CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Project Context

Technology has been rapidly changing and expanding in every field imaginable. Since the
first computer was invented, our quality of life and happiness have increased. In fact the
appearance of internet helps us find information much easier. The continuous innovations led the
people do their tasks effortlessly, but at the same time, efficiently. Technology is always
changing as more inventions are brought forward to improve our day to day lives.

In business world there is no substitute for right information at right time. It is evident
that in last couple of decades attempts has been made to develop systems which make
information more precise, readily available and easily accessible throughout the organization.
The development and use of information systems is a modern trend which is primarily concerned
with the collection, process and dissemination of useful information that directs an organization
for better planning, better decision making and ultimately the better results.

An accounting information system (AIS) is typically a computerized accounting program

that keeps records for a company. The information is entered into the system and the system
tracks and organizes the accounting information. The accounting information system is used also
to provide detailed information about the company, including financial statements.

An information system is defined as the software that helps organize and analyze data.
So, the purpose of an information system is to turn raw data into useful information that can be
used for decision making in an organization.

Jesus Reigns Christian Academy (JRCA), Founded in 1994, the school is affiliated with
the Jesus Reigns Christian College (JRCC) (located in Manila). The school is certified by the
Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) and accepts Education Service Contracting
(ESC) grantees. Students who intend to pursue their senior high education in the school can
 choose between Academic and Arts and Design tracks. Also offered in the school is the Interest
Group, a series of programs where students learn various musical instruments and sports.
Committed to providing quality Christian education, Jesus Reigns Christian Academy continues
to form its students into competent and responsible members of the society.

Historically, Jesus Reign Christian Academy manages their file and transaction by
inserting data manually. It slows down the operation that the academy has. Their traditional way
of processing records lessens the possibility of data backup and data security. Thus, searching for
a specific file can consume a lot of time for the employees and data redundancy may occur.

Having known the current struggles of the Cashier and Accounting Office, the developers
decided to develop a system which allows the accountant to easily access financial record of
every student. By this manner, the office doesn’t need to gather data, process it and recover their
data manually. The system will be the one to do all the computing procedures and generating
reports of those. The only task that the Cashier and accounting office needs to do is logging-in to
the system and insert and generate the desired data..

The developed system is designed to help the Cashier and Accounting Office on
conducting the Students’ Financial Transaction that requires less time and effort. The use of
Bunifu Framework and VB 2010 on the development process is being considered. On the side of
database administration, the developers see the use of SQL.

Purpose and Description

 At present time, the Accounting process is done manually. The Account and Cashier personnel of
Jesus Reign Christian Academy provides a financial breakdown sheet for every Student . An
Accounting Information system will help improve the current process of financial transaction.
It will allow the Accountant and Cashier office staff to conduct the transaction process with
lesser time, and effort without compromising the accuracy and reliability of the results. The
developed system will also assess and promote transparency in the financial aspects between
 the academy and the student’s Parents, it Improves the academy’s efficiency where money is
concerned, Provide auditing services for the Parents, Suggest way to reduce students liabilities
that wont burden the parents(mode of payment), And provide individual report for students
liabilities for the parents to view.


Also, the developed system gives more accurate, fast and reliable process in monitoring
the financial record of each student, convenience and hassle-free of handling the records. This is
because it requires less time and effort compared to the present process of Cashier and
Accounting done for every transaction done every quarter.

The developed system will be of great benefit mainly to the Cashier And Accounting
Office. The system will help the said office keep their record more secure, save more money,
time and effort.

Also, the Parents of the students of Jesus Reign Christian Academy will benefit to the
said system. The process of checking their children financial record will take lesser time and it
will be much reliable.
The accountant will also benefit when the system is already implemented. They can
check the students financial report with ease. They can monitor and inform the parents regarding
their children liabilities.

The future researchers can also benefit in this system. They can gather ideas that will help
improve the projects that they’re currently doing. They can also learn computer programming
strategies that will be used in the development of the system.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the project is to develop a system that will be used by the
accountant for the Student’s Financial Record. Specifically, it aims to do the following:

1. Access and utilize the Academy’s Financial Transaction Record;

 2. To provide a module where the following can be performed:

2.1. Accountant can create a students’ accounting information

2.2. Accountant could access the data gathered from the students’ accounting
information and generate reports from it.

3. To provide analytic features where the following can be monitored:

3.1. Payment And Liabilities based on the students’ transaction per grade
level ; and

3.2 Overall Payment And Liabilities based on the students’ transaction;

4. To evaluate the developed system in terms of:

4.1. Functionality;

4.2. Efficiency;

4.3. Usability; and

4.4. Reliability

5. To provide an implementation plan for the developed system.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

 This study focuses on developing a system that allows the accountant to prepare and
examine Student’s financial records through a computer. The accountant will be provided with an
account to access the records. Only the Authorized persons will be able to access the system.

