Deck 14: Technology Concepts

Question 1

Xero is an accounting software package that is popular with small businesses because it:

A) is simple and easy to use.
B) can be accessed anywhere, anytime on a variety of electronic devices.
C) allows business owners more time to improve and grow their business.
D) All of the above.

Answer 1

All of the above.

Question 2

Xero's dashboard includes several features that allow constant monitoring of specific areas of the business. The feature that provides an up-to-date view of the current balances and reconciliations of specific back accounts is the:

A) Accounts tab.
B) Account watch list.
C) Business bank account.
D) Total cash in and out.

Answer 2

Business bank account.

Question 3

When purchasing a cloud-based accounting package such as Xero, consideration should be given to:

A) risk.
B) adaptability.
C) accessibility.
D) Both a) and c).

Answer 3

Both a) and c).

Question 4

Which of the following statements relating to ERP systems is incorrect?

A) ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning
B) ERP systems collect, process and store data in a centralised database.
C) ERP systems integrate some aspects of a company's operations with the accounting information system.
D) ERP systems share up-to-date information across business processes so that business activities can be coordinated.

Question 5

The four major areas of an organisation that ERP systems are designed to capture data for are:

A) inventory, finance, manufacturing and human resources.
B) marketing, finance, inventory and human resources.
C) sales and marketing, finance, manufacturing and human resources.
D) sales and marketing, financial reporting, manufacturing and human resources.

Question 6

ERP systems link the major functions of an organisation and:

A) the suppliers in the value chain.
B) human resources in the value chain.
C) the suppliers and customers in the value chain.
D) the customer relationship management in the value chain.

Question 7

Why are ERP systems attractive to businesses?

A) These systems link the typical major functions of an organisation and the organisation's suppliers and customers in the value chain.
B) It is an integrated system that operates in real time without relying on periodic updates.
C) An ERP system can support all applications of an organisation.
D) None of the above.

Question 8

What is the main reason for the design of ERP systems?

A) ERP systems are designed to capture a wide range of information about all business transactions and processes related to the typical four major areas of an organisation.
B) ERP systems are designed to advance various functions of the business.
C) ERP systems are designed to have multi-facilities e.g. work in multi-currencies and multi-platforms.
D) None of the above.

Question 9

Key business processes supported by ERP systems include:

A) Revenue, sales or order to cash.
B) Payments, purchases or purchase to pay.
C) Production, manufacturing or conversion.
D) All of the above.

Question 10

The key business processes bring together different functions or divisions in an organisation. The revenue process brings together:

A) human resources
B) sales and marketing
C) accounts receivable
D) both b) and c)

Question 11

Which one of the following ERP systems is the dominant player in the ERP market?

A) MYOB.
B) Epicor.
C) Infor.
D) SAP.

Question 12

What are the core modules of the SAP Business Suite?

A) Financial accounting.
B) Controlling and profitability analysis.
C) Human resources, sales and distribution.
D) All of the above.

Question 13

What type of functions are included in the materials management module of the SAP Business Suite?

A) Functions related to payment or purchase to pay processes, including the management of products while they are in stock.
B) Functions related to the revenue or sales order to cash process.
C) Functions related to recruitment, management and administration of personnel.
D) None of the above.

Question 14

The major benefit of XBRL is:

A) it is freely licensed and available to the public.
B) it is widely available in software applications.
C) it provides a computer-readable tag for each item of data.
D) a result of introducing a set of industry-accepted standards that provide consistency and comparability of financial information.

Question 15

For internal users of business information, one of the prime motivations behind the development of XBRL was:

A) the need to manipulate financial information into different formats for management.
B) the need to present financial information in the same format for the different users of that information.
C) the need to present different financial information in the same format to various regulators and government agencies.
D) the number of times in traditional financial reporting circles that different information needed to be supplied in different formats when commuting financial results to investors, regulators, government agencies and other stakeholders.

