BUSACT702 · Accounting Information Systems
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · QuarterAccounting Information Systems
BUSACT 702 Accounting Information Systems is a postgraduate (Level 9, 15 points) course in the University of Auckland Business School, taken inside the Master of Professional Accounting. It runs over the ten teaching weeks of a single quarter (confirm the exact quarter and dates on Canvas), with a weekly rhythm of lectures, team-based learning and computer-lab tutorials. The course sits at the intersection of accounting and information systems: you learn to read how data flows through a business, document it with process maps, data-flow diagrams and systems flowcharts, evaluate the internal controls in each transaction cycle (revenue, expenditure, general ledger), model accounting data with entity-relationship diagrams, and use modern tools — Robotic Process Automation in Power Automate and analytics in Power BI. There is no traditional invigilated final examination. Instead the programme assesses by coursework plus a secure, on-campus, closed-book test held under University examination conditions; attendance on campus is required for the test. The examinable high-stakes event is a systems-flowcharting test — you read a business-process narrative and draw or critique a systems flowchart under timed conditions — and the marker ticks each correctly placed symbol and flow. Programme policy caps any single assessment at 50% of the course grade and requires at least 70% of the grade to be individual work; the exact weights are set in the course outline, so confirm them on Canvas rather than relying on any single figure.
What BUSACT 702 covers
The whole course → one map for the way it is actually assessed. BUSACT 702 has no traditional final exam: the University of Auckland Master of Professional Accounting programme grades this course through coursework plus a secure, on-campus, closed-book test held under examination conditions. The high-stakes event is a systems-flowcharting test — you read a business-process narrative and draw or critique a systems flowchart under time pressure — while a Robotic Process Automation (Power Automate) report and Power BI data-analytics work carry the coursework. Each chapter links to its free guide.
How BUSACT 702 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Secure Test (systems flowcharting) | Confirm on Canvas (a ~45% figure is unconfirmed) | On-campus, closed-book, under examination conditions; read a business-process narrative and draw/critique a systems flowchart |
| Robotic Process Automation Assignment | Part of the coursework (weight on Canvas) | Build a Power Automate flow (triggers, actions, conditions, connectors, error handling) — an individual business report of about 1,500-2,000 words designing an automation for one of the given scenarios |
| Coursework & Data Analytics | The remaining coursework (weights on Canvas) | Systems-documentation and internal-control analyses plus Power BI data-analytics work; at least 70% of the grade is individual |
Turning a sales narrative into a systems flowchart — how the secure test is ticked
- +1Set up the entity columns (swim-lanes) first: Customer · Sales department · Computer · Warehouse · Dispatch. One column per participant, and every symbol lives in the column of whoever performs it — a marker ticks a clean column layout before looking at any symbol.
- +1Show the incoming document where it ends up (rule 2): the emailed customer order enters Sales, is used for the credit check, then the hard copy is FILED in Sales by customer name — draw a data-store symbol labelled A (filed alphabetically). Filing needs no manual-process box (rule 5), so do not draw a process symbol for the act of filing.
- +1Distinguish manual from computer processing: 'check credit' and 'key the order' are manual input/process by the clerk and sit in the Sales column; 'record the sale in the sales journal' is an automatic COMPUTER process — draw it in the Computer column feeding the general-journal / general-ledger symbol. Mixing these up is the classic lost mark.
- +1Route the copies (rule 3 / data flows): the system sends the digital order to Warehouse and Dispatch — draw a data-flow (telecommunications) link from the Computer column to each; the printed picking copy is a document produced in the Warehouse column, not in Computer.
- +1Add the decision symbol: 'goods available?' — yes -> pick the goods; no -> the order awaits stock. Every process has an input and an output (rule 6), so the 'awaiting stock' branch must lead somewhere, not dead-end.
- +1Close every flow and annotate: the stock-release note and dispatch note are each shown flowing to where they are used (rule 2); no flow crosses several entities without passing through their columns (rule 1); add a short annotation (rule 8) wherever the narrative is ambiguous. Each correctly placed symbol and flow earns a tick.
Key terms
- Accounting Information System (AIS)
- The intersection of accounting and information systems: the people, processes, data, hardware and software that capture, store, process and report the accounting data of a business process. BUSACT 702 studies how to document, control and improve it.
- Systems flowchart
- The most detailed documentation tool taught in the course — a combination of the logical and physical views that shows inputs, processes, outputs, documents, data stores and who performs each step, laid out in columns (swim-lanes) by entity. Drawing one correctly from a narrative is the core secure-test skill.
- Data flow diagram (DFD)
- A logical picture of how data moves between external entities, processes and data stores. It decomposes from a single-bubble context diagram to a Level-0 and then Level-1 diagram; a logical DFD shows what activities and data, a physical DFD shows who and where.
