I Am Currently Studying HA2042 Accounting Information Systems For My Essay.

A baker or a bakery firm is an organization that bakes various ingredients together and makes breads, pastries etc out of it (sokanu, 2016). Baked goods or baking is not a new concept; it is in use since a very long time. Romans are considered to be the founders of baking. That’s the main reason you will get the best baked products in Rome. Bakers not only make breads, pastries and related eatable items that are baked but also sold them either on wholesale or to it different users on retail prices. It is not necessary for a baker to only sell baked goods but a baker can sell number of goods including his baked products. If a baker sets up a bakery firm then it will function’s as same as other normal firms. It will need to record its various transactions into its accounts registers; it will record the payroll data and other business related things. A bakery firm needs to work on its market and sales; they also need to forecast the demand for their products, customer expectations etc. a bakery firm is not different from other firms (Khana, 2013). Nowadays baking is not limited to small smalls but few large scale firms has shown their interest into this field and has made an eminent place in this market. An example of such a firm is Le Pain Quotidien (Anon., 2017). This firm is an international bakery firm that is operating a global chain of bakery all around the world. The business activities of a bakery firm are as same as those of other firms. Few basic business activities that a bakery firm needs to consider are as follow:

• Production: The production department will produce different quantity of required bakery products when the demand occurs. Production department will take care of all requirements of bakery firm.
• Sales: The sales activity of a bakery firm will work on the sales of the bakery products by conducting different surveys or by initiating several promotion campaigns to increase the sales of the bakery.
• Budgeting: Another business activity of a bakery firm is budgeting, it is one of the most important activity as in this field the firm decides its budget upon various parts of the business.
• Hiring of employees: The process of hiring employees in a bakery firm is not different than other firms. A capable, talented, creative, self disciplined employee is what a bakery firm needs.
• Customers: How to attract or to gain a big customer base is also a business activity of a bakery firm, a particular part of this firm works upon different ideas and things that can help in attainting huge customer base.

Above mentioned are the few business activities of the bakery business, any successful firm needs to give due consideration to these activities in order to ensure a long run in their respective field of business.  

Above mentioned are the business activities that a bakery firms perform in order to achieve its business objectives. All the above mentioned activities are indispensible because all these activities are inter-related to each other. Not a single activity can be performed without the help of the other activity. Sales department can’t grow sales, if the production department did not produce enough bakery products. This can be understand by the help of a following diagram that these activities are inter related with each other and help each department to help achieve their given objectives.

A diagram showing, various business activities which are inter-related to each other (Pute, 2011).

The most necessary or indispensible process of the bakery firm is to take care of its accounts, as it is the only part of the business that tells whether the business is running in profit or loss. It is not only the statement of profit or loss but it tells the business organization that who is its debtors and creditors (Glenda Marty, 2010). If we talk about B bakery firm, it is now struggling with its accounts department from the past few years, the firm has hired an accountant but still the owners of the bakery are not satisfied and they are looking forward to undertake the services of the accounting information system, to upgrade the accounting system of the bakery firm. The B bakery firm is now looking to install AIS/ERP into their workings and is expecting a good change into their workings. However apart from accounts section, decision making is another aspect that B bakery firm wants to achieve through AIS/ERP. An Accounting Information System is a computerized database system that gathers all the information of the organization and generates results that are in the favor of the organization (Jick, 2016). These results not only affect the accounts section but also the decision making of the firm. In the market there is different accounting information systems are available that a company can buy as per their requirements (marshal, 2012). The outcomes that B bakery is expecting to achieve by installing AIS/ERP are as under:

• Less or no errors in accounting of the firm.
• Creating an online database server to store all the business information.
• Minimizing the efforts and time taken by the employees.
• Help in the decision making process of the firm by providing accurate and exact information regarding various points.
• Security from theft and leak of the confidential information of the firm.   

Above are few outcomes that B bakery wants to achieve by installing AIS/ERP into the working of the firm. In Australia the top three accounting information software’s are MYOB, XERO and SAP. All these software’s are designed to help the business firms in performing business activities with perfection.

Here in this section of the report we will discuss about the system requirements that the B bakery wants in their chosen accounting software. B bakery as said is experiencing troubles in maintaining their accounts, and they are also looking forward for software that not only provides them with enhancing their accounts section but also provides the B bakery management with accurate or appropriate decisions on various business matters. Below are few system requirements that B bakery wants to have in their AIS/ERP system:

• Capable of budgeting.
• Book-keeping.
• Maintaining of accounts payable and accounts receivables.
• Capable of Electronic funds transfer as now almost every other business is going cashless and encouraging electronic payments.
• Recording and notifying the management about payments that are due to be paid or received.
• Full record of items sold.
• Calculations of taxes to be paid.
• Forecasting of the demands and sales pattern.

