Final Paper
Matthew Duncan
ACC205: Principles of Accounting 1
LaKeitha Givens
June 13, 2011
Final Paper
What makes a large organization like Wal-Mart financially successful? One could say it is the result of outstanding personnel or perhaps a strong determination to succeed. These factors certainly contribute. However the key to financial success in organizations lies in good accounting. Since early civilization began, accounting has been an important part of our financial transactions. In today’s world our use of modern accounting systems and accurate financial statements are critical components that make modern organizations successful. To facilitate understanding of this point one must understand how
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As organizations utilize software and the internet together to make transactions and complete accounting functions, the threat of cybercrime comes into play. “Cyber crime against private business is growing, and consuming a larger share of Federal Bureau of Investigation resources than ever before…” (Kelly, M., & 42 staff, 2011) Modern organizations that utilize technology must now use their resources to protect themselves from malicious cybercrime activities. A “hacker” could illegally intrude into an organizations information network and use accounting software to mine information and steal assets at a relatively low risk of being caught. With new threats introduced in the accounting environment, modern organizations now must work hard to safeguard information that was not at such a risk prior to new technology. Outside threats are a real danger to accounting functions in modern organizations, but other dangers to success lie from within.
“Accounting is the information system that measures business activity, processes the data into reports, and communicates the results to decision makers.” (Horngren & Harrison, 2007, p. 4) Decision makers within an organization need accurate accounting information to manage organizational activities and turn these efforts into success. Internal accounting accuracy plays just as important of a role outside of internal
Andrews Corporation’s production department coordinates and facilitates the assembly lines for the products. There are two crucial factors that the production department focuses on: automation and production capacity.
There are large and small businesses all across the country, with many different public and private accounting firms that handle their accounts. Many of these businesses are raking in millions and millions of dollars a year. Wal-Mart is one of them. We will be exploring Wal-Mart and how it came about as a business, along with examining their balance sheets, income statement, and the cash flow statement. We will also be taking a look at what Wal-Mart’s current revenues are over the annual reporting periods, and who handles their accounting process.
Current liabilities are defined as: “Debts due to be paid with cash or with goods and services within one year, or within the entity’s operating cycle if the cycle is longer than a year.” (Hongren, Harrison & Oliver, 2012) These liabilities fit into three categories: Current liabilities of known amount; current liabilities that must be estimated; and contingent liabilities. According to the matching principle of accounting, expenses and revenues need to be reported during the same period that they are earned. This can be difficult if the exact amounts are not known. This is the purpose behind estimated and contingent liabilities. In order to provide accurate financial reports companies must record revenues and
1) Complete summary of the case study that identifies the key problems and issues, provides background information, relevant facts, the solution employed, and the results achieved.
S., & Hassan, M. K. (2012). The domination of financial accounting on managerial Commerce & Management, 22(4), 306-327. doi:10.1108/10569211211284502
The purpose of this paper is to define accounting, and identify the four basic financial statements. The paper also explains how the different financial statements are interrelated to each other and why they are useful to managers, investors, creditors, and employees.
As it was pointed out in a global security survey organizations are “haunted” by threats and that raises the concerns and demonstrates how vulnerable they are to attacks. The 48 per cent it thinks it is exposed to loss of data (information leakage) in another case 46 per cent in phishing and pharming and that pairs with the fact that the weakest link in the security system of an organization that causes failure is humans(such as employees, customers) with 86 per cent (Deloitte, 2009: 29-30). Therefore based on the information provided by these surveys, corporate intranets are the main target of internet attacks
For as long as businesses have existed, so has accounting. With time, it has become more complicated and detailed, but it is still a process of keeping financial accounts in order. Through accounting, or financial reporting, a system is set up to keep track of, maintain and audit the financial proceedings. Because accounting and financial reporting of a business is so important for its accuracy and in general, a lot of ethical, technological and legal concerns are involved. In this paper, we will look identify and explore the concerns of each of these.
Accurate accounting and the understanding can make or break your company or organization; not to mention possible jail time in the worse cases. The first way of ensuring accurate accounting is understanding the objectives. The second way is to understand the terminology of the accounting process and in the financial reporting aspects. The third way is to understand the ethics behind the accounting and reporting process. The forth way is to impement your role in the accounting process.
Research Objective: The main theme of this research paper is to protect sensitive information that any organization or business possess. With community’s increasing reliance on information systems and technology there is scope for security breaches, more likely to happen. Not only monetary loss it can create damage to information assets that has sensitive data. To secure these assets from any internal or external damage organizations has to follow proposed rules and guidelines. Also security responsibilities
While all of these technologies have enabled exciting changes and opportunities for businesses, they have also created a unique set of challenges for business managers. Chief among all concerns about technology is the issue of information security. It seems to be almost a weekly occurrence to see a news article about yet another breach of security and loss of sensitive data. Many people will remember high profile data breaches from companies such as T.J Maxx, Boston Market, Sports Authority, and OfficeMax. In the case of T.J. Maxx, a data breach resulted in the loss of more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers. In many of these incidents, the root cause is a lack of adequate security practices within the company. The same technologies that enable managers can also be used against them. Because of this, businesses must take appropriate steps to ensure their data remains secure and their communications remain
The use of information technology in business presents major security challenges, poses serious ethical question, and affects society in significant ways. Especially, the computer crime is a growing threat to society and is caused by the criminal or irresponsible actions of individuals who are taking advantage of the widespread use and vulnerability of computers and the Internet and other networks. It presents a major challenge to the integrity, safety, and survival of most business systems.
“The cyber security landscape has changed in the past couple of years – and not for the better” (Steen, 2013). Banks are faced with attacks to retrieve customer account information, the military battles with attempts to obtain secrets. These attacks are not just committed by induvial hackers but entire countries. Data privacy rules differ from country to country. For example, Fisher, 2014 states individual search engine access is restricted in different ways depending on the country. China along with other countries restrict access to politically sensitive information, while the United States protects the free flow of information (Gonzalez-Padron, 2014). With companies relying more on technology such as cloud computing and virtual storage their level of vulnerability rises. IT personnel have the difficult task of protecting company data, this is why it is vital to have an ethical compliance program in place protect the organization from internal and external threats.
The potential of violations can come from numerous sources (Lawrence & Weber, 2011) (Consumer Information). Recently Equifax had a data breach of their customer’s personal information. The hackers accessed the names, social security numbers, birthdates, and addresses of 142 million American consumers (Consumer Information). This is frightening and happens more often that we think. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers executive, ”Cybercrime has emerged as a formidable threat. Over the years millions have fallen victim to theses attacks. In a survey of 583 U.S. companies, 90 percent said that hackers breached their company’s computers over the last twelve months (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). Cyber crimes occur when hackers attempt to damage or destroy a computer network or system of company’s data. Criminals will use one of the most harmful systems around. This system is called a zombie. A zombie is
Almost all kind of large and small organizations might face increasing number of attacks into their network or intellectual property. This may lead to data disclosure, data destruction, and damage of organization’s reputation. There are numerous threats in the cyber space which might be capable of stealing, destroying or making use of out sensitive data for financial and non-financial gains. As the amount of computer, mobile and internet users increases, so does the number of exploiters.