- Activity -> risk -> control analysis
- The core control-evaluation technique: for each activity in a process, name the risk or weakness, then the internal control that corrects it. Delivered as a three-column table across a transaction cycle.
- Segregation of duties
- The control principle that no single person should both authorise, record and have custody over the same transaction — e.g. the person who raises a purchase requisition should not also select the supplier and approve the payment. Its absence is the weakness these cases are designed to expose.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Software that automates routine, rule-based accounting work. In this course you build an RPA solution in Microsoft Power Automate — a trigger starts the flow, then actions, conditions and connectors carry it out, with error handling for exceptions — which is the basis of the individual coursework report.
BUSACT 702 FAQ
Is BUSACT702 hard?
It is more about a new way of thinking than heavy calculation — there is no math-heavy content. The difficulty is precision and speed: the secure test asks you to turn a business-process narrative into a correct systems flowchart in a short, closed-book window, and it is marked element by element, so a mis-typed symbol or a flow that doesn't close loses a tick. Students who draw flowcharts by hand every week from the case narratives, and who can recite the symbol set and the drawing rules cold, generally find it very manageable. The coursework (the Power Automate report and Power BI work) rewards steady effort rather than exam nerve.
Can AI help me with BUSACT702?
Yes, as a study aid, not as a way to complete graded work. Sia is an AI tutor trained on how BUSACT 702 is actually taught and assessed at the University of Auckland: it can walk a narrative-to-flowchart conversion step by step, check which symbol belongs to a manual versus a computer process, drill the activity -> risk -> control technique on fresh scenarios, read cardinalities off an ER diagram with you, and quiz you before the secure test. It explains and checks your reasoning; it does not do your graded assessment for you, and University of Auckland academic-integrity rules apply — the AI-tool policy differs by assessment (the RPA report, for example, only permits generative AI if you reference it with an appendix of prompts), so confirm what is allowed for each task on Canvas.
How is BUSACT702 assessed?
By coursework plus a secure, on-campus, closed-book test held under University examination conditions — there is no traditional invigilated final exam and no past exam papers to grind. The high-stakes examinable event is a systems-flowcharting test (read a narrative, draw or critique a systems flowchart, timed), delivered via Inspera or on paper; alongside it sit an individual Robotic Process Automation (Power Automate) report and Power BI data-analytics coursework. Attendance on campus is required for the test. The exact weights are set in the course outline — confirm them on Canvas rather than relying on any single figure.
What are the assessment rules and is there a hurdle?
Two programme-wide rules are firm: no single assessment counts for more than 50% of the course grade, and at least 70% of the grade must be individual work (no more than 30% group). Late written work attracts a minimum penalty of 5% per day. A separate minimum secure-test hurdle is plausible for an accredited Master of Professional Accounting course but is not confirmed for BUSACT 702 specifically — check the course outline on Canvas. The exact per-assessment weights (including any figure quoted for the systems test) live behind the Canvas / course-outline login, so confirm them there and don't treat a rumoured number as fact.
Which textbook and tools does BUSACT702 use?
The prescribed text is an ANZ accounting-information-systems textbook (an e-copy is provided via Canvas — confirm the exact edition on the course outline); the systems-documentation material draws on its chapter on process maps, DFDs and flowcharts, and the auditing context references ISA (NZ) 315 for understanding an entity's processes, with Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 as comparative context. The two software tools you actually build in are Microsoft Power Automate (for the RPA report) and Microsoft Power BI (for the data-analytics work); a set of tool guides is provided on Canvas.
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat the weekly rhythm as the whole game: watch the lecture, then use the team-based-learning and computer-lab sessions to draw the case flowcharts by hand — Summise, XYZ Restaurant, Semantics, Metro — because the secure test rewards the drawing skill, not recognition. Build two memory sheets early and keep adding to them: (1) the systems-flowchart symbol set (document, multiple documents, manual input, manual vs computer process, data store filed N/A/C, connectors, decision, data and document flows) and the nine drawing rules; (2) the recurring internal controls (segregation of duties, sequential numbering, three-way match, blind purchase orders, independent authorisation, bank reconciliation, exception reporting) so you can run an activity -> risk -> control table on any narrative fast. For the secure test, rehearse the exact routine — set columns, place every document where it ends up, split manual from computer processing, add the decision, close every flow — under a timer, closed book. Start the Power Automate report early (it is worth a real slice of the coursework and rewards a working prototype and clear referencing) and do the Power BI work in the labs while support is on hand. Because this is a quarter course with a secure test rather than an exam, confirm the quarter, the test date and the assessment weights on Canvas / the course outline, and prepare as if the test is strictly closed book — because it is.
Your AI Accounting tutor for BUSACT 702
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