Question 16

When tags are applied to the data after the reports have been created:

A) they do not need to be verified.
B) very little work is required for the presentation of the financial information.
C) internal control procedures are required to check the data before it is used or filed with regulatory agencies.
D) None of the above.

Question 17

Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A) There are two main ways to code the financial accounts using XBRL.
B) There is debate in the accounting information systems community as to where to tag data.
C) Attaching XBRL to the accounting system is currently the most common method used.
D) Coding accounts once they have been produced impacts on core processes and the data quality that will result.

Question 18

The XBRL tags in an accounting package are attached to the:

A) chart of account codes.
B) general ledger codes.
C) financial account codes.
D) financial report codes.

Question 19

XBRL is a significant step forward for business reporting because:

A) it represents the collaboration of some of the leading industrialised nations and some of the largest commercial firms.
B) of the impact that it will have on users of financial information.
C) it enhances the ability to search for particular items of information.
D) All of the above.

Question 20

XBRL is an external standard that supports financial reporting based on US GAAP and:

A) Australian Accounting Standards.
B) International Accounting Standards.
C) International Financial Reporting System.
D) International Financial Reporting Standards.

Question 21

How does XBRL contribute towards reduced data manipulation?

A) XBRL takes every item that appears in a set of financial statements, including the discussion and analysis, and applies a tag to it.
B) XBRL eliminates the need to manipulate the data into different formats to suit different users' requirements.
C) XBRL eliminates the need for companies to maintain separate documents for each reporting requirement they are faced with.
D) All of the above.

Question 22

Which of the following statements relating to XBRL and industry-accepted standards is incorrect?

A) There is only one version of XBRL.
B) There is much competition between XBRL standards.
C) XBRL standards have the support of the international and national accounting bodies.
D) Once XBRL standards are defined, they can be applied to different industries through the creation of different taxonomies.

Question 23

Which of the following is not an advantage of XBRL?

A) Improved audit quality can occur as long as the taxonomy has correctly classified items of data at its source.
B) Through the application of different taxonomies and standards, the time required to prepare accounting reports is significantly increased.
C) Once XBRL standards are defined, they can be taken and applied to different industries and environments through the creation of different taxonomies.
D) The interchangeability of XBRL data between the major accounting software means that once the data is tagged it can be reused in many ways to meet differing financial reporting requirements.

Question 24

The interchangeability of XBRL data between the major accounting software means that once the data is tagged:

A) it cannot be reused.
B) it can be manipulated for analysis purposes.
C) it must be re-entered when a new reporting requirement arises.
D) it can be reused in many ways to meet differing financial reporting requirements.

Question 25

To improve audit quality in terms of XBRL, one can:

A) A and B only
B) A and C only
C) B and C only
D) A, B and C

Question 26

The initiative in Australia uses its own taxonomy for the reporting requirements of government agencies in Australia.

A) Systems Based Reporting
B) Systems Basic Reporting
C) Standards Based Reporting
Standard Business Reporting

Question 27

Taxonomies are the:

A) set of tags developed under XBRL.
B) dictionaries that define each accounting item that can be tagged in XBRL for external financial reporting purposes only.
C) dictionaries that define each accounting item that can be tagged in XBRL for both internal and external financial reporting purposes.
D) None of the options are correct.

Question 28

An instance document:

A) contains information about the organisation's financial statements at one instant in time.
B) contains contextual information such as monetary items, debit or credit, and balance sheet or income statement items.
C) can be used to store and transmit data between computers for various analyses, both internally and externally.
D) All of the above options are correct.

Question 29

What is cloud computing?

A) Cloud computing is the same as next-generation server virtualisation.
B) A model of computing that provides computer services through the internet to a pooled set of resources that provide these services.
C) A computer science technique in which a machine performs its function by outsourcing certain steps to humans, usually as microwork.
D) An emulation of a particular computer system which operates based on the computer architecture and functions of a real or hypothetical computer.

