Report Proposal On Accounting Information System

Executive Summary

With the ever-growing need for firms to have a stronger Accounting or logistical Information system, it is beneficial to stand out from their rivals by ensuring better control of their resources and sharing of data. A Cloud-Based Accounting Information system will help them in the long term if an organization is looking to update its existing infrastructure. But the trick to making an update successful is to pick the correct one. As the mid-market is overpopulated with growing Cloud-Based applications, and it has become hard to sell companies picking one. Moreover, it is the platform that centralizes and incorporates all of the company’s business operations at one location allowing companies to be agile. Financial control, customer management interaction and deep learning which is the artificial intelligence platform are the key functions this program offers. It also offers good insights into finance, customer relations, inventory management, supply chain and handling human resources. The company who wishes to buy this product must take into account its budget, the size of its market, the skill sets of its workers who work on this product and return on investment, whether or not it is feasible to adopt the cloud-based system.

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The distribution business Wiseway strives to provide improved cost control and applications for warehouse management and build a closer partnership with its customers. This ensures they should have a system that offers a solid accounting and financial reporting process together with shipping and storage, quality control, human capital management and cloud-based, since the organization has a multinational system which can be managed and services exchanged from anywhere in the globe.

According to their system specifications, three Cloud-Based software, namely SAP ERP, Acumatica and NetSuite Oracle, were proposed for Wiseway Logistics. The study further compares all these structures according to the industry environment in which they work and the various characteristics thereof.

Introduction

Nowadays, it’s all about technological innovation that helps to revolutionize the world economy and it helps extend the business horizons. In addition , data analytics is the prerequisite of all businesses today through which they can gain valuable insights into all their business operations and then handle them so that this information analytics comes from the software system that the enterprise needs to build via the ERP framework (Kolcun, Grabara, & Kot, 2014). Information system is considered to be a company’s “nerve system,” which manipulates and tracks the next step to be taken for the information which is in the present. So, the need for various kinds of information system has emerged. For example, the accounting information system is a system that records both external and internal financial activities and thereby enables corporations to issue their tax reports and preparation strategy. Moreover, the supply chain management can be used with the improved tools which can have long-lasting delivery, coordination for trustworthy partnerships, and relationship promotion (SM & AM, 2016).

Unfortunately, it has become impossible for tech to support all its needs to deal with this ever-increasing demand of businesses. It has become difficult to provide a good logistics information system structure in an organization and there is still space for development (Xie & Deng, 2018), and (Tomasz, 2016).

According to (Xie & Deng, 2018), however, improved preparations and tactics may occur before adopting ERP system, such as choosing the best system according to specifications or getting competitive advantage. If there is no careful preparation this would make the ERP method less effective.

Wiseway Logistics

One of the biggest freight shipping firms in Australia is Wiseway Logistics Pty Ltd. Wiseway delivers high-quality, robust, broad, and strategic facilities for Australia as a whole with its Sydney-based head office. Wiseway presents all facets of industrial shipping and logistics, including options for sea freight, air freight, customs checks, transportation, warehousing, delivery and logistics (Wiseway, 2019). The Group’s main operating company, Wiseway Logistics Pty Ltd, was founded in New South Wales on 22 January 2007. The company was admitted to the Australian Stock Exchange Official List which is the ‘ASX’ on 31 October 2018 (Wiseway Group Limited, 2019).

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It is one of the leading logistics firms that have both exports and imports operations and provide services such as transportation and logistics both controlled at a very good competitive cost under one umbrella group. The business strives to develop a robust network between its local and global customers with high quality and on-time delivery. Also, they provide their customers with a regular kit, but the activities of each customer are personalized and advised to create a trustworthy mutual partnership (Wiseway, 2019).

The Revenue and expenditure cycle of the Company

According to the (Wiseway Group Limited, 2019) annual report, some analysis of the expenditure of the company tells a little about the target of growth and some challenges encountered. For instance, the company decided to buy the property of 8900-meter square which contains the 5000-meter square of space of a warehouse, in December 2018, which is located in the Chipping Norton, Sydney. It was bought for the amount of $11,327,000 and it also include the cost of construction as company construct its new warehouse. The investment was done from the current assets of the company which tells company have good cash flow levels. The settlement on the new property was made in March 2019. This is one of the many purchased properties to note. As it formed stronger bonds for global logistics services and strengthened the delivery of services within Australia, these property investments were profitable for the business.

