Moving to the Cloud–Strategies of Bringing a Real-Life Case to Quickbooks Online

• In Event: Reception with ELS posters
  In Poster Session: Poster 2

Abstract

This poster describes challenges and strategies to combine the best of the two worlds: a real-life accounting cycle activities using System Understanding Aid (SUA) and an entry-level cloud-based accounting system: Quickbooks Online (QBO). In an AIS course, SUA is widely used as a manual exercise on accounting operations for a wholesaler. On the other hand, software like QBO is an easy-to-use platform, but it needs a real-life setting to help students understand how accounting transactions are mapped to the accounting cycle. Challenges of combing these approaches include: (1) how does an instructor monitor students’ QBO process through a remote accountant account, (2) to set up a customized chart of accounts, (3) to start a company with balance forward data, (4) to record transactions in purchase/cash disbursement/sales/cash receipts/payroll cycles, (5) to use “audit trails” function to screen the potential errors in QBO, and (6) to efficiently analyze performance by QBO generating data. Examples and solutions to each challenge will be demonstrated.

Authors

• Yao Zhang, Robert Morris University

• Jacob C Peng, Robert Morris University-Pittsburgh

• Chenchen Huang, SUNY Buffalo State