ACT 5731 Team Project

The team project provides you with an opportunity to interact with professionals to obtain understanding of the practical implications of the accounting information system (AIS) of an entity. Conduct interviews with the key accounting and IT professionals of an entity of your choice, and research internal or external sources to collect relevant materials to further understanding of the practical implications of the entity’s AIS
Your team report should contain the following:
1. Describe the entity (i.e., the entity’s industry, size of workforce, annual revenue, total assets, investment in the AIS, and amount spent on maintaining the AIS each year).
2. Discuss the entity’s assessment of and satisfaction with the AIS in fulfilling  the objectives of the entity. Include the entity’s evaluation of whether the AIS is “ahead of the curve”, “behind the curve”, or “about in line” with other firms in the industry.
3. Discuss the key systems issues (e.g., importance of the AIS, presence of a chief information officer or an information systems department, and other systems related issues).
4. Explain the entity’s attitude toward systems security and describe its strategies for dealing with systems security issues (e.g. intrusion detection systems, firewalls, etc.).
Discuss the vulnerability of the entity’s AIS to violation by employees and attacks by hackers.
5. In addition, explain clearly and in detail the internal control strengths and weaknesses of the business processes.
6. Draw the reporting systems document flowcharts as originally described by the accounting and IT professionals of your entity. Be sure to indicate clearly the business processes in your document flowcharts.
7. Draw the revised reporting systems document flowcharts which incorporate your recommendations for mitigating the weaknesses identified in the business processes of your entity. Indicate clearly your suggested computerized controls and internal control procedures for mitigating the internal control weaknesses in your document flowcharts. All your revised document flowcharts must be substantially different from the original document flowcharts.

Note:

Explain your answers in detail to all the above questions. Submit one typewritten team report including relevant exhibits, tables, or appendices. The estimated length for this team project is 5 pages. Read very carefully the Systems Development & Documentation Techniques PowerPoint file in My Course Content. Make sure you understand the differences among a dataflow diagram, document flowchart, systems flowchart, program flowchart, etc.