Above are the system requirements that the B bakery is looking forward to have in their accounting information systems. Starting from the first requirement, B bakery wants the software to be capable of providing the firm with a proper budget, that means the software must consider all the financial sources of the firm and makes a budget that allows the firm to invest into such areas that will reap profits after a certain period. Now coming to book-keeping, it means the recording, classifying, analyzing the financial transactions of the business. If accounting software doesn’t records any financial transaction of the business then it is of no use to the firm (jinus, 2013), hence accounting information software must have a feature of book keeping with extra superior features. With the advent of internet, now almost everything is technology driven, even the payments are now made through electronic funds transfer; hence accounting software must be capable of EFT, so that it enables a firm to receive or to send money through electronic funds, this not only saves the time of the firm but also ensures a safe and secure transaction (Krishnamurthy, 2010). AIS must works as a reminder to the management about various payments that are to be made or to be received, so that any payment does not get missed. Forecasting the sales and demand patterns for the firm is another requirement that an accounting information system must have as it will enable the firm to work in that direction, if there is any differences in the forecasting information (singa, 2013).

In this section of the report, we will talk about the three accounting information systems mentioned in above paragraphs. In Australia the three top most used and popular accounting systems are SAP, MYOB, XERO. After visiting the official websites of these AIS/ERP, very useful information has been obtained and this has come to notice that each of these AIS/ERP software’s claims to be the best AIS/ERP services provider in Australia. The website of MYOB claims to be the most user friendly and the best accounting information system of Australia, on the other hand it is SAP that claims to work as the requirement of its customers., SAP provides its customers an option of altering or amending the software as per the need of time. While XERO is designed for small scale firms, still the official website of XERO claims to be having a vast customer base of around 1 million customer’s all around the world. Following information has been obtained from the websites of these accounting information systems:

MYOB

• Deals in software’s those are appropriate for small and large business firms.
• For smaller businesses they have software’s like MYOB Account Edge, MYOB Account Right, MYOB Essentials(MYOB, 2017).
• For bigger businesses they have MYOB EXO, MYOB Green tree, MYOB Advanced.
• It saves times, manages the finances better than anyone. It also provides small business loans.

SAP

• Deals in software’s for mostly small and mid-size organizations.
• R, Finance, Payroll, Digital supply chain, Customer Engagement and commerce are the services which they provide.
• Their featured products are SAP S/4HANA, SAP cloud platform, SAP HANA etc(SE, 2017).
• This AIS organization also provides the mobile technology, which can prove out in favor of the firm.

XERO

• Deals mostly in small scale business enterprises.
• The best thing about XERO is it allows you to try their services for free.
• XERO provides Data security, Data integrity and online accounting.
• It has 1 million+ subscribers(XERO, 2017).

Now if we have to select any of the above mentioned software then we would choose SAP for B bakery firm. As the last turnover of the bakery was AUD $13million, which means the Bakery is earning good profits and in no time it will reach a point where it will be no longer a small firm. SAP provides business solutions to small and mid size firms (ruth, 2016). With SAP all-in-one food industry software, the B bakery firm can achieve what they desire off. Below is a table that shows some fantastic features of SAP.

For B bakery firm a mid-sized accounting software namely SAP is appropriate as the B bakery firm is earning good money and is only facing some troubles with its accounts and they wish to enhance their accounting capabilities, then SAP would be the best accounting information system as it comes with very reasonable rates of services plus the firm can choose for how long they want this software to be installed into their systems (SE, 2017). B bakery firm can enjoy a number of features of SAP and can turn themselves into a mid-size firm. As the B bakery firm is experiencing good performance and they are looking forward to invest into an accounting software that take their business onto next level then SAP accounting information system for mid size firms would be the best choice. SAP would be the best choice for B bakery firm not just because of their vast area of services but also because SAP is now focusing on individual industries. SAP has worked on SAP all-in-one for food industry with RS AG (RG, 2008). It is an European company that is very eminent in baking industry and they have developed their own ERP RS 5 (barbasor, 2012). So this partnership also makes SAP much stronger in field of AIS/ERP in food industry. SAP was started in 1989 and it has a huge client base in Australia and New Zealand (SE, 2017). With more than 2000 clients in Australia and New Zealand, it becomes the most victorious corporation in the constituency. SAP is currently providing its services to 8 industries including Mining and defense sectors (marshy, 2015).

Above is the comparison between the SAP and the XERO (insider, 2010), by going through this comparison made above one will come to know that SAP is much more helpful whether in case of small or mid-size organization? There is no doubt that XERO is capable enough to provide good assistance and support to a firm and it has a huge customer base but when compared to SAP, the services of XERO seems to be very limited (khurana, 2011). Nowadays even small scale firms wants to try the software’s and technology that mid-size or large size firms uses just to experience what is special in such AIS/ERP. SAP proves out to be the best choice for a small or a medium scale firm as it comes with a large number of services (SE, 2017). It may be costlier than XERO but this little cost do not pinch when the results turns out in the favor of the firm.

