Category: Accounting

Short Essay on Re-engineering (650 Words)!Reengineering actually means “starting all over”. It does not mean making incremental changes that have basic structures intact. It does mean, however, breaking away from outdated rules and assumptions and abandoning long established procedures and looking afresh at the work. It involves going back to the beginning and inventing a better way of doing work. Image Source: htgsoft.com ADVERTISEMENTS: Reengineering, as defined by Hammer and Champy, “is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.”The first key word in this definition is “fundamental”. The most fundamental questions a company asks itself is “why do we do what we do?” Reengineering begins with no assumptions. It first determines…

There are several types of information systems in use. Six of these are discussed as follows: 1. Transaction Processing Systems: A transaction processing system (TPS) is an information system which records transactions that take place between two or more business entities. These systems keep track of such basic business activities as sales, cash deposits, flow of materials, payroll transactions and so on. Image Source: web-books.com ADVERTISEMENTS: A sales transaction, for example, may include the customer’s name, type of merchandise purchased, price paid and the mode of payment such as cash or credit card. The primary purpose of the systems is to record, process and store information about transactions that take place in the various functional areas of business for future retrieval and use.Transaction systems exist for the various functional areas…

Essay on the Management Functions in MNCs!The management functions of planning; organizing, directing and controlling are usually adaptable to all managerial situations including their international context. Image Source: wwwen.zte.com ADVERTISEMENTS: However, these functions must be applied “appropriately” from one country and culture to the next. Global managers apply the management functions successfully across borders. (1) Planning: Since planning inherently means deciding for future operations or making decisions at the present time for future results, it becomes the most difficult function where the environmental conditions, in the long run, are at best erratic.Hence management would be more interested in short term planning, rather then long term planning in such countries where the long range political stability is questionable. Another factor which makes long range planning more difficult is forecasting the future…

Essay on the Industrial Revolution in the United States of America!Somewhere in the middle of 1800s, the emphasis in America shifted from agrarian society to industrial society. The steam engine developed by James Watt in England and perfected around 1788, came to America soon after. Image Source: blogs.loc.gov ADVERTISEMENTS: It provided cheaper and more efficient power and it allowed factories to produce more goods at cheaper price, increasing the market for such goods. It replaced water power so that new factories could be located anywhere instead of only near rivers.At about the same time, the growth of transportation began with the railroad industry so that by 1860, there were over 30,000 miles of railroad track. By providing rapid movement of raw materials and finished goods, the railroads were responsible for…

Essay on Problem Pointers (862 Words)!First of all, how do we determine that there is a problem? Even if we know that there is a problem, how do we determine the extent and the seriousness of the problem? According to Miller and Starr, there are certain characteristics that are attributes of problems. One of the major characteristics of the problem is the existence of deviation between what was expected under a given set of conditions and what actually happened. Image Source: johnlatham.me ADVERTISEMENTS: Before solutions can be found, the problems must be thoroughly and correctly diagnosed and the decisions concerning solutions to the problems must deal with underlying factors rather then surface symptoms.For example, a doctor prescribing a medicine for a headache as a symptom without looking into the root…

Essay on Some Important Organisation Structure Designs!Organizational structure according to George and Jones, “is the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve an organization’s goals”. Image Source: cdn2.slidemodel.com ADVERTISEMENTS: Such a system is primarily influenced by certain contingency factors such as technology used or the organization’s size, as discussed earlier. Depending upon the type of the organization and the philosophy of operations, managers can select any one of the various structured designs available. Some of these designs are explained as follows: 1) The Line Structure: The line structure is the simplest form of organization and is most common among small companies. The authority is embedded in the hierarchical structure and it flows in a direct…

Different Levels of Management in the Form of a Pyramid – Essay!As the organizations grow larger and more complex, they usually develop several levels of managerial positions, forming a hierarchy of superior and subordinate reporting relationships. Traditionally, there are three managerial levels which are usually depicted in the form of a hierarchical pyramid.The total number of personnel found at each level decreases as the management level increases up the pyramid. The largest number of people in the organization is at the lower organizational level, at the bottom of the pyramid and these people are operating in a non-managerial capacity. ADVERTISEMENTS: This group consists of individual contributors who are simply the employees who work under the guidance of their supervisors. These levels, in the form of a pyramid are shown as…

Task environment consists of those industry factors which are external to the firm but have a direct and specific impact upon the organization and are in turn affected by the organization’s operations.These factors are shown in the following diagram.These factors are explained in more detail as follows. 1. Competition: ADVERTISEMENTS: Competition is the basic element of a free enterprise system. The interests of both the organization and the customers are better served when choices in the market are available. Competition encourages progress and product-developments. It forces organizations to be more innovative and productive. For example, in 1955, Harley- Davidson held nearly 70% of the U.S. motorcycle market, but by 1983, this share had been reduced to only 3.7%.This steep decline can be attributed to aggressive competition by Japanese companies such…

A number of capital budgeting techniques that are used in practice are (Fig.24.1): 1. Pay Back Period Method: The payback period is the length of time required to recover the initial cash outlay of the project. It can be calculated as follows: ADVERTISEMENTS: Payback Period = Cash Outlay/Annual cash inflowThe method can be understood as follows:If a project involves a cash outlay of Rs. 1,50,000 and Rs. 2,00,000 in the first, second and third and fourth years respectively. It’s payback period is 4 years because the sum of cash inflows during 4 years is equal to the initial outlay. When the annual cash inflow is a constant sum, the payback period is simply the initial outlay divided by the annual cash inflows.For example, a project which has an initial cash…

Stock records are maintained in the following different forms:1. Bin card2. Stores ledger ADVERTISEMENTS: 3. Stock identification card4. Materials received note5. Materials requisition slip6. Materials returned slip ADVERTISEMENTS: 7. Materials transfer note8. Damage/shortage/excess report9. Daily receipt voucher10. Package slip. 1. Bin card: ADVERTISEMENTS: A bin card is said to be mirror of the bin which depicts the quantity materials stored therein. It tells the history of the bin. If functions as materials movement record and as a replenishment index. It is a brief version of the stock ledger pertaining to an item and serves the purpose of a ready reckoned for the item binned therein. The bin card serves the following purpose:(i) It is a check on the stock ledger recording.(ii) It helps in verifying the stock.(iii) It is a…