HC1041 Information Technology for Business

Question 1 (07 marks)

Some accounting students believe that they do not need to study information systems to be good accountants. What are the disadvantages of this point of view? What are the advantages of accountants being involved in designing and preparing reports that measure more than just financial performance?

Question 2 (11 marks)

The given system flowchart (as in Figure 1) presents different business activities and data processing operations involved in the revenue cycle.

(a) Describe at least five (05) control weaknesses depicted in the system flowchart. (05 marks)

(b) Discuss the risks associated with the control weaknesses in identified in (a). (06 marks)

Question 3 (07 marks)

What internal control procedure(s) would be most effective in preventing the following errors or fraudulent acts?

(a)  Productivity during the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes of every shift was found to be much lower than the productivity during the remainder of the shift. Employees indicated that there was often a bottleneck at the time clock, which caused them to waste time. (3.5 marks)

(b)  A retired employee was not removed as current employee from the payroll master file. The retired employee’s payment method was changed to EFT and the banking details updated to reflect that of a payroll clerks’ friend. (3.5 marks)

Question 4 (07 marks)

The trial balance lists the balances for all general ledger accounts. If all activities have been properly recorded, the total of all debit balances in various accounts should equal the total of all credit balances. If they don’t, a posting error has occurred.

(a) How can one detect such an error? (4.5 marks)

(b) Support your answer with an example. (2.5 marks)

Question 5 (11 marks)

Computer crimes/ cybercrime exist in many shapes and sizes such as identity theft, online scams or credit application fraud. Resulting from many cases reported in news papers, people tend to think that these fraudulent acts are mainly caused by those who are not working in impacted firms (i.e. external people). In fact, internal stakeholders also create serious computer frauds. Therefore, at the management level, you will need to take these issues into consideration and consequently incorporate into relevant fraud management policies.

(a) Explain how each of the following five types of fraud is committed: (1) Input manipulation, (2) Program alteration, (3) File alteration, (4) Data theft and (5) Sabotage. (5.5 marks)

(b) Identify a different method of protection for each and describe how it works. (5.5 marks)

Question 6 (07 marks)

XYZMart is a grocery store, currently uses a manual system to manage everything: from ordering inventory to handling sales. As a management consultant, you are invited to provide them advice regarding the implementation of an accounting information system. As parts of the consulting package, you are asked by them to provide an explanation of the process that will be used to design and implement a new accounting information system at XYZMart while taking into account that there current system is a completely manual system.