Given the successes, due to factors such as lower amount of service usage from China, factories, higher costs in rising facilities than anticipated, etc., there was a loss of $1,873,000 from $116,944,000 and after-tax. This clearly indicates that improvements in the information system are necessary for the company at the moment so the company should invest on the best cloud-based accounting software.

Cloud Based System Requirements

The following are the problems or issues that Wiseway Logistics would consider in order to strengthen its information system:

Boost strategic network logistics
Expansion of network for offshore cooperation
Enhancing expense and cash management although the company has managed its expenditure brilliantly, but cloud-based system makes it more effective.
Delivering on the highly fragmented national logistics industry more effectively
Diversifying the sources of revenue
Growing and holding divisions in development

For Wiseway Logistics, the accounting information system is important because it is the cloud-based operating system where all the services will be exchanged across the network, and it can also store the information that would be useful for customer service. This Accounting Information System will create long-term interaction with the company and customers and store all their operations. The data set that this framework will obtain will also be proud of both presentation and visualization approaches (Tomasz, 2016).

There should be a framework where logistics drivers could know about local knowledge about their hotspot, such as the effect of traffic on delivery sites, in order to predict their travel journey accordingly and thereby boost customer facilities as consumers, they will already expect that their package will be shown in the web program or framework (Santana, Balan, & Woodard, 2007). Moreover, competition has been intensified in recent years, so that Wiseway Logistics must ensure that they have a strong information system that will allow them to track their logistics activities and then develop them, such as adding new functionality to their application, such as different distribution deals or special incentives for businesses that would give customers viability (Grabara & Kot, 2014).

Furthermore, the company at the back end need to maintain its database. An E-R architecture or relational database architecture in which data is stored structurally dependent on each entity on a table and relations between separate entities dependent on keys or mutual information must be preserved in the database. The value of this model is that it will make it easy to manage and control in advance and in competition with a strong business, multi-user environment (Yan, 2008).

Cloud-Based accounting system

Cloud-based accounting software or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a medium that serves a corporate model for this logistical knowledge handling tool. Not only does it assist with the present situation, it even outgrows itself as the business expanded (Schwarz, n.d). The framework is the automated controlled instrument used by major corporations to simplify corporate back office operations and handle large companies where dynamic systems need to be conveniently handled. The ERP module according to the (Tomasz, 2016) must include:

Customer relationship Management
Human Resource Management
Physical Inventory Management
Handling storage
Tracking of the supply
Timing facilities when goods are scheduled
Accounting Transactions or storage of source documents for particular transactions
Financial Management

This clearly shows that a cloud-based program decides a company’s logistics system ‘s productivity and selecting the correct one is the secret to profitable business and development. The following are the few cloud-based applications with its capabilities and contrast appropriate for the Wiseway Logistics.

Acumatica

Since it was discovered in 2008, Acumatica has become a leading cloud-based ERP program and its network is expanding globally. They promote for an all consumers under one approved model that involves cloud-based and mobile-based technologies to give its customers the opportunity to monitor their business practices with the live changes everywhere and anywhere in the world. They say their software can assist the financial management, production, project management, on and production, development, and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) of a company. They currently have more than 275 staff worldwide, and 6,000 clients. Acumatica generally offers its products and services to SMEs and medium-sized businesses in need of growth, strategic funding and accelerated development. Some customers, however, evaluated that its price is not so competitive and its features in smartphone apps are not good (G2 products Acumatica review, n.d). One of Acumatica’s best features is its pricing, as it is not dependent on users since enterprise types can be paying differing costs. The price is based on the services used by consumers, and more than 100 feature extensions are available (ERP Focus, n.d).

NetSuite Oracle

On 7 November 2016, Oracle completed the purchase of NetSuite, the very first cloud provider. NetSuite led the 1998 cloud computing boom, becoming the first company in the world dedicated to delivering enterprise services over the Internet. Currently, NetSuite provides a cloud-based finance / enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite and a singular-channel business software that handles the market of more than 20,000 enterprises in over 200 countries worldwide (G2, n.d). NetSuite is really a cloud-based ERP system that performs numerous functions, such as Human Resource Management (HRM), financial planning and control, and more for individuals. It provides very comprehensive human resource management, financing, and accounting resources. In addition, it also has a multiple currency and multi-language feature which makes it an ideal option for businesses that operate globally (ERP Focus, n.d).

