1. Summary of
the Problem
Nelson CPA & Associates (NCPAA)is a small local
business that just acquired a contract with Blingtown
Homeowners Association (BHA) who wants to hire
NCPAA for : billing, collection, payments , reporting,
taxes, and advisory services. These services are related to
homeowner dues, late fees, and collection of these
services in which BHA wants to automate.

2. We also faced the dilemma of
accommodating services for such a large
client- with a total of 650 homeowners . This
mean we had to make sure our staff could
handle this work load without compromising
company efficiency. We also had to figure
out to install QuickBooks or Peachtree
accounting systems or develop our own using
Microsoft.

3.  Billing
Automated billing has many advantages:
•Calculating payments and due dates
•Improved accuracy of client records
• Online payments
•Generation of reports
• Reminders of when invoices are due
• Clear and concise scheduling of tasks
Research has shown U.S. companies sending invoices
through e-billing save an average of 13.1 million per year
(Electronic Commerce News, 2002).

4. There are many tasks involved with the
billing process that we need to perform.
• Gathering homeowner data
• Entering data gathered in the system
• generating a bill with homeowner fees, late charges, and
account information
•Sending out homeowner invoices through mail, or automatic
emails for faster service
The billing process requires a segregation of duties
since the person who handles the records and billing should
not be responsible for the collection of payments (Turner &
Weickgenannt, 2012)

5. We need to make sure that collections are secure and
control requirements are in place to segregate duties
to designated employees. Setting up a lock box for us
to pick up the payments by an authorized employee
who does not handle the record process should be in
implemented. When invoices have been paid they
should be stamped ‘paid by check signer’ to avoid
duplicate payments. Automatic matching software
could be implemented to make the process of
imputing data after the collections of payment easier.
The consideration of electronic invoicing and
payment should be utilized in order to make the
collection and payment processes easier.

6. Input of data needed for check payments
Account information, banking information , and amount owed,
check amounts for homeowners dues
Output of data needed for check payments
Pre-numbered checks made out to vendors, Invoice showing
what is owed, the general ledger, customer and account
statements
Control requirements needed
Keeping pre-numbered checks locked up and secured
Segregation of duties from the check writer and record keeper
Cancellation of invoices

7. Reports we need to generate
Quarterly statements
Company bank statements
 Reconciliation statements
Reports generated for homeowners
balance sheets
 income statements
statement of retained earnings

8. Inputs requirements are: recording the payments
in the general ledger, preparation of customer
account statements, copy of cancelled checks and
remittance slips scanned into system,
Control requirements for financial reports
Only authorized personnel to review and approve
all statements

9. Turbo Tax is the tax program already implemented in our
system for our previous tax service clients . We have
decided to use this program for our new client Blingtown
Homeowners Association because of its
low cost
ease of online processing
 high speed processing through the IRS.
There is data that is required to input into the tax program
and it is sent electronically to the IRS for review. The data
that is required is very personal sensitive client data such
as : names, addresses, social security numbers, telephone
numbers, employment and W-2 information, and any
other relevant data required for tax processing.

10. Due to our required internet access for our tax service with
Turbo Tax in submitting homeowners/and clients information
certain control measures need to be in place to keep
confidential data safe from miscellaneous intent.
 Authorization of transactions
Authentication of users
Firewall protection program
 Encryption methods

11. Blingtown has also hired us on an as-needed-basis to
provide advisory services for :
Purchase of land or property, investing, and budgeting.
Reports needed for this information are:
Financial statements
Equity statements
Balance sheets
Other management reports needed to assess the company
standing for investment purposes would be:
capital budgets reports
Variance analysis reports
And any other related reports to assess the company

12. Accounting functions that we decided not to
automate:
Financial reports
Advisory services
Implementing these services may take longer
than expected to integrate with our systems and
real time data is essential for decision making.

13. We have decided to purchase the Quick Books software for our
accounting services for Blingtown because this service is more
efficient for our needs for optimal performance. There were
many criteria but the criteria we based our decision on were:
Popularity with most businesses
Accountant copy capabilities
More third party add ons
Mac and PC versions
These services offer better functionality than Peachtree for
current and future business needs.

14. There are several challenges to automation
services which are :
o Cost of purchasing , installing and upgrading programs
needed to automate/maintain services.
o Some employees may not grasp the technology
oMisfiled or misplaced computer documents
oSoftware attacks from remote work stations
oAccuracy of input of original data
oTraining employees on how to handle personal electronic data
oLoss of audit trail visibility
oLack of segregation of duties

15. For businesses and Consumers, E-billing Business Case is Getting
Clearer. (2002). Electronic Commerce News, 7 (13), 1-1. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docvi
ew/205445428
Turner, L., Weickgenannt, A. (2012). Accounting Information
Systems 1 Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ.