Accounting Information System

Accounting Information System for Matte Seafoods limited

Introduction
The improvements in information technology across the world have made it possible for
many companies to automate some of their tasks that were initially performed manually. With
the click of a button, accounting jobs that used to be carried out manually using a paper can now
be done easily and with little effort. Currently, almost every organization is making use of
computers in their day to day activities. The computerization of the accounting jobs is set to
continue as computer systems continue to become portable, faster, easily usable and cheap.
Web based accounting system (SaaS)
For Mattes Seafood Limited, I would propose a web based accounting system that is
easily accessible by different stakeholders from any location so long as they have connection to
the internet. With this model, the customer would not have to spend on acquiring infrastructure;
it is totally subscription based and can be accessed from anywhere so long as one is connected to
the internet. Currently, Matte Seafood limited sales and inventory information is sent manually
via radio calls and entered through the excel sheet which technically slows down the processing
given that the information is located in different sites.
Benefits of the Web Based Information system
o Lower development costs an project risks
By reusing internal integration components, services meant to be used in the automation
of internal processes can be made accessible to other partners who are not within the companys
firewall. Reuse of these components helps lowers development costs tremendously while at the

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same time raise ROI of the internal projects. B2B project risks are reduced courtesy of reusing
tired and tested services already in use.
o Achieve extra value chain finances through the simplification of end-to-end automation.
AIS permits the creation of complex applications that can be used to automate business
processes stretching from your suppliers to your customers.
o Simplification of the Partners integration task
With an AIS approach, partners do not need to know the underlying intricate
configurations of your companys internal functionality. Whatever they need is simply a Unified
Resource Locator (URL) to a web service that enables them to make use of the functionality
exposed to them. Changes in the internal systems have no effects on the web service interface.
This enables upgrades and enhancements to be done internally to an application without affecting
the normal business process activities.
Data capture and processing
Different data aspects are captured by the accounting information system. AIS captures
data such as customer information, inventory, shipping information, customer order and stock
details. Customer order information is used to track the order placed by customer and
consequent delivery. When an order is delivered to the customer, an update is made to the
inventory and an invoice is automatically sent to the customer. The data will be captured using
different data collection methods such as using point of sale terminals, bar code scanners and
manually entering the manual data into the system. Different system stakeholders will be given
logins into the system upon which they can log in and key in data into the system.

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The system users such as managers, accountants, machine operators will be given
different log in profiles which will also have different system privileges. A user can extract
different reports depending on the privileges that are accorded to him or her. For instance the
company accountant would be able to extract reports pertaining to the level of stock in the
inventory. The sales department would have access to the sales reports which can help them
gauge whether the company is doing well in terms of sales margins or not. Reports will be
generated using crystal reports software that will be integrated with the system.
SaaS model
The model that will be adopted for Matte Seafood limited is the software as a service
model (SaaS). In this model, the application is hosted in some server and the company does not
have to buy the application in order to use it. The company only needs to purchase subscriptions
depending on the number of system users it has. The company can either buy the license or
subscriber yearly for its users. This model is cost effective since the company will not have to
spend a fortune in acquiring infrastructure for the application. The application will be fully
hosted and supported by the vendor. All the customer data as well as other information will be
made easily available to the company for reporting purposes.

Security and trust

Of more concern to the company will be the security and trust over their information.
This has been cited as the main barrier to the full adoption of web based accounting systems by
small business enterprises. Since the vendor has full control of the company data, there is fear
that the information might be used against the company or maybe be provided to the competitors.

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DFD for the sales/collection process for the Matte Seafood Limited

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References
Bell, Michael. (2010). AIS Modeling Patterns for Service-Oriented Discovery and Analysis.
Wiley & Sons. pp. 390.
Schroth, Christoph; Janner, Till; (2007). Web 2.0 and AIS: Converging Concepts Enabling the
Internet of Services. IT Professional 9 (2007), Nr. 3, pp. 36-41, IEEE Computer Society.
Brayan Zimmerli Business Benefits of AIS, University of Applied Science of Northwestern
Switzerland, School of Business, 11 November 2009