BUSACT 702 Accounting Information Systems

How BUSACT 702 is assessed

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.

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.

Worked example · free

Turning a sales narrative into a systems flowchart — how the secure test is ticked

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

Questions students ask in each BUSACT 702 chapter

What is an accounting information system, exactly?

It is the people, processes, data and technology that turn business events into accounting information — where accounting meets information systems. In BUSACT 702 you study how data flows through it, how to document that flow, and how to control it so the reported numbers can be trusted. Chapter 01 · Introduction to AIS & Systems Documentation

What is the single most important skill in this course?

Turning a narrative into a correct systems flowchart, at speed, closed book. The secure test is exactly this and it is marked element by element, so the symbol set and the nine rules must be automatic. Chapter 02 · Systems Flowcharts: Symbols & Rules

What is the difference between a logical and a physical DFD?

A logical DFD shows what activities happen and what data flows, independent of who or where; a physical DFD adds the people, functional areas and physical resources. A systems flowchart is essentially the two merged. Chapter 03 · Data Flow Diagrams

What is the activity -> risk -> control technique?

It is the course's method for evaluating a process: take each activity in turn, name the risk or weakness at that step, then state the internal control that corrects it. You present it as a three-column table across the whole transaction cycle. Chapter 04 · Internal Controls: Activity -> Risk -> Control

What is an ER diagram and why does the course use it?

It models the data behind a process — the entities (Customer, Order, Shipment...) and how they relate, with cardinalities. It matters because the cardinalities encode business rules, and a clean data model is what the AIS and its analytics rely on. Chapter 05 · Databases & Data Modelling

What are the steps of the revenue cycle?

Check inventory, credit-check the customer, create the sales order, pick the goods, prepare for shipping and deliver — then bill and collect. Each step carries its own risk and control. Chapter 06 · The Revenue (Sales) Cycle

What are the four processes of the expenditure cycle?

Determine demand (requisition), order (choose supplier, raise the PO), receive (accept and record the goods), and pay (approve and make the payment). Each has its own risks and controls. Chapter 07 · The Expenditure Cycle

What are the main control themes in the reporting cycle?

Who is allowed to build and approve reports, how timely the underlying data is, the integrity of bank reconciliations (especially independent approval of adjusting journals), and how budgets are set. These are the angles the short-answer cases test. Chapter 08 · General Ledger & Financial Reporting Cycle

What is the SDLC and why do accountants study it?

It is the phased life cycle for building or acquiring a system. Accountants care because controls and documentation must be designed in during development, not retrofitted — a system built without them is expensive to control later. Chapter 09 · Systems Development & Risk Frameworks: COSO & COBIT

What is RPA and why is it in an accounting course?

RPA is software that automates routine, rule-based work. Accountants study it because the profession is automating high-volume tasks (like invoice processing), and accountants must be able to design, evaluate and control these automations — which is exactly what the RPA coursework asks. Chapter 10 · Robotic Process Automation & Power Automate

What is the Power BI analytics workflow?

Connect to the data, model it by relating the tables, build measures, visualise for the business question, and share for decisions. Following the workflow keeps the analysis structured and reliable. Chapter 11 · Data Analytics with Power BI

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

Stuck on a hard BUSACT 702 question? Sia is AskSia’s AI Accounting tutor — ask any BUSACT 702 Accounting Information Systems question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how the course is actually taught and assessed. Read this whole study guide free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.