Question

Ravi is an experienced mechanic who has worked for many years at major automotive dealerships and garages servicing a wide range of vehicles and has been certified by multiple automotive brands in the servicing of their respective vehicle ranges. He has now saved enough money to start a business of his own, which has been his dream for several years.

Rather than start a business from the ground up, Ravi found a reputable garage that was put up for sale by the previous owner who ran the business by herself. The owner, Indira, has sold Ravi the garage and all its assets, which included the garage equipment and the office assets, including the computer hardware and accounting software that she uses, as well as the data on her current clients who will now become Ravi’s.

Indira is an expert with computers and previously ran a computer services business before she sold her share of that company and started a garage instead. She therefore serviced the computer equipment of the garage herself. With her database and software development skills she had created the small, custom accounting software program used by the business herself and continued to maintain it. She also maintained the electronic data managed through the software, including the client data that is stored electronically on the local computer drives.

Ravi also plans to run the business by himself and does not anticipate being able to profitably hire other staff, and strongly prefers to work alone anyway. He also plans to continue to offer a professional client experience, which includes the use of accounting software that will serve ACCT 3015 Assignment 3 – This is a group assignment Page 2 of 7 his needs, those of his clients, as well as his obligations regarding tax reporting and audits.

For the new software, Ravi believes that he needs the following functionality:

• Maintain client contact information, • Maintain information on client vehicles and vehicle service history,

• Record sales transactions, • Record purchase transactions (e.g. for parts),

• Record activities that were subcontracted – e.g. if a vehicle has to be towed to the garage by a third party, record how much had to be paid to the towing company by the garage and how much the garage will bill the customer for the service,

• Produce invoices for clients, including both direct and subcontracted services,

• Produce various reports including revenue and expenditure reports for business purposes and for tax purposes, customer listings, individual customer details, and vendor / supplier / subcontractor listings,

• Export data electronically for use by the business, accountants, and tax and other government entities.

Ravi is an average computer user, but he cannot service computer hardware or software. Indira has advised Ravi that it is time for him to change the accounting software at the garage because it will not meet the requirements that he has expressed. She also advised Ravi to migrate to an off-the-shelf vendor software. Furthermore, she advised that the computer hardware is old and due for a refresh, or otherwise it might soon crash permanently. Fortunately, Indira backs up the transaction data and the client data daily to minimize the risk of data loss.

Ravi ideally wants to minimize tasks such as software installation, hardware maintenance, and the maintenance of computer data disks with the transaction and client information. He also ideally wants to be able to use the new software on a tablet computer as he works in the garage. Indira has suggested that he should check out “cloud computing” options but Ravi only partially understands these capabilities.

Indira will not be able to help Ravi with his accounting information system needs going forward as she plans to truly retire. She is also unavailable to help him with his transition tasks at this crucial time because she is leaving for a cruise to celebrate her retirement. Ravi has therefore contracted your accounting information systems consulting group to advise and help him as he transitions into his new business.

Requirements:

• Recording financial transactions i.e. recording invoices, bills, credit memos, inventory management, payments to suppliers and from customers and payroll processing whilst maintaining accounts payable and accounts receivable balances.

• Assisting in budgeting such as entering recurring transactions and making projections on future sales.

• Provides banking support – MechBooks can be linked to your online banking account in order to expedite banking transactions and provide real time banking information

• Assists in financial reporting – the system generates an array of financial reports which can be used for decision making.

• Maintains customer and supplier information allowing it to be easy to update contact and other important information such as next scheduled maintenance, vehicle history and special notes for customers and specialized preferences such as favoured supplier for parts, cost comparisons and total cost calculators for vendors.

• Cloud based storage - further simplifying the back-up and export process

d. Other functions- Other functions of this software include:

• User-friendly – this program is specially designed for the user with average computer literacy. Instructions are clear and easy to follow.

• Support – The system provides 24 hour support trained to deal with both emergency and everyday situations.

• Maintenance of tax records – all tax records are maintained on the software which automatically computes all applicable taxes on each transaction once the rates are inputted. This assists in the reduction of human errors.

Suggested Software- MechBooks

Question 1- Using the listed requirements, create an evaluation matrix where weighting is applied to each requirement to evaluate the best option of a list of accounting software. Use it to evaluate and rank five (5) popular accounting software that are viable options for his business.

Answer 1

In this scenario, I recommend Ravi to implement his new company through Pilot methodology. Because, he is having lack of computer knowledge, so sudden changes to the new technology leads to failure in his business.

In Pilot methodology only a site is changed and the remaining works with old technology until the new technology is adapted. As he wants to use the new technology in his tablet, this Pilot methodology is appropriate. So, he can use the mobile/tablets, until he adapts with new technology. Later the changes can be made over the entire site. This methodology is better for the time interval, as he can implement the new accounting software with a professional client, based on his requirement and install it in his tablet as a pilot site.

As per the situation of Ravi the better option is to have a vendor solution as compare to custom software because of following reasons other than the above:

Extensively Used: As vendor solution is acceptable by different similar business needs which is tested and modifies already.

Fast Setup: It require less setup time and can be easily implemented.

Lesser Budget: Set up cost for vendor solution is lesser then the custom software. So, it can be installed at cheaper budget.

User communities: Vendor solution has large user communities so problem solutions can be found easily.

Lesser Technical Expertise: In vendor solution you do not require much technical expertise as it has established capabilities.

Support: Vendor solutions software come up with quality check and backup support team.