Reflection - Elizabeth

Frankly speaking, I don’t really know how to do reflection. I am a girl with few words and I think that this project have helped me in big and small ways. Apart from acquiring new skills both software-wise and also interpersonal wise, my knowledge in accounting took a greater leap. Choosing accounting as a major was not by choice but by circumstances, but this project has shown me a different outlook of the subject and took me to a different level of understanding for accounting. For this project, we were all there working together hand in hand and this made us realized how important team work is. One man’s strength is like a chopstick - easy to break, but a bundle of chopsticks is much harder to split. One must learn to compromise and resolve conflict when working in a group. I personally think that the team leader is the spirit of the team and a good leader delegates the tasks effectively and efficiently so that each and every one’s specialty and forte can be tapped on. Together we work towards a common goal. To complete the given the best way we know how and to absorb the skill and knowledge that meant to be learnt. I would like to compliment the team leader for doing such a good job. He also did a very detail reflection that entails everything I wanted to say.

Our ACCPAC Journey

Our "June Holiday Campsite"!

Calculating depreciation...

What should this entry be?

Errors!!!

Printing in process>>>

Yeah! Finally Completed!

Reflections - Liqian

I feel that the greatest takeaway from this learning of Accpac is to appreciate the benefits of a computerised accounting system. The reports automatically generated shows the substantial amount of time that can be saved from preparing them. Recurring charge is another feature that proves the system's capability to reduce the effort of an accountant in entering similar transactions over regular periods.

However, it took us great effort in understanding and utilising its capabilities. The first setback was encountered when keying in the chart of accounts. After keying in a considerable number of accounts, I realized that these accounts were not captured into the system. With no solution to recover the keyed in data, we restarted the project. A few sessions later that there was actually no mistake in our first attempt in keying in the accounts, just that we were unfamiliar with the workings of the program that we were unable to retrieve it.

Like learning other computer programs, I had a hard time understanding the steps and procedures in processing the data. For example, in the AP, AR modules, some boxes have to be checked in order to export the report for printing and we were panicking when we have problem exporting, unaware that it was due to this reason.

As we grasp the basics of the system, the pace of progress speeds up a little, but there was still some effort in understanding the rationale in some of the steps and procedures.

I believe it might be interesting to be aware of what are the other accounting softwares available and the distinct features between each of them and what differentiates Accpac from the rest.

The project was challenging for a beginner in accounting software but the noteworthy part is that all the problems were overcome by my group of responsible and initiative groupmates.

Continue... (Deborah)

Continue from what i post earlier. This project also helped me learned some soft skills and how to use ACCPAC to do accounts which is very different from year 1. We did accounts all manualy in Year 1. Now i know how to use ACCPAC to do AP,AR,GL,recurring entries and balance day adjustment. ACCPAC has many other interesting thing and make work easier like i can set credit limit for each customer and through this I will know whether the particular customer exceeds the credit limit automatically. I also can apply what I learned in the ACCPAC tutorials in this project.

Deborah

Reflection- Keat Hui

I think that this project let me know more about the accounting software which I never encountered. This let me know the difference between computerise accounting and manual accounting. computerise accounting is much more convenient and it saves time compare to manual accounting. The thing that i am glad is that when we cause an error in the computerise accounting, the system will prompt us and prevent us from going towards the wrong path. In this project, i contributed in some data entry and some calculations for the balances. Overall, I think that this project is very meaningful but it takes up alot of our time. thanks

Keat Hui

Reflection-CHELSIA

What is my individual contribution to the group project? & What soft skills have I learned?

Finally, we are done with CAS project!! The sense of satisfaction is really good. I am so glad that my group mates and I were able to finish everything on time. No more insomnia for CAS! No more going lab 8 and 9 after school!! HAHA!!

I must really admit that this project is tedious and brain wrecking. I believe many of my brain cells had died for CAS. HAHA!! I am not expecting much for this project. Whatever the grade is, we knew we done our best :D However, I am really glad that I had been give this opportunity to learn how to operate ACCPAC accounting software. I believe it will be benefial for me in the long run.

In this project, I contribute by sorting out the transactions and determine what to debit and credit. I also help in categorizing the transactions into 3 different modules, namely GL, AR and AP. Besides, i also helped in typing in the transactions into the system. I also gave the idea for the unique transaction (Shares 1-to-2 bonus share). In addtion, i also helped to double check every transactions before posting. Last but not least, I helped out in the GL data entry form too.

Through this project, i learnt a lot of important values.

Firstly, it is perservance. As there is many ups and downs, we definitely need a lot of perservance. We faced a lot of problems such as recurring entries, balance day adjustment, void cheque and etc. Without perservance, i doubt we will be able to finish the project on time.

Besides, i also realised the importance of communication. I must admit that there were some agruments during project sessions. For example, when we are deciding on how the entries should be entered into the system. Thus, i think that good communication skills is important if you are working in a group.

This project definitely allows me to understand ACCPAC better. I got a more insight view on how ACCPAC operates. Besides, I also understand the theory in the textbook better. For example, the different internal control. I can operate ACCPAC better now as compared to the times before project.

Lastly, I would like to thanks Miss June Yeo and Me Koh for their help. I would like to thanks my lovely group members too!! :D:D:D

A preview of the different project session with my group mates :)

First project session (15th June 2009)
Today marks the first CAS project session. Honestly, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Many seniors told me that this project is going to be tough and tedious.

