University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1984 General ledger system Chung-Chieh Wu The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Wu, Chung-Chieh, "General ledger system" (1984). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2432. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2432 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 THIS IS AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT IN WHICH COPYRIGHT SUB­ SISTS. ANY FURTHER REPRINTING OF ITS CONTENTS MUST BE APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR. MANSFIELD LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA DATE : 1 98 .4 The general ledger system by Chung-Chieh Wu Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science University of Montana 1984 Approved by hairman Dean, Graduate School UMI Number: EP34359 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT tMMsmtfon RriMing UMI EP34359 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Wu, Chung-Chieh, M.S., June 1984 Computer Science The General Ledger System (333 pp.) Director; Dr. John Barr The general ledger system is the heart of an accounting system. It is a record of the balance of each of the accounts of a business. At the end of an accounting period, the system is used to produce financial statements to show the results of the business activities of that period. This general ledger system was developed by following all of the phases of development for a large software system. The system design was developed after the requirement and the analysis specification was approved by the thesis committee. The Problem Specification Language / Problem Statement Analysis (PSL/PSA) was used in the analysis phase to produce the specification. This particular system is designed by structural design methodology. The design documentation was produced through the use of Program Design Specification Language (PDSL). The programs were written by following the design specification. It was decided to use COBOL to implement this project. The programs were tested during the implementation phase. During the progress of this long and tedious process, many people have contributed toward my thesis. First of all, my thesis committee: Dr. John Barr for helping me utilize the techniques and tools in software development; Professor Gene Schiedermayer for helping me to know more about the general ledger system; Dr. George McRae for his comments on my thesis. Secondly, the following friends encouraged and helped me enormously; Raj, Rama, Philip, Scott, Trish. Finally, Olive, my wife's superior support is unforgettable and appreciated. Table of Contents Abstract 11 List of Figures iv Chapter I Introduction 1 Chapter II General Ledger System 5 Chapter III Analysis 11 Chapter IV Design 18 Chapter V Implement 25 Chapter VI Conclusion 30 Bibliography 33 Appendix-A Specification A-1 Appendix-B Design Documentation B-1 Appendix-C Programs C-1 Appendix-D User's Manual D-1 List of Figures Figure 4-1 21 Figure 4-2 21 Data Flow Diagram Level-Contex A-1 Data Flow Diagram Level-0 A-7 Data Flow Diagram Level-1 A-20 Data Flow Diagram Level-2 A-36 Data Flow Diagram Level-3 A-52 Data Flow Diagram Level-3.2 A-75 Design Structure Chart 1 B-15 Design Structure Chart 2 B-20 Design Structure Chart 3 B-28 Design Structure Chart 4 B-35 Design Structure Chart 5 B-41 Design Structure Chart 6 B-50 iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION According to Software Engineering Economics by Barry W. Boehm, in the past thirty years the cost of hardware has decreased and the cost of software has increased. The increased requirement for efficient and complex software over the last three decades is mainly responsible for this situation. The progress in the advancement of software technology compared to requirements is very slow, the need for more efficient tools and methods of software technology is difficult to meet. The development and use of new software engineering tools and methods is a logical way of resolving this problem. Experience indicates that efficient software products can be developed by using these methods and tools. This project is an exercise in software engineering covering the specification, design, and implementation of a model general ledger system. The software technology tools: Problem Specification Language / Problem Statement Analysis (PSL/PSA) and Problem Design Specification Language (PDSL) ; and methods : structured analysis and structured design ; were utilized in this project. INTRODUCTION Page 2 Normally, the products of a software development process include specification, design and implementation. The specification is the product of problem formulation and problem analysis phases. The problem formulation phase describes the problem of the system without detail. Then, the problem definition is refined to supply essential detailed specifications during the problem analysis phase. A set of potential solutions to the problems can be identified through the study of the specifications. The potential solutions are evaluated and compared to the alternatives until the best solution is obtained. The design documentation describes the chosen solution in detail. Referencing the design documentation, the final product is constructed in the implementation phase. This project will be approached by following the software engineering steps. Acquiring knowledge about accounting system to identify and define the problems in it is the first step. The accounting cycle and functions of general ledger system are known from this step. Interviews with the user help in defining the general ledger system and ensuring that his requirements are incorporated. This newly defined general ledger system will be represented in the data flow diagram. The specification of a model general ledger system will be produced after interviews with user. It is described by using Problem Specification Language / Problem Statement Analysis (PSL/PSA). INTRODUCTION Page 3 Referencing the data flow diagram and specification, the specified system is designed in a structured manner. Structured design is a method to obtain maintainable, modifiable, and implementable system designs. The Program Design Specification Language (PDSL) will be used to describe the design. The design documentation is used in the implementation phase. The user manual will be written simultaneously when the system is implemented in COBOL. The testing will be done from the beginning of coding until the final integration of whole system. The following chapter describes what a general ledger system is and what it should do according to user requirements. The analysis, design, and implementation phases will be discussed in succeeding chapters. The problems will be discussed in the last chapter. It also will describe solutions to those problems. The specifications which are laid out in the Data Flow Diagram and formatted problem statement of the Problem Specification Language / Problem Statement Analysis (PSL/PSA) are in appendix A. The design documentation which contains the structured design chart and the formatted statement of Program Design Specification (PDSL) are in appendix B. Appendix C is the system implementation in COBOL code. The user manual is in appendix D. CHAPTER 2 General Ledger System (G-L-S) The task of accounting is to track the financial events in the life of any entity (individual or organization) in a manner that makes it possible for that individual or organization to report on its financial position and activities to anyone who may be interested. Therefore, accounting deals with financial events which are very important information for an entity. Anytime during the life of a business, an accounting system must be prepared to provide many different types of information about the activities of that business. The transactions of daily business events are entered in an accounting record or journal to provide up-to-date financial information about a business. Because all transactions are written in the journal, it can be treated as a book of original entries. There are several types of journals to accomplish the recording function of accounting process. Ideally, we want a "daily" that gives the chronological history of that business by recording the important accounting events. It also is required to record these transactions in a way that makes it easy to recognize the effect of events on assets, liabilities, owner's equity, revenue, and expenses of the business. G-L-S Page 5 The journal records raw data for the system. It is only the beginning of the accounting cycle. In order to produce useful reports about the business at the end of any accounting period, an accounting system must be able to determine the total effect of all transactions in a period on the accounts of the business. During the second step in the accounting cycle the transactions are posted to a ledger. The classification function is accomplished by the ledger. The ledger is used to separate components of each transaction and group those components that affect each individual asset, liability, owner's equity, revenue, or expense account. So, the ledger can show the cumulative effect of all transactions that affected a particular account.