DESIGN AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTERIZED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF FINE BROTHERS
& CO LTD ABAKALIKI)
A PROJECT WORK
ABSTRACT
This
study was carried out to design and implement a software system that will
automate the processes involved in account management, particularly in Fine
Brothers Abakaliki. Manual accounting systems are characterized by human
errors, including mutilation, omission, duplication, miscalculation, etc, as
well as wastage of time and energy, data loss, and so on. Moreover, extra cost
is incurred in running manual accounting systems because of the need to buy big
registers and writing materials from time to time. To solve all these problems,
the researcher has developed and tested a computerized account management
system for the case study company, Fine Brothers Abakaliki. This system will
eliminate all errors associated with the existing manual system like mutilation,
duplication, etc; it will further automate most processes like report
generation and mathematical calculations. Observational technique was used to
make findings about the existing system. Based on the information gathered from
the exercise, the new system was analysed. The project design was done using
Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Methodology (OOADM); UML diagrams such as
use case diagram and class diagram were used. Microsoft Access was used to
design the database; necessary relationships were established between the
database tables using foreign keys. The project was implemented using VB 6.0 to
send and receive data and information to and fro the database. Input forms were
designed to collect users’ input while output could be received in different
forms like data report forms and message boxes. The project could only run on
Windows PCs, with just a minimal configuration (Windows XP, 1gig RAM, 40gig HD,
1.4GHZ processor) or higher. Proper documentation of this project was also kept.
The researcher concluded that implementing this account management system will
increase the organizational performance and productivity of Fine Brothers
Abakaliki and like companies. He therefore encouraged the implementation of the
software in Fine Brothers and like companies. Finally, he recommended regular
maintenance of the system to ensure efficiency.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
Page
Certification
Page
Approval
Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
1.2
Statement of the Problem
1.3
Objectives of the Study
1.4
Significance of the Study
1.5
Scope of the Study
1.6
Limitations of the Study
1.7
Definition of Terms
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1
Introduction
2.1
Financial Transaction
2.1.1
History of Financial Transaction
2.2
Account Management System and its Importance to Businesses
2.3
Manual vs Computerized Accounting
2.3.1
Manual Accounting
2.3.2
Computerized Accounting
2.3.3
Manual Accounting vs Computerized Accounting
2.4
The Advantages of Using Computerized Accounting Software
2.5
Fine Brothers Abakaliki: a Brief Description, History
and Review of its Current Accounting System
2.6
Summary
CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM
ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
3.1
Introduction
3.2
Analysis of the Existing System
3.2.1
Limitations of the Existing System
3.3
Analysis of the Proposed System
3.4
Design Methodology Used
3.4.1
Use Case Diagram
3.4.2
Class Diagram
3.5
Database Design
3.5.1
Data Organization
3.5.2
Table Relationships
3.5.3
Data Storage
3.5.4
Data Retrieval
3.6
User-Interface Design
3.6.1
Input Form Design
3.6.2
Output Form Design
CHAPTER FOUR:
IMPLEMENTATION
4.1
Introduction
4.2
Architecture of the System
4.3
Procedural Design
4.4
Development Environment
4.5
Deployment Environment
4.6
Documentation
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1
Summary
5.2
Conclusion
5.3
Recommendations
References
Appendix
I
Appendix
II
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 3.4.1.1 Use Case Diagram for Computerized
Account Management System
Fig. 3.4.2.1 Class Diagram for a Computerized
Account Management System
Fig 3.5.1.1 Data Dictionary for a Computerized
Account Mgt System
Fig 3.5.2.1 Relational Database Tables for a
Computerized Account Management System
Fig 3.6.1 Main Menu for the Computerized Account
Management System
Fig 3.6.1.1 Input Form for the Computerized Account
Mgt System
Fig 3.6.2.1 Output Box (Message Box) to Confirm that
a Record Has Been Saved to the Database in the Computerized
Account Mgt System
Fig 4.2.1 Context-Level Data Flow Diagram Describing
the Architecture of the System
Fig 4.3.1 A Flow Chart Describing the Procedural
Design of the Account Mgt System
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE
STUDY
Every
business company deals on either sales of products or services or both.