The developed system can only be used by the accountant, because the system will only
be limited to the students financial transaction.

Students’ Financial Transaction is the only major process the system can perform. Other
authorized personnel cannot manipulate the data.

Moreover, The developed system will help the Accountant to easily manipulate the
students’ financial transaction Record.

Definition of Terms

The developers defined some terms used in this paper conceptually and operationally, so
the readers can comprehend easily those terms used in this study. Conceptual definition defines a
term based from a dictionary or other references while operational definition states how the term
is used in developing the developed system.

Accounting information system (AIS) is a structure that a business uses to collect, store,
manage, process, retrieve and report its financial data so that it can be used by accountants,
consultants, business analysts, managers, chief financial officers (CFOs), auditors, regulators and
tax agencies.
 CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED SYSTEM

The different systems that have been researched shared same concept and
ideas to the developed system are presented in this chapter. The function of the
system and how it helped to a certain institution are also discussed, along with the
elaboration with its similarities to the developed system.

Technical Background

Related Systems
 To develop An Accounting Information system for Jesus Reign Christian

Academy, the developers had to research comprehensive readings to generate

some ideas and concept about Accounting information system that helped them

evolved their own concept. The following are systems which contribute

significantly in the development of the developed system.

(Stambaugh ; Carpente,)counted in briefly the Information characteristics as

follow: first, Provided on timely basis. Second, Presented in an aesthetically
appealing format. Third, Relevant to the decisions at hand. Fourth, Concise
yet sufficient in scope to allow" what-if' analysis. And lastly, flexible to
interface with information from other functional units.

A system developed by Craig [8] paved a way on having an employment

framework for management and development. This online employee evaluating

system helped improved the quality of work. Once the quality of work has been

improved, the daily operations of the business will surely improve as well.

(Ijiri,) gives his contribution in accounting system objectives, in

addressing the question of what an accounting system should do identifies
'accountability' and 'information usefulness' as the two main broad objectives
that any accounting system should achieve. He states that accountability has
clearly been the social and organizational backbone of accounting for
centuries. In this sense to account for he takes to explain a consequence by
providing a set of causes that have collectively produced the result. To
provide accountability is thus an essential feature of an accounting system.
However, in the modern business world, information usefulness is also an
important, albeit secondary, requirement. Thus, the core of any accounting
system is to provide accountability with 'information usefulness a necessary
adjunct.

CHAPTER 3
DESIGN AND METHDOLOGY
This chapter presents the design and methodology that the developers used

in the developed system. Different diagrams are shown to discuss the concepts of

the developed system. This also includes the procedures on how the study was

conducted.

Data Gathering

In this project, the developers finalized all the necessary requirements for the

system development. The developers were able to gather the current manual process

of the documents involved such as a computation process, a sample report of ratings,

which are given by the accounting office. In order to pursue the said project, the

developers made use of qualitative type of research.

Qualitative research is a scientific method of observation to gather non-

numerical data.This type of research "refers to the meanings, concepts
definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things" and
not to their "counts or measures."Qualitative research approaches are employed
across many academic disciplines, focusing particularly on the human elements
of the social and natural sciences; in less academic contexts, areas of application
include qualitative market research, business, service demonstrations by non-
profits,and journalism.
 This type of research was conducted to determine the views of the users

regarding the Accounting Information System.

After having the information needed, the developers started developing the

system. Meanwhile, the developers lead to a series of testing to check the

functionality, reliability, usability and effectiveness of the system followed by the

implementation of the software to the client.

Project Concept

The study was conceptualized after the developers realized the struggles of

the manual process done by Cashier and Accounting Office. The manual

computation done by the accountant becomes more difficult as the number of the

student grows . This is made by manually gathering data of each student and

computing each liabilities and payment. After the students paid their tuition, it is

then computed again and updated for the new liabilities. Reports are generated

then after the the computation process. This traditional way of the accounting

office takes time to complete and manually check each transaction for the every

student.

Though the current way of accounting office includes 100% of the students

it takes time and effort to finish the process. Also, because the computation is done

manually, the consistency of the generated reports check by the higher ups may be

at risk and reports may not show accurate results. The cashier and accounting

Office spends most of its time checking and computing liabilities.

By knowing these, the developers decided to develop an Accounting

Information system. In this system, the accountant can do her duties with ease.

The accountant is going to use her authorized accounts to log-in into the system.

This functionality eliminates the process of manually computing each liabilities

and payment . The Cashier and Accounting Office spends amount of money in

their journal and ledger, which can also be saved once the system becomes

implemented.

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 Once all payments have gathered, the system will automatically generate

reports of these. Traditionally, the process of tallying and report generation takes

months to accomplish. Using the system, these processes can be done once all the

students paid their payments..

