Charter Accounting Essay

Mr John Potts is a chartered accountant who owns his own firm. Potts works in all fields associated with business and finance in the private sector. He also employs workers to work in his firm assisting him in all aspects of his work. His office is just a five minute drive from his house which is an advantage as he can go to and from his house when necessary. He usually works from 9am to 7pm however, these hours are flexible. Mr Potts has a choice of working at his office or working at home. The activities he does include maintaining accounting records and preparing accounts and management information for small businesses (accountancy); advising clients on business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions (corporate finance); advising clients who are in financial difficulty to help them turn the business around or to handle the disposal of the business (corporate recovery/insolvency); detecting and preventing fraud (forensic accounting) and much other activities. In order for Mr Potts to be able to complete his tasks, he uses some technologies which assist him with his work life, social life and personal life. Technology 1 – CCTV Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is the use of video cameras to transmit signals to a certain place so an area is fully monitored for safety of others and crime. The most measurable effect of CCTV is not on crime prevention, but on detection and prosecution. Several notable murder cases have been solved with the use of CCTV evidence, making the environment a safer place for the public. CCTV – Work Related Use John Potts has many CCTV cameras around his workplace. The signal is sent to many monitors in his office and his study at home. This is so he can monitor outside activities and keep an eye out for any crimes that may occur. When Potts is not able to attend his office, he is still able to access the images from his study at home. Using the images, he can contact his security guards to check a specific area in his building. The advantages of having installed cctv cameras is that he can see what is going on around his building, therefore he does not have to be everywhere at all times. Another advantage is that he can access the images from home when he is unable to go to his office. This technology also has some disadvantages. One of these is that he will occasionally get worried of any crimes near his building which forces him to constantly check his monitors. This may be interfering with his social life as he would be too worried about his workplace. Another advantage is that the signals may not be received all the time due to incomplete installation of the cameras. This technology has improved the working style of Mr Potts as he is able to keep an eye out for any unusual events taking part around his building. Technology 2 – Personal Digital Assistant (HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld) The HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld (PDA) has many features which aids many businessmen. First of all, the PDA has a 4 inch touch screen display and has a stylish design making it a great deployment platform for enterprise applications. Secondly, using the integrated 802.11b/g wireless networking, Mr Potts is able to connect to the Internet and access his email. He is also able to connect Bluetooth peripheral such as headsets or keyboards. He is also able to use applications like Word, PowerPoint and Excel Word, PowerPoint and Excel on his PDA using Microsoft Office Mobile. Also, Mr Potts is able to store his business-critical information with high-capacity SDIO and Compact Flash. The advantages of this device are that it’s very ideal for businessmen as it is like five devices in one. Having many uses, the PDA benefits mostly businessmen who need access to the computer while on the move. A disadvantage of this device is that it is an ideal item that is of interest to many muggers in the world today putting you in danger due to being in possession of this device. Personal Digital Assistant – Personal Use Mr Potts is always on the move, around the city and very often he travels abroad for job purposes. When he is waiting for his flight, he does not need to carry his laptop with him all the time as his HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld (PDA) is an equivalent to his laptop. He is able to connect to the internet using Wifi which allows him to browse the internet to entertain herself by listening to music and watching videos. The advantages of this device are that it is more ideal as it is much smaller. He is still able to access his emails and many documents without the need of carrying a laptop. A disadvantage of this device is that he will need to extend his memory capacity constantly as he uploads a lot of information to his device which helps him with his job. Another disadvantage of this device is that he has to be very careful as the device is very fragile; the screen can be cracked. Also he is in danger of having his personal information known if he is not careful with his device. Personal Digital Assistant – Social Use Due to the wireless technology, Mr Potts can connect to the internet and use his email address to sign into Windows Live Messenger and chat to his friends. His device works exactly like a computer as he often sends, to his family, many photographs of famous landmarks that he took while he was abroad. Other than this, Mr Potts uses his PDA mostly for work related activities. Personal Digital Assistant – Work Related Use When it comes to Mr Potts’s job related activities, his PDA is the ideal device. While he is away abroad, his personal secretary sends him copies of documents by email. He later retrieves these documents from his PDA. He very often makes many spreadsheets on his laptop. This is also possible to do on his PDA which he does. His PDA can also create word documents which is very beneficial to him as he doesn’t need to go to his computer at all times or carry a laptop when he can carry a palm sized device which enables him to do everything that he can do on his laptop. But unfortunately, Mr Potts is required to expand his memory as the capacity may not be enough after having many documents on his PDA. When Mr Potts has access to his computer, he usually sends documents that he believes that he will need later to herself by email. He has sent almost all important files to herself by email. This is done so he can access and download them onto his PDA when he is away from home or access to a computer. Mr Potts’s PDA consists of important details of his clients, individual clients and business clients, such as phone numbers, addresses etc. If he did not have this device however, he would have had to carry a small notepad, writing in the details every time. This wastes paper and time as he has to search for a client’s details. This device is ideal to store information like this on it as he can quickly find someone’s details by entering a few letters of