We reached school at about 12pm and the labs were almost full. We managed to find one computer in lab 8. Initially, we had totally no idea on how to start the project. Thus, we seeked help from our friends. So our very first step is to open the chart of accounts. It was tedious as we have to enter all the required accounts into the system. We backed up a file after that.

Next, we moved on to entering the opening balances. We created a batch in the GL batch list, namely opening balances as at 1June 2004. We entered all the opening balances into one entry.

After typing in everything, we realized we need to classify the sales account into 3 different categories, namely electrical, mechanical and equipment. Thus, we deleted the sales account in the opening balance and chart of account. We moved on to create the segment code before typing into the chart of account and opening balances again.

We took about 4 hours to complete both chart of account and opening balances.

Second project session (16th June 2009)
We had our second project session in school today. My group mates and I reached school at about 12pm. As usual, both labs were packed. We managed to find ourselves a computer and settled down.

Today, we carried on to do our GL transactions. Before doing the GL transactions, we confirmed all our transaction first. We created a new batch in the GL batch list, namely transaction for the month June 2009. Everything went on pretty smooth. There were a total of 35 transactions in the GL entry.

We took about 4.5 hours to complete entering all the transaction for GL modules.

Third project session (17th June 2009)
We had our third project session in school today. Frankly, I am sick and tired of lab 8 and 9 already. However, I felt that it is quite heartwarming to see all course mates helping each other in the lab.

Our aim today was to finish up AR and AP modules, both opening balances and transactions. We started with AR module first. Our first step was to set up the bank and tax rates. It was pretty easy as we followed the book. After that, we set up the customer database by typing all the customer profile in it.

After that, we continued by typing in the opening balance and transactions (Invoice and credit note). Next, we moved on by recording the receipted received by AR. We found out that we need to post the opening balance before we can carry on with typing in the receipts.

After typing everything, I realized a mistake. We were required to set up opening balances for 3 modules first, before we can carry on the transaction. However, we did it module by module. For example, we entered GL opening balances and GL transactions before carrying on with AR. We were quite worried and we went to find Miss June Yeo. We were quite relived to hear that it doesn’t matter.

We took about 5 hours to complete the opening balances and transactions for AR modules.

Fourth project session (18th June 2009)
I was late for project session today. I was super guilty as all my project group mates reached. Thus, I asked them to carry on first. I rushed out of my house and cabbed to school. I reached school at about 1.30pm. Surprisingly, the lab was not really that packed that day.

When I reached the lab, they had already finish setting up the tax rates and etc. Thus, I took over and entered all the AP particulars. It was quite tedious.

After setting up all the AP particulars, we carry on in entering the opening balances and transactions (Invoice and debit notes). The steps is quite similar to AR.

We then moved on in entering the payment transaction. For AP modules, we took about 3 to 4 hours to finish.

Fifth project session (19th June 2009)
I am actually quite stressed up with CAS project. I became super paranoid over small things. The thought of redoing really makes me go crazy.

In fact, I had this terrible dream of ACCPAC. I was alone doing ACCPAC in lab 8 at night. I was all alone and nobody was beside me. I was happily posting everything up. However I realized I cannot balance my balance sheet. I was short of $10000 I guess. I was crying non-stop and no one came to help me. Suddenly, Miss Yeo came in and started scolding me. It was dramatic but scary :DDD

Today project session was rather a short one because I had TPSU Sub comm Camp at night. So basically, we checked all the transactions in the GL, AR and AP modules.

Sixth project session (26th June 2009)
It had most been a week since I last touched ACCPAC. As our lesson ended quite early today, we decided to do CAS project after lunch.

Today, we basically aim to finish up balance day adjustment and recurring entries. Before we get started, we sort out the entries first and determine what to debit and credit. Everything went on pretty smooth.

Today’s project session was a short one.

Seventh project session (8th July 2009)

As we had no APEL lesson that day, we met up early to finish up our CAS project. We doubled check everything before posting. I was super nervous to post up the batch as I scare we cannot balance. We back up a file before posting. In case, there is anything wrong, we still can edit from it.
In the end, we balanced!! I was super nervous because a few of my friends cannot balance. However, I derived a Net loss of $43000, which was quite different from the rest. We went home to figure out where went wrong.

Eighth project session (13th July 2009)
We realized that there is something wrong with my balance day adjustment and recurring entries. For example, we put depreciation in both recurring and balance day adjustment. Thus, it resulted in double counting, which leads to my loss to be so high. We redo the balance day adjustment and recurring entries and post them up again. Now, we derived a loss of $12k, which is closer to the rest.

We are done with ACCPAC!!

Nineth project session (15th July 2009)
It’s basically printing day! We met up and printed all our reports required. Besides, we also spilted work for the GL data entry form.

I realized that we forget to do the component on void cheque when redoing. However, we wrote the double entry in the GL data entry form.

CHELSIA :D:D:D

Reflection

overall i felt that using AccPac helped to minimise alot of tedious tasks such as recurring entries.
we met up during the 2nd week of holidays to start the project and we completed more than half of it by the end of the holidays. thereafter, we met up a few times to finish up the rest.
i helped out with the manual data entry, some calculations for balances, opening balances, etc.

Elizabeth