Question 30

Which of the following is not a type of cloud computing?

A) Hardware as a Service
B) Information as a Service
C) Platform as a Service
D) Software as a Service

Question 31

What is the main advantage of the cloud computing model?

A) Cloud providers could claim immunity to service outages and internet slowdowns.
B) Cloud computing is perfectly secure, and the privacy of the cloud-based data is totally guaranteed.
C) In other words, as your business grows you can use more services as you need them.
D) None of the above.

Question 32

Which of the following statements about Software as a Service (SaaS) is correct?

A) Only large organisations are able to access SaaS.
B) Users of SaaS can design their own applications and pay for them on a usage basis.
C) SaaS providers are organisations that offer software applications through the use of internet or portal technology.
D) SaaS customers obtain the use of processing, storage, networking and other infrastructure resources from cloud service providers to run their information systems.

Question 33

Which of the following are associated with the cost savings provided by Software as a Service (SaaS)?

A) SaaS users can benefit from a lower total cost of ownership.
B) SaaS users can benefit from the use of applications without needed to make a large initial investment.
C) SaaS providers can serve many users, enabling them to develop and maintain the software at a cheaper cost per user than if firms were to develop the software themselves.
D) All of the above options are associated with cost savings provided by SaaS.

Question 34

A document that specifies the responsibilities of the SaaS provider during normal operations, maintenance, service and disaster is called a:

A) disaster recovery agreement.
B) maintenance agreement.
C) operations agreement.
D) service level agreement.

Question 35

What type of data is contained in the 'noSQL databases'?

A) Big data
B) Dense data
C) MOLAP data
D) Sparse data

Question 36

What is the main feature of 'sparse data'?

A) The end report shows all possible data values within a grouping, irrespective of whether they exist.
B) This is data generated from web services and sensor or environmental systems, but not every option on a page is accessed and only data that is accessed is recorded.
C) An empty value is used where no data exist. The cube stores the real data values and the empty values are easily addressable and query-able.
D) None of the above.

Question 37

What is a phablet?

A) A phone/tablet device that is bigger than a phone and smaller than a tablet and have increased functionality.
B) A very thin, portable computer, usually battery-powered, having a touchscreen as the primary interface and input device and lacking a physical keyboard.
C) A portable computer, usually battery-powered, small enough to rest on the user's lap and having a screen that closes over the keyboard like a lid.
D) None of the above.

Question 38

In what way can Artificial Intelligence (AI) have an effect on the accounting of the future?

A) Improve efficiency by allowing processing of large amounts of data.
B) Provide more consistency in decision making by eliminating human biases.
C) Improve fraud detection through training the computer on 'normal' activities and allowing for the prediction of fraudulent activities.
D) All of the above options are correct.

Question 39

Which of the following statements relating to 'bitcoin' is incorrect?

A) Bitcoins are controlled by one central authority.
B) Bitcoin is a digital currency that is created and held electronically and stored in a digital wallet which exists on a user's computer or in the cloud.
C) People who own bitcoins can send them to each other using their computers or mobile applications without the use of a bank to facilitate the transaction.
D) Bitcoins are still in their infancy and therefore have a lot of volatility with frequent price changes.

Question 40

A distributed decentralised ledger which records digital currency transactions is called a:

A) bitcoin.
B) blockchain.
C) digital wallet.
D) distributed database.

Question 41

How may 'blockchain' impact on accounting as we currently know it?

A) As transactions in the blockchain are verified, it eliminates the need for both parties to enter the transactions in their own ledger.
B) It may allow for transactions to be entered into the blockchain and both parties' ledgers.
C) Corrections to the transactions can be made and seen by all parties, but the transactions cannot be altered (falsified or manipulated).
D) All of the above options are correct.

Question 42

Describe the five core modules of the SAP Business Suite ERP system.

Question 43

Discuss the meanings of 'big data' and 'sparse data'.