On the other hand, the system has the ability to provide a percentage of the

students who are not yet paid. This list will be integrated to the system where the

accountant can check. When it happens, once the accountant generate reports, he

can notify the student ahead of time. By this, all parents will be aware of their

children’s liabilities, which may result into a quicker response by the parents.

After the system has been developed, the developers conducted different

testing techniques such as system testing, unit testing, and integration testing.

Through these methods of testing, the possible errors that the system may contain

will be addressed before its implementation. Also, through testing, different

improvements can be integrated into the system to improve its efficiency and

usability.

Development Method

The developers developed the system in the method of Rapid Application

Development (RAD). This is a popular method of gathering facts that will support

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the system development. Also, it implies the involvement of the users of the

system as active participants to the development process.

Figure 2. Rapid Application Development

The rapid application development’s initial phase, the planning of

requirements, is when the developers and future system users gather to agree about

the application itself. In this phase, the project requirements are gathered such as a

sample computation form and a sample report of rating. With this, prototyping can

be easily handled in the future phases.

After the establishment of the project concept, a prototype will be started

according to the user design. After the development of a Accounting information

system prototype, the other researcher and some random people gave their

suggestions to make the system architecture best suitable for the user. This phase

will be repeated over and over until a perfect prototype has been developed.

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 While a prototype is on development, a final system will be on rapid

construction. This is the phase when the coding, testing and integration are

being done. Along with the development of a prototype, this phase is often

repeated over and over until a perfect system has been developed. The system

has been developed based on the prototype approved by the other developer,

other researcher and by the accountant.

After all the phases have been done, the phase of cut-over or

transition will take over. This is when the system will be on a live

environment, and its users will be under training for the successful

utilization of the system. The developed system will be deployed on the

accountant’s computer for its cut-over.

Development Approach

The developers used the Top-down Approach in the system

developed. This approach looks the system to be developed as a whole, and

as the development process runs, each component of the overall system is

being conceptualized and developed.

 Figure 3. Top-Down Approach

Registering new modules are the first actions to take when top-down

approach is on effect. Here, the admin will input the breakdown data computation.

Also the admin, can update the students information which will help the compute

the respective amount of tuition fee for each level.

Verification of the computation will take over. This is where the data are

analyzed if it is really needed. Also, the unnecessary other payments can be

deleted or be updated.

Students data will be checked and validated. With this, the data will be

corrected before the development. Validating the students’ data will prevent error,

fault or failure in the future.

 When the data computation breakdown are already verified and validated,

these system proceed to the next verification. The students information data will

also be verified and validated for the corresponding tuition fee for each grade

level.

User Design Interface

Hardware Requirements
Table 3 presents the minimum hardware requirements needed for the system to
work properly. The table shows the specification required by the researchers. The
developers believe that the hardware requirements below can generate the computer
system.

Table 3
Hardware Requirements
Equipment Specification
Processor At least 1.6 Ghz Dual Core
Random Access Memory (RAM) At least 1Gb
Hard Disk Drive At least 500Gb

Software Requirements
In table 4 the developers used the following software requirements. By using this
software tools, the developers can attain a much better user interface and can assure the
security and privacy of the systems data and information.
Table 4
Software Requirements
Software Requirements Specification
 Operating System Windows 7
Programming Language VB
Database SQL

Table 5 illustrates the Likert Scale Table that was used by the developers to gather
the Weighted Average Mean of the questions regarding the Functionality of the developed
project. Likert Scale Table shows the Numeric Scoring and Verbal Interpretation of the
score for the project evaluation.

Table 5
Likert Scale

SCALE VERBAL INTERPRETATION

5 Strongly Agree
4 Agree
3 Moderately Agree
2 Disagree
1 Strongly Disagree

Table 6 illustrates the range of the verbal interpretation of the scoring of the
functionality assessment of the project. It served as the basis on how to determine the
proper and accurate verbal interpretation of the results of the survey.

Table 6
Range of Verbal Interpretation

SCALE VERBAL INTERPRETATION

4.50-5.00 Strongly Agree
3.50-4.49 Agree
2.50-3.49 Moderately Agree
1.50-2.49 Disagree
1.00-1.49 Strongly Disagree
Verification, Validation and Testing

The Black Box, also known as functional testing, is a device, system

or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs without

any knowledge of its internal workings. In a black box test on a software

design, the tester only knows the input and what the expected outcomes

should be and how the programs arrive at those output.

The developers used Black-Box Testing to test the functionality of

the system. It is a software testing method in which the internal structures

design implementation of the item being tested is not known to the tester.

The Black-Box testing was developed by the developers as method in

analyzing the client requirements, level of design strategies and

specification. This kind of testing which involves encoding data, error data

type and code of execution checks the output response of the developed

system. It also implies the manner of testing wherein the internal functions

of the system is not visible during the testing.

Figure 12. Black Box Testing