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Designed to prepare you for a career in business, this unit focuses on the relationships between business processes, information flows and information technology and how these interact and communicate with an organisation's management. It also explores the governance, control and security issues in the business processes and within the information system. If you’re looking to develop your career in business and expand into the specialised area of information systems, this unit will be right up your alley. It covers a range of database concepts and reporting methods, and how they enhance business operations. You will critically analyse accounting information systems in terms of auditing, governance, ethics and cybercrime, while assessing potential advances. You will work with accounting information systems in action – production, human resources, revenue and expenditure, just to name a few. This will give you applied, transferable knowledge you can take with you into your professional endeavours. In this unit, you will study:

  • System fundamentals
    • Introduction
  • System characteristics and consideration
    • Business processes
    • Database concepts
    • Systems development
    • Technology concepts
    • Systems mapping and documentation
    • Internal controls I
    • Internal controls II
  • Systems in action
    • Transaction cycle - the revenue cycle
    • Transaction cycle - the expenditure cycle
    • Transaction cycle - the general ledger and financial reporting cycle.
  • Systems issues
    • Auditing and governance of accounting information systems
    • Ethics and cybercrime.

Learning outcomes

  • Define what an accounting information system is, and describe the basic functions it performs
  • Identify and explain the concepts of sound internal control surrounding input, processing and output controls, audit trails, data integrity, security and backups
  • Identify and explain the business activities performed in the major business cycles and the flow of accounting data and information in those systems
  • Recognise and explain the threats to effective and efficient performance of those processes and the applicable control procedures for dealing with those threats, and the key decisions that need to be made and the information needed to support those decisions
  • Identify and explain the business activities performed in the major business cycles and the flow of accounting data and information in those systems.

Assessment

You are assessed according to the following components, each with its own weighted value against your overall result:

  • Quiz: 30%
  • Short written response: 30%
  • Exam (closed book): 40%

Courses

You can study this unit as part of the Graduate Diploma in Accounting.   Please note, unit structure and content are subject to change. Contact your SCU Online student advisor on 1300 863 819 for more information based on your particular circumstances.