Whichever the case may be, business transactions take place. Business
transaction is more than buying and selling of goods; it also includes
rendering of services and more. According to Doyle (2014), business
transactions are the interactions between businesses and their customers,
vendors and others with whom they do business. This explanation implies that
exchange of messages, items, and ultimately money, for the purpose of business
all constitutes business transaction.
Business
transactions by companies could be in form of sales, expenses, bonuses,
discounts, and so on. Proper records of such transactions need to be kept.
Keeping such records constitutes accounting.
Reynolds
(2009) defined Accounting as “the
systematic recording, analysis and appraisal of financial data which results
from activities undertaken in pursuit of the objectives of a firm”. Thus,
accounting systems monitor revenues and expenditures and quickly establish the
firm’s position at particular lines. Furthermore, firms need to know the values
of their fixed Assets (Land, buildings, vehicles, plant and equipments), and
current assets (stocks, debtors, work in progress, and cash in hand). Because
every transaction contributes to an increase or decrease in assets, it must
therefore be recorded accurately and stored in easily retrievable form. From
the going, accounts should show areas of inefficiency, and reveal the exact
cost of all the firms’ activities, as accurate and detailed accounts will make
policy formation easier and facilitate the well organized implementation of
corporate plans.
Accounting
has also been seen by Meigs (2005) as consisting of gathering of financial and
other economic data. Just as physical measurements are provided by the metric
system, economic measurements are provided by the accounting system, and are
stated in financial terms. These economic measurements are put together in
reports that carry the information essential for planning activities, control
of operations, and for decision making by business units.
Thirdly,
accounting provides financial reports that are needed by outside persons who
invest in business units, lend money to them, or extend credit to them. It also
furnishes reports to be used by government agencies which regulate businesses
and by tax authorities such as internal revenue authorities which must ensure
that the correct amount of tax is collected. When the unit of consideration is
a non-profit organization (such as school, hospital, church or other charitable
group), its members and those who contribute to it need to know for what
purposes and in what proportions their money is being used. These important
pieces of information are furnished by accounting, thereby making accounting a
very important aspect of every business.
Thus,
accounting can be referred to generally as a set of rules and methods by which
financial and economic data are collected, processed, and summarized into
reports that can be used in making decisions, relating to the accomplishment of
organizational goals.
The
major role of financial accounts is the preparation of profit and loss account
and the balance sheet. The methods used by a business to keep records of its
financial activities and to summarise these activities in periodic accounting
reports comprise the accounting system.
Fine
Brothers & Co Ltd Abakaliki, like every other profit companies, runs an
accounting system. Only a few of these companies run computerized accounting
systems; the others rely on manual accounting systems.
The
advantages of computerized account management systems over manual ones are
innumerable. Manual accounting systems involves hiring an accountant who keeps
the company’s accounts, using books and other writing materials while a
computerized account management system entails the use of computer programs to
keep and maintain a company’s accounting information. Manual accounting systems
are characterized by human errors, including mutilation, omission, duplication,
miscalculation; wastage of time and energy, data loss, and so on. On the other
hand, according to Francis (2014), computerized account management systems are
automated, accurate, and fast. Computerized systems can be used to generate
reports easily; errors can be corrected easily; data can be backed up on
external devices or on the cloud; duplications are automatically detected and
data manipulation (especially numerical figures) is easy. Recently,
computerized decision making tools have been developed to aid managers in
decision making and forecasting, using computerized accounting information.
To
solve the problems posed by manual accounting systems, the researcher has
embarked on this project which is aimed at designing and implementing a
computerized account management system, using Fine Brothers & Co Ltd
Abakaliki as the case study company. When implemented, this project will help
the company to overcome all the challenges posed by their manual accounting
system, including mutilation, omissions, duplications, miscalculations and so
on.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
Manual
accounting systems are characterized by human errors, including mutilation,
omission, duplication, miscalculation, etc, as well as wastage of time and
energy, data loss, and so on.