SAP ERP

SAP ERP is a product of the German-based corporation SAP SE. First SAP ERP version, which was based on SAP R/3 software, was released in 1992. SAP ERP 6.0, which was released in 2006, is the new version. There are several business processes for Wiseway Logistics where SAP ERP can be extended including sales and distributions (operations), financial and management accounting (financial), and transport management or health and safety. In addition, the company will also have the benefit of efficiently managing its financing and money and it is essentially financial flexible with SAP. Moreover, the cash management and treasury management role of the SAP ERP will help the organization to take care of liquidity and maximize working capital (ERP and Finance, n.d). SAP ERP is constantly looking to develop and add new functionality to its products, and its new iteration of SAP ERP, S/4HANA, is now decreasing manual processes and adding more streamlined processes that incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities. Real-time analytics, artificial learning and industry-specific technologies are built into this product (ERP and Finance, n.d).

Comparison and Selection of Cloud-Based Software

All three of the above-mentioned software appears to be cloud-based and is distributed in the mid-market. To get a clear understanding of the features provided by each of them is side by side analyses of features presented by each of them. One of the comparative methods that we are looking at is the commercial field where these Cloud-Based programs can work.

Table 1: Comparison based on different Sectors of Business

Business Sectors	Acumatica	NetSuite Oracle	SAP ERP
Logistics	Yes	Yes	Yes
Government Institutions	Yes	No	Yes
Manufacturing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Retail	Yes	Yes	Yes
Service	Yes	Yes	Yes
Discrete Industries	No	No	Yes

Wiseway Logistics is the distribution and logistics company so all three Cloud-Based software can be used for the sector in which Wiseway Logistics lies.

Table 2: Comparison on the basis of features of Cloud-Based Software

Feature in the Software	Acumatica	NetSuite Oracle	SAP ERP
Business Analytics	Yes	Yes	Yes
CRM	Yes	No	Yes
Financial Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Accounting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Billing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inventory Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
HRM	Yes	Yes	Yes
Project Management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Planning and Scheduling	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shipping and distribution	Yes	No	Yes
Sales	Yes	Yes	Yes
Documentation	No	No	Yes
Order management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Real Time Analytics	No	No	Yes
Machine Learning	No	No	Yes
Asset Management	Yes	Yes	Yes

SAP ERP is the software that has the best options here and it is the right choice for Wiseway business because it provides two of the most essential shipping and storage services along with record processing as these are the tools, they need for a logistics company. NetSuite Oracle will be a no because it doesn’t help Wiseway’s shipping and delivery which is again a huge need.

Conclusion

It is important for an organization to have a proper data logistics framework to expand and extend its reach and to build a successful marketplace with better data. It’s also required for better resource control within a business. Cloud-based computing is the cornerstone of the administration and so it is important to pick the right one. There were three different software for Wiseway, namely Acumatica, SAP ERP, and NetSuite, and SAP ERP might be the one that is better suited to the Wiseway.

References

ERP Focus, n.d. ACUMATICA CLOUD ERP EXTENDED PROFILE. [Online]

Available at: https://www.erpfocus.com/internal/software/download/1818.pdf

ERP Focus, n.d. ERP: NetSuite. [Online]

Available at: https://www.erpfocus.com/internal/software/download/1862.pdf

G2, n.d. ERP: Acumatica. [Online]

Available at: https://www.g2.com/products/acumatica/reviews#details

G2, n.d. ERP Software: NetSuite. [Online]

Available at: https://www.g2.com/products/netsuite-2020-02-04/reviews

Grabara, J., & Kot, S. (2014, February). The role of infomation systems in transport logistics. International Journal of Education and Research, 2.

SAP SE products. (n.d). Retrieved from SAP SE website: https://www.sap.com/products/erp-financial-management.html?sred=products-erp#financial-resilience

SM, A. & AM, Z., 2016. Enhancing Accounting Information Systems to Facilitate Supply Chain Management between Supermarkets/Suppliers: The Case of Saudi Arabia.

Journal of Accounting & Marketing.

Schwarz, L., n.d. Choosing the Right Global ERP System for Your Business. Oracle Netsuite.

Tomasz, D. (2016). A method to select an IT system for a logistics company. A highlyefficient infrastructure to respond, change and to drive innovation. Tranportation Research Procedia, 16, 54-60. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146516306214

Wiseway, 2019. About Us: Wiseway. [Online]

Available at: https://www.wiseway.com.au/about-us/

Wiseway Group Limited, 2019. ANNUAL REPORT, s.l.: s.n.

Yan, S. (2008). The Analyze on Accounting Information System of Third-party Logistics Enterprise. International Business Research, 1(2).

Xie, C. & Deng, S. T., 2018. The Design and Implementation of Logistics Information System based.

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