Page 211 - Accounting Information Systems

182 PART II Transaction Cycles and Business Processes

FI G U R E
4-18 REAL-TIME SALES ORDER SYSTEM

Customer Sales Computer Operations Warehouse Shipping
Real-Time Process

Customer Customer Inventory Terminal/ Terminal/
Order Data Subsidiary Printer Printer

Packing Slip
Enter Sales Sales Order
Order System

Stock Reconcile Goods
Release with Packing Slip
Open Sales and Prepare Bill
Orders of Lading
Batch
Record
Process Closed Sales Shipment
Orders
(Journal)
GL Update and
Invoice
Billing System
Stock Release
GL Control
Management Accounts PS
Reports BOL
Bill of
Common
Carrier Lading
Management
File

customer. The sales clerk can determine the status of an order in response to customer inquiries by
viewing the records.
Warehouse Procedures
The warehouse clerk’s terminal immediately produces a hard-copy printout of the electronically transmit-
ted stock release document. The clerk then picks the goods and sends them, along with a copy of the
stock release document, to the shipping department.

Shipping Department
A shipping clerk reconciles the goods, the stock release document, and the hard-copy packing slip pro-
duced on the terminal. The clerk then selects a carrier and prepares the goods for shipment. From the ter-
minal, the clerk transmits a shipping notice containing shipping date and freight charges. The system
updates the open sales order record in real time and places a Y value in the CLOSED field, thus closing
the sales order.

GENERAL LEDGER UPDATE PROCEDURES
At the end of the day, the batch update program searches the open sales order file for records marked
closed and updates the following general ledger accounts: Inventory—Control, Sales, AR—Control, and
Cost of Goods Sold. The inventory subsidiary and AR subsidiary records were updated previously during
the real-time procedures. Recall from Chapter 2 that batch updating of general ledger records is done to
achieve operational efficiency in high-volume transaction processing systems. An alternative approach is