Documenting

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• Documenting
• Information
• Systems

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Learning Objectives

• To read and evaluate data flow diagrams
• To read and evaluate systems flowcharts.
• To prepare data flow diagrams from a narrative.
• To prepare systems flowcharts from a narrative.

Documenting Information Systems
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Documenting Processes on the AIS Wheel

• Process documentation is a important skill in
  accounting
• You will learn that data flow diagrams portray a
  business processes activities, stores of data,
  and flows of data among those elements.
• Systems flowcharts, on the other hand, present a
  comprehensive picture of the management,
  operations, information systems, and process
  controls embodied in business processes.

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Basic DFD Symbols
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CONTEXT DIAGRAM
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Physical DFD

• A physical data flow diagram is a graphical
  representation of a system showing the systems
  internal and external entities, and the flows of
  data into and out of these entities.
• A physical DFD specifies where, how, and by whom
  a systems processes are accomplished.
• A physical DFD does not tell us what is being
  accomplished.
• In the following slide, we see where the cash
  goes and how the cash receipts data are captured
  (that is, on the register tape), but we dont
  know exactly what was done by the sales clerk.

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Physical DFD
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Logical DFD

• A logical data flow diagram is a graphical
  representation of a system showing the systems
  processes (as bubbles), data stores, and the
  flows of data into and out of the processes and
  data stores.
• We use a logical DFD to document information
  systems because we can represent the logical
  nature of a systemwhat tasks the system is
  doing without having to specify how, where, or
  by whom the tasks are accomplished.
• The advantage of a logical DFD (versus a physical
  DFD) is that we can concentrate on the functions
  that a system performs.
• So, a logical DFD portrays a systems activities,
  whereas a physical DFD depicts a systems
  infrastructure.
• We need both pictures to understand a system
  completely.

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Logical DFD
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Balanced DFDs

• The next slide depicts balanced data flow
  diagrams.
• Balanced DFDs exist when the external data flows
  are equivalent.
• DFD (a) is a context diagram and (b) is an
  explosion of it into a level 0 logical DFD.
• DFD (c), (d) and (e) are explosions of the
  logical level 0 DFD, and so on.

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Balanced DFDs
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Standard Flowchart Symbols
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Common system flowcharting routines

• The following slides show several common ways of
  showing processing using system flowcharting.
• Pay particular attention to the way the columns
  are set up to communicate the flow of activities
  between processing entities.

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Enter document into computer via keyboard, edit
input, record input
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User queries the computer
Update sequentialdata store
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PREPARATION AND LATER MANUALRECONCILIATION OF
CONTROL TOTALS
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KEY AND KEY VERIFY INPUTS
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Enter document intocomputer using a scanner
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Enter document into computer using scanner
manual keying
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Documenting Enterprise Systems

• Moving from a file-based system to an enterprise
  database changes the system flowchart
• An enterprise database replaces transaction and
  master data
• Other flows may change depending on the system
  implementation

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