会计信息系统

ll_a11_cial ReP0rtillng and
Management Reportillng Systems
 LEARNlNG oBJEc刊vEs
 After studying this chapter yon should：
·    understand the purpose of date coding and be able to idantify the respactive features，
    advantages，and disadvantages of fhe various numerlc and alphabetic∞ding schemas．
·  Undersfand the operationaI features of the GLS，FRS，and MRS．
·  Be able fo idantify the PhncipIe operationeI contrals governing the GLs and FRs．
·  Unders}and the Fadors}haf in纠uence fhe design of the MRS．
·  Understand the eIements of a resPonsibility accounting sysfem．
The chapter begins w．th a review of data COd．ng fec hn．ques used in transaoion Process一
  上ing sysfems and for genera¨edger design．1f expIores severel coding schames and fheir
  respectiye advanfages and disadvantages．I、Jext，the chapter examines fhe obiecfivas，oper—
  afional feefUres，and control issues of two reIafed Sysfems；fhe genera川edger sysfem{GLS)
  and fhe f_nanc．al repOFl．ing sysfem(FRs)．Finally the menagement reporring sysfem(MRs)is
  examined．The MRS is distinguishable from fhe FRS in one key respect．financ．al raporting is
  mandatory  and manegament reporting is djseretiOnary Menogament repOFTing informe’
  fion is needed for pIanning and confro¨ing business eclivities．organization management
  implaments MRS appcations at their discl'etion，besed on internaI user needs．

252    Chapter 8    FinaRCial Reportlng and Mahagement Reporting Systems
 DArA CODlNG SCHEMES
 In previous chapters wc saw how primary and secondary keys link together transaction
 and master rccords fbr file updating．This is one app“cation of dara coding．We delVe
 more deeply into this sabject here to examine various types of data coding schemes and
 how they arc used in data processing systems．To emphasize the importance of dara codes
 we first consider a hypothetical system that does not use them．
A SYSTEM V．ITHouT CoDEs
 Firms process large volames of transactions that are similar in their basic attributes．For
 instance，a firm'S accounts receivable file may contain accounts for scveral difierent cus—
tomers with the same name and similar addrcsses．To prOCeSS transactions accurately
 against the correct accounts，the firm must be able to distinguish one“John Smith”from
 another．This task bccomcs particularly dif_ficult as the autober of similar attributes and
 items in the class increase．
    CORSider the most elemental itern a machine shop wholesaler firm might carty in its
 inventory--a machine nut．AssHme that the total inventory of nuts has only three distin-
guishing attributes：size，material，and thread type．As a resuIt，this entire class of inven—
tory must be distinguished on the basis of thcse three features as follows：
1．  The size attribute ranges from1/4inch to 1 3/4 inches in diameter in increments of1/64 of
    an inch，giVing 96 sizes of nuts．
2．  For each size subcIass，four materials are available：brass，copper mild steel，and case-
    harderied steel．
3．  Each of thcst size and material subclasses come in thtee different threads：fine．stan-
    dard．and coarsc．
By these assumptions，this class of inventory conId contain 1，152 separatc itcms(96×4×3)．
The identification of a single item in this class thus requires a description featurig these
 distinguishing attributes．To illustrate，consider the following joamal entry to record the
 rcceipt of$1，000 worth of half．inch，case-hardened steel nuts with standard thrcads sup-
p“ed by Industrial Parts Mannfacrater of Cleveland，Ohio．
    DR    CR
    Inventorymnut，1／2 inch，case—hardcued
    $teel，startdard thrcad    1，000
    A／P--Industrial Parts Maaafacratef
    Cleveland，0hio    1，000
  This uncoded entry takes a great deal of recording space，is time consuming to rccord，and
  is obvioasly proue to many types of errors．The ncgatiVe efieets of this approach may be
  seca in many parts of the organization：
  1．  Safes staff .To properly identify the items sold requires the transcriptlon of large
    amounts of detail onto source documents．Apart from the time and effort involVed，
    this tends to encourage clerical crrors and incorrect shipmerits．
  2．  Warebouse personnel  Locating and picking goods for shipmerit are impeded and
    shipping crrors will“kely result．
  3．  Accounting personnel POStings to ledger accounts wiU require searching throngh the
    sabsidiary files using lengthy descriptioas as the ke y．This win be painfuIly slow，and
    postings to the wrong accounts will be common．

Part 2 Transaction Cycles and Business Processes
A SYSTEM、vITH CoDES
 These problems are solved，or at least greatly reduced，by using COdes to represent each item in
the inventory and suppIief accounts．Let，s assume the inventory itern in our previous example
 had been assigned the numeric COde 896，and the supper in the AP account is given the COde
 number 321．The coded version of the previous journal entry can now be greatly simplified：
    ACCOUNT    DR    CR
    896    1，000
    321    1，000
 This is not to SUggest that detailed information about the inventory and the supp“er is of
 no interest to the organization．obviously it is!These facts will be kept in ref=erence files
 and used for SUCh purposes as the preparation of parts“StS，catalogs，bills of material，and
 mai“ng information．The incIusion of SUCh details，howeveL WOUld clutter the task of
transaction processing and could prove dysfunctional as this simple example illustrates．
Other uses of data COding in AIS are to：
1．  Concisely represent large amounts of complex information that would otherwise be
  unmanageable．
2．Provide a means of accountability over the completeness of the transactions
  processed．
3．Identify anique transactions and accounts within a file．
4．  Support the audit function by proyiding an efiectiVe audit trail．
The foIlOWing diSCUSSion examines some of the more commonly used COding techniques
 and explores their respective advantages and disadvantages．
NuME刚C AND ALPHA8ETIC CoDING ScHEMES
 Seauential CodeS
 As the name impes sequential COdes represent items in some sequential order(ascending OF
 descending)．A common application of numeric sequential COdes is the prenumbering of
 source documents．At printing，hardCOpy documents are each giyen a anique sequential COde
 Bumber．This nUlTIber becomes the transaction Humber that alloWS the system to track each
 transaction processed and to identify any lost or out-of-sequence documents．Digital dOCU—
ments are similarly assigned a sequential namber by the computer when they are created．
Aduages．Sequential COding supports the reconciation of a batch 0f transactions，SUCh
 as sales orders，at the end of processing．If the transaction processing system detects any gaps
 in the sequence 0f transaction nurnbers，it alerts management to the pOSSibity of a missing
 or misplaced transaction．By tracing the transaction namber back through the stages in the
 process，management can eventually determine the cause and effect of the error．WithOUt
 sequentiaIlv Bumbered documents，problems of this sort are diffiCUlt to detect and resolve．
Sequential COdes carry no information content beyond their order in the
 sequence．For instance，a sequential COde assigned to a raw material inventory item teIls
 us nothing about the attributes of the item(type，size，material，warehouse location，and
 so on)．Also，sequential COding schemes are diffiCUlt to change．Inserting a new item at
 some midpoint req uires renumbering the sabsequent items in the class accordingl y．In
 applications where record types must be grOUped together logically and where additions
 and deletions occur regularly，this COding scheme is inappropriate．