Now here in this section we will discuss about the selection of the vendor and one of the accounting information software that they provides. As mentioned in the above paragraphs, B bakery firm has a good turn over last year of around AUD $13 million. This proves that B bakery firm is all set to step into the category of Mid-size firms. SAP is the only AIS/ERP firm that provides business solutions to Mid-size firms. XERO provides services to small scale businesses, whereas MYOB provides services to only small or large scale companies. The best vendor for B bakery firm would be SAP Australia. SAP not only provides it various enhanced services to its customer but as a part of their recent programs, they now involve their clients into their software development programs and ask the client whether if they have any new idea to share (Kuty, 2015). The SAP enables its customers to make a client account online, by making an account the client can anytime log on to the site and explore the areas of the services provided by the SAP (Jick, 2016). There are so many Accounting information systems available in market that comes with so many features but does not allows it customers to make any changes once they are prepared or installed (singh, 2017). This is where the SAP is gaining the customer’s attention as it not only let it customers to involve in the making of the software’s but it also allows the client to make changes to the software once they are installed. SAP is currently providing its services to 8 core sectors of Australia including Hospitality (lesse, 2015).

Now we will discuss what accounting software B bakery firm should adopt. As B bakery firm is into the food business, SAP has recently opted the method of focusing on individual industries to make its services better than before. In the year 2008 SAP joined hands with RS AG to enter into the hospitality market, RS AG was already into this market and holding a good experience of it (brain, 2014). By becoming the partners SAP and RS AG made a blast and the big clients of this market left their earlier service providers and started using SAP all-in-one for food. This software has following key features in it:

• Traceability
• Real time Functioning
• Quality control
• Sales
• Specific bakery statistics
• Maintenance
• Finance & Accounting

The above mentioned are only few features of this accounting software. A total of 48 features are put into this software. No other software comes with such a large number of features (cizar, 2013). Hence SAP’s all-in-one accounting software would be the best choice for the B bakery firm.

After observing all the informational facts provided above a brief and a detailed conclusion is written here. B bakery firm is earning and doing well in their respective field of business. All they are experiencing is just a trouble in maintaining their accounts. So in order to put an end on this trouble and to enhance and to take the business onto another level the B bakery firm must undertake the services of SAP, an accounting software provider company in Australia. However there are other AIS/ERP namely: MYOB & XERO but we have made a proper difference between the services and features of each of these Accounting information software’s and comes to a conclusion that, the best accounting information system for B bakery firm would be the SAP  all-in-one software, as it provides its client to alter or to amend the accounting information system as per the need of time, this will not only helps the firm in enhancing their accounting part but it will also saves a lot of money of the firm, that can later be used for something more important. Hence SAP would be an appropriate AIS/ERP that will ultimately benefit the B bakery firm.

Anon., 2017. The free encyclopedia. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bakeries [Accessed 5 july 2015].

barbasor, 2012. The best AIS & ERP. Sunday Business world, 1(1), p.1.

brain, T., 2014. accounting and other needs of different industries. Business and technology, 6(80), p.15.

cizar, H., 2013. different ways of doing business. 5th ed. basel: daily publishers.

Glenda Marty, 2010. Food Business. J.K daily, 1(15), p.5.

insider, s., 2010. software insider. [Online] Available at: http://accounting.softwareinsider.com/compare/64-267/Xero-vs-SAP-Accounting [Accessed july 2010].

Jick, A., 2016. Accounting information systems. 13th ed. new york: Jick publishers.

jinus, T., 2013. Book keeping. 2nd ed. London: Jamm Printing press.

Khana, S., 2013. Khana Khazana. 2nd ed. Delhi: KK.

khurana, N., 2011. Benefits of Accounting information systems. Times daily, 2(16), p.7.

Krishnamurthy, R., 2010. Technology and accounts. 5th ed. Chennai: S-I Publishers.

Kuty, J., 2015. New way of accounting. 1st ed. balakova: Russian Publishers.

lesse, A., 2015. Hospitality and the other related industries. 5th ed. baton rouge: USA publishers.

marshal, 2012. principles of economics. 10th ed. dokalam: yury pirnting press.

marshy, a., 2015. ERP. Research papers. Jerison: Uzi Publishers Jemy University.

MYOB, 2017. MYOB. [Online] Available at: https://www.myob.com/au [Accessed 1 september 2017].

Pute, H., 2011. Managerial Decisions. In Johny, ed. Management. 1st ed. Sydney: Black town Publishers.

RG, 2008. Collaboration with SAP. In ***, ed. RG AS. Venice, 2008.

ruth, m., 2016. Management and accounts. Treasure Daily, 1(10), p.2.

SE, S., 2017. SAP. [Online] Available at: https://www.sap.com/index.html [Accessed September 2017].

singa, g., 2013. Modes of payments. Research papers. Bath: JU Jinmy University.

singh, R., 2017. marketing and sales interface. 2nd ed. sydney: Goergian publishers.

sokanu, 2016. Baking goods. Sokanu, 1, p.5.

XERO, 2017. XERO. [Online] Available at: https://www.xero.com/ [Accessed September 2017].