Human
beings cannot afford writing without errors, so; mutilations are bound to occur
when using manual accounting systems. Also, an accountant can easily forget
certain debts, dates or schedules while using the manual system of account
management. Furthermore, he can duplicate entries; this will, of course, lead
to imbalance account at the end of the day; loss of job or taxing of the
accountant involved could be the ultimate price. Moreover, when an accounting
book is lost, the whole data is lost; creating a back up on the manual system
is very difficult. Extra money is also spent is also spent to purchase various
accounting books and writing materials.
To
solve all these problems, this project is thus necessary.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
The
broad objective of this study is to design and implement a computerized account
management system for Fine Brothers & Co Ltd Abakiliki.
The
specific objectives of this study are:
i.
To eliminate human
errors involved in manual accounting like mutilation, omission, duplication,
forgetfulness, and so on.
ii.
To reduce the cost of
running accounting systems
iii.
To save time and energy
via automation
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY
This
project will be of immense benefit to the management of Fine Brothers & Co
Ltd Abakaliki and similar companies as it will help them in decision making and
forecasting. The staff, especially the accountants, of Fine Brothers and
similar organizations will find this project helpful as it will help them to
keep accurate financial accounts devoid of mutilation, omission, duplication,
miscalculation, and so on. The customers of Fine Brothers and other companies
that will use this project will be able to sort out their transaction issues
easily due to proper record keeping that will be made possible by this new
system.
Moreover,
government revenue generation agencies and tax companies will benefit from this
computerized account management system as it will give them access to accurate
and trusted financial statements of Fine Brothers and other companies and thus
help them to tax these companies.
Furthermore,
any student carrying out a research on same or similar topics will find this
project report a useful material for such purpose.
Most
importantly, this project will form an inevitable requirement for the award of
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computer Science.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This
study covers the design and implementation of a computerized account management
system for Fine Brothers & Co. Ltd Abakaliki. For the purpose of this study,
the manual system used by the above-named company was observed over the period
of this study, from late 2014 to mid 2015. Unified Modeling Language (UML) was
used for the design while Visual Basic 6.0 and Microsoft Access database were
the basic tools used for the implementation.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE
STUDY
Due
to other academic activities, short time frame, economic crunches and other
constraints, this study was limited to the design and implementation of a
computerized account management system for Fine Brothers & Co Ltd only;
other companies were not necessarily taken into consideration for want of time
and money. Moreover, Visual Basic 6.0 and MS-Access which are just basic tools
for software development were used because of the constraints stated initially.
For want of time also, only the basic tools needed to enter, store, manipulate,
update and generate reports were added to the software system.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
ACCOUNT:
Account can be defined as record or statement of financial transactions.
ACCOUNTING: Reynolds (2009) defined Accounting as “the systematic recording,
analysis and appraisal of financial data which results from activities
undertaken in pursuit of the objectives of a firm”.
SYSTEM:
A system is a collection of different but related components that work together
to achieve a common goal.
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM:
The methods used by a business to keep records of its financial activities and
to summarise these activities in periodic accounting reports comprise the
accounting system. An accounting system includes every tool and even persons
involved in the recording, storing, maintaining and reporting of a company’s
financial transactions.
MANAGEMENT:
Management is the art and science of planning, directing, organizing and controlling
the affairs of something or somebody.
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT:
Account management involves the application of management principles in keeping
account. It means the planning, controlling, directing and organization of a
company’s financial activities. It also encompasses decision making based on
the accounting information of a company.
COMPUTER:
Nwachukwu (2007) defined computer as an electronic machine capable accepting
data as input, processing it, giving out information as output and also storing
such data and information for future use.
COMPUTERIZATION:
Computerization is the application of computer in performing tasks. It is
similar to automation.
AUTOMATION:
Automation refers to the use of machines (e.g. computers) to perform tasks
previously done manually, with litt