Accounting Information Systems

Accounting Information Systems 8 Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

CHAPTER 2

Accountants as Business Analysts Brief Topical Outline A.Changing Roles of Accountants in Business (PowerPoints 2-3 - 2-6) 1.Basic stewardship, reporting, and auditing functions 2.Increasingly active role in strategic management roles 3.Rapid changes in technology increase availability of data 4.Entry-level accountants must understand how business delivers value to customers and stakeholders B.Business Process Documentation (PowerPoints 2-7 – 2-12) 1.Definitions (PowerPoint 2-7) a)Business Process b)Business Analysis c)Business Model d)Documentation 2.Purposes of Documentation (PowerPoints 2-8 - 2-11) 3.Value of Business Models (PowerPoint 2-12) C.Types of Business Models (PowerPoint 2-13) 1.Activity Models 2.Structure Models D.Background and Purpose of Activity Models (PowerPoints 2-14 – 2-16) E.Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) (PowerPoints 2-17 – 2-27) 1.Building Blocks for BPMN Diagrams (PowerPoints 2-18 – 2-21) 2.Example of Business Process Diagram (PowerPoint 2-22) 3.Identifying Participants in Business Process Diagrams (PowerPoints 2-23 – 2-24) 4.Messages in BPMN (PowerPoints 2-25 – 2-26) 5.Best Practices in Preparing BPMN Diagrams (PowerPoint 2-27)

F.Appendix A: Flowcharts

1.Basic building blocks 2.Example 3.Additional symbols 4.Showing Responsibility 5.Showing Opportunity Accounting Information Systems 2nd Edition Richardson Solutions Manual Visit TestBankDeal.com to get complete for all chapters

Accounting Information Systems 9 Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

G.Appendix B: Data Flow Diagrams

1.Introduction 2.Basic elements of Data Flow Diagrams 3.Example 4.Best practices Comments and Observations This chapter starts the business processing modeling/business analyst material that will continue through chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. It sets the context and the importance of business process modeling to accountants.I find that most students recognize the various roles that accountants play in business from other accounting courses. For this course, it is important to emphasize the various business management support roles and how developing business analysis skills can help prepare them for those roles.I also find that most students have some familiarity with business process documentation—especially the use of documentation to train new workers—but they have limited knowledge of business process models, business rules, organization charts or strategic plans. This provides an opportunity to tie together accountants’ roles, business documentation, and the importance of developing business analysis skills. To help enterprises optimize business processes, the accountant needs to understand those processes.Business process documentation helps establish process requirements as well as describe the way those processes are currently performed. Business analysis then involves gathering and articulating the fundamental requirements for those processes, validating those requirements, and evaluating improvements to the processes to optimize performance. This helps students understand that business models play an important role in business analysis and leads into the discussion of activity models.The text explores two basic types of models, structure models and activity models. At this point, a simple illustration helps explain the difference between the two types of models. Structure models are like a map and activity models are like the directions for traveling.The text uses the Business Process Modeling Notation for activity models, but the students should understand that BPMN is similar in most respects to flowcharting. BPMN emphasizes the importance of events that trigger subsequent action (somewhat like business events trigger accounting activity). As I review the building blocks for BPMN activity models, I like to point out that activity modeling is a skill

Accounting Information Systems 10 Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.that takes practice to develop.The introduction to BPMN now includes a discussion of the token concept. A token is created by a start event and must continue through the model until it is consumed by an end event. I discuss this concept here and then revisit it in chapters 5, 6, and 7. The token concept also helps describe what the various gateway types do. For example, an exclusive gateway only directs the token, but a parallel gateway creates new tokens for the various paths exiting the gateway and consumes tokens entering the merging gateway.Additions to this chapter include event and task types, repeating activities, and data objects (and data stores). Again, these topics are introduced here and revisited in chapters 5, 6, and 7. The data objects help tie the BPMN models to UML class models, since the data objects should reflect UML classes or combinations of classes that occur in many documents.Suggested Team Exercise After reviewing the basic building blocks, I find it useful to break the students into small groups and have one student describe some activity that the other student will them model using BPMN. For example, they could describe how they got to class on that day, how they bought lunch at a fast food restaurant, how they checked their email before class, etc. You can then select a few groups to put their diagrams on the board. That allows you to discuss the results of the exercise and also begin stressing some of the BPMN best practices, such as using verb phrases, identifying the start and end of the process, avoiding distracting detail, and achieving a clear picture of the activities.

Richardson, Chang, Smith – Accounting Information Systems, 2 nd Edition – Chapter 2 Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.1

Chapter 2: Accountants as Business Analysts

Multiple Choice Questions 1.e 2.d 3.e 4.e 5.e 6.b 7.d 8.e 9.e 10.c 11.c 12.e 13.d 14.c 15.b 16.a 17.b 18.e 19.d 20.a 21.e 22.e Discussion Questions 1.The answers will vary according to the student’s background, but it is likely that they will feel best prepared to use technology and less prepared to design, manage, and evaluate technology.

2.Managing regulatory compliance would involve collection and maintenance of a wide variety of information. First, organizations would have to collect requirement information. Then, they would have collect process information to identify where process activities must comply with regulations. Finally, they would have ongoing collection of process performance data to ensure continued compliance and reporting.

3.BPMN activity diagrams support process documentation, process evaluation, and process improvement. Thus, BPMN diagrams would document the finance and accounting processes to support employee training. An accurate documentation would support an evaluation of process inefficiencies and potential process improvements including applications of technology, as well as a review of internal controls over the process and identification of potential weaknesses.