services, or one type of product offered by the organization.

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Please discuss the scope of your project with your instructor. Choosing a company belonging
to a family member, a relative or a friend can be beneficial and facilitate the conduct of a
more comprehensive project.

The team is required to focus their project on the Expenditure cycle of an actual business.
The process should have separate purchase order, goods receipt, invoice receipt, and payment
processes, i.e. the firm keeps track of Account Payables (AP) for its expenditure process.
Thus, a company conducting only cash procurement would be less suitable for this project.

Students should consult their course instructor and seek his/her approval about the suitability
of a firm for their study.

Please start the search for the appropriate firm early.

Conducting the Study

You need to develop a good understanding about the information needs of the company
through appropriate data gathering techniques such as interviews, observation and study of
relevant forms/documents. You should talk to people in the firm so that you understand their
operations and information needs.

Process Analysis Report

You are required to prepare the “Process Analysis Report” as specified below. Its due-date
and allocated marks are as follows:
 Total marks: 15%
 Date due: Monday, 8 October 2018, 5.00 pm (immediately after the recess week)
 Length: Maximum of 2000 words.

(a) Name the company that you have selected (providing pseudonyms are acceptable if
companies are unwilling to state their real names in the reports. Provide contact
information about the firm (including name of contact person, address, telephone
number and website information if any).

(b) Develop a systems flowchart for the “AS-IS” Expenditure cycle described.

(c) Identify areas in the company’s Expenditure cycle that can be improved. Focus your
analysis on operational inefficiencies, risks and control weaknesses, as well as
analysis and reporting issues. Present your findings and recommendations to the
company’s senior executives in a report.

What to submit:

Hard-copy report. Please submit the hard-copy reports for Part 1(a), (b) and (c) to your
instructor’s office by the specified deadline.

Electronic files. Please submit the electronic copy your report Part 1(a), (b) and (c) in a single
pdf document. All images and flowcharts should be included in this single pdf document.

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Please label this document as “SEMGRP#_PROJECTGROUP##.PDF”. Please replace # with
your respective seminar group and project group numbers accordingly. Please submit this via
TurnItIn in NTULEARN.

ERP Package Presentation

You are required to prepare a presentation for “Package Evaluation” as specified below. Its
due-date and allocated marks are as follows:
 Total marks: 15%
 Project Presentations will commence in week 13, i.e., the week beginning 12
November, 2018.

Assume that the company has decided to take the “package” approach to implement the
required ERP for its Expenditure cycle. The company’s management wants your team to
evaluate whether this package is suitable for the company. As part of this evaluation, you are
required to try the package hands-on, and implement a prototype of some relevant features of
the package for the organization. Based on your evaluation, provide recommendations about
the suitability of the package to the organization.

The package you select should be a cloud-based ERP package (e.g., Xero, Sassu, etc). You
may need to sign up for a trial period to understand the functionalities offered by the package.
Your evaluation and recommendations must be specific to the business needs of the
company.

What is required:
 A 20 minute presentation will be scheduled in the week beginning 12 November,
2018 for your group to present your findings and evaluation to the company. In your
presentation, be prepared to cover the following areas:

a. Briefly highlight the business needs of the company with regards to its
expenditure cycle, and the related requirements for the package.

b. Treating your instructor as a senior executive of the organization (who does not
know much about the package), prepare a prototype demo to show specific
functionalities of the package that you believe will be useful to the company (e.g.,
best practice processes, risk and control features, decision support and analysis).

c. Present your recommendation based on (a) and (b). To what extent does the
package meet or not meet the organization’s needs?

You should be prepared to answer any questions that your instructor may have on your
presentation.

A copy of the slides should be submitted to the instructor before the presentation.

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 Appendix A. Evaluation Rubric

The evaluation rubric by which you will be evaluated on for your project is provided below.
Instructors will provide feedback to you based on this rubric.

Project Evaluation Rubric

Learning objectives: Performance Levels

The ability to plan,

manage and prioritize
resources to ensure a
smooth and timely
completion of project.

1. Engagement with
host organization
(4 marks)

Ability to engage
appropriate host
organization and discuss A (very good) B (satisfactory) C (unsatisfactory)
its salient and important
background information,
gain understanding of
process activities, and
surfacing relevant issues.

2. Execution of project
(7 marks)

Able to develop clear and

comprehensive systems
flowchart, to demonstrate
depth of understanding in A (very good) B (satisfactory) C (unsatisfactory)
accounting package and
innovative application of
package functionalities in
a timely manner.

3. Presentation of
results (4 marks)

Ability to present
professionally and offer
credible, coherent, and A (very good) B (satisfactory) C (unsatisfactory)
strong recommendations
that are aligned with the
organizational needs.