their name. The PDA will then narrow down the search until Mr Potts can view the details. A disadvantage of having a PDA in possession is that he has to take it almost everywhere with him as it contains relevant information. He has to be very careful with his valuable device as it may contain confidential information which can be accessed by anyone if he loses or misplaces his device. Technology 3 – Mobile Phone (Nokia N95) Another device used by Mr Potts is his mobile phone, Nokia N95. The Nokia N95 is a smart phone with many unbelievable features. First of all, the multimedia abilities. The N95 has an outstanding music player that supports MP3, WMA, RealAudio, SP-MIDI, AAC+, eAAC+, MIDI, AMR, M4A and True Tones. Next is the Internet. The N95 has built in Wi-fi which can be used to gain access to the internet. The web browser displays the webpage in full whereas other phones display simplified versions of the webpage. Another feature of this smart phone is the integrated GPS. Below the 0 key on the N95’s keypad is an integrated GPS receiver. The phone is shipped with navigation software and maps are free to download over the internet. Mobile Phone – Personal Use Mr Potts is really into his music. He listens to his mp3 tracks via the music player on his Nokia N95 which supports the formats mentioned above. He also uses his phone to entertain herself by watching many videos at DVD like quality on the 2.6 inch screen. Another feature on this phone widely used by Mr Potts is the 5 mega pixel camera located at the back of the device. With this, he is able to capture great pictures at amazing quality. An advantage of this is that when he is away and needs to take photos, he does not need to take another device, a camera; instead he can take his phone which enables him to take many pictures at an equivalent quality of his own camera. The smart phone also has a Flash Player. With this software in the phone, Mr Potts is able to put many games onto his phone which will keep him busy entertaining herself for a long time. Mobile Phone – Social Use As he is often out and about he is not seen at home for many hours. While he is on his lunch break, Mr Potts uses his time to make quick phone calls home to chat to his wife and his son. An advantage of this device is that when Mr Potts has not got his laptop or PDA, he is still able to talk to his friends over Windows Live Messenger by connecting to the mobile internet. Another advantage is that he saves a lot of coins as with his phone, he has many free minutes which allows him to make many calls whereas if he was not in possession of a mobile phone, he would have had to carry coins around with him to use a payphone. A disadvantage of this device however is that this can increase his phone bill. Mobile Phone – Work Related Use Mr Potts is a very busy man, always working. He needs to make many phone calls, which is part of his day to day life, spending many hours on the phone to his clients. Without his N95 it is almost impossible for Mr Potts to go to work as he receives many phone calls often concerning his job. If he is ever in a situation where he has forgotten his laptop or PDA and cannot access his email account to download files, he is still able to do so with his phone by connecting to the mobile internet. He can also make quick notes on his phone which remind him what he needs to do and when he needs to complete specific tasks by if he has forgotten to take his PDA with him. Technology 4 – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Microsoft Office Excel 2007 is an influential software used to produce and format spreadsheets and to analyze and distribute information to make more informed decisions. This new software has many features which include ? Chart Formatting tools which help create and format professional-looking charts with greater ease using fewer clicks. ? Support for PDF and XML Paper Specification (XPS) file formats helps convert spreadsheets into a fixed file format for easier sharing. ? Report management features help protect confidential business information while ensuring people can view the data they need. ? Chart Formatting tools help you create and format professional-looking charts with greater ease using fewer clicks. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 – Personal Use Mr Potts records his day to day spending on a spreadsheet using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 to calculate a budget for his family to spend so he can cut down costs for unnecessary things. He first records the amount spent for a couple of months. He then calculates and produces a budget and attempts to stick to that budget for a couple of months. He then records this and then compares both spreadsheets and sees where the unnecessary spending has occurred. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 – Social Use During his breakfast, Mr Potts spends his time doing many crossword puzzles and also does these puzzles in his spare time. He expands his interest by making his own crossword puzzles on Excel. He then sends them to his friends making them spend their spare time completing the puzzles and requesting them to send back reviews via email so he can improve his work. Also, Mr Davison buys and sells many shares on the stock market and keeps tracks with his data by recording his information onto a spreadsheet. Mr Potts has an interest in gaming and creates many games using excel. Along with the crossword puzzles, he sends it off to his friends and again receives many reviews which suggest ideas which may lead to him improving the games and enhancing gaming experience. As mentioned previously, Mr Potts sends documents to herself to his email so he can access them later. These documents also include the crossword puzzles and games. He plays them on his laptop while on his lunch break. Whenever he does not have access to his laptop, he plays the game with his friends on his PDA. The game opens up as a spreadsheet file which is supported by his HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld as it has Microsoft Office Mobile. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 – Work Related Use Mr Potts produces spreadsheets for many of his clients (individuals and businesses) advising them on tax planning within current legislation to enable them to minimise their tax liability and he also calculates clients’ tax liabilities. Some of the activities that Mr Potts performs that may use Microsoft Office Excel 2007 are ? Producing reports and recommendations following internal audits or public sector ‘value for money’ audits. # ? Preparing financial statements, including monthly and annual accounts. ? Preparing financial management reports, including financial planning and forecasting. ? Advising on tax and treasury issues and many other tasks. To perform activities using Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Mr Potts needs access to his computer. He produces these files on his computer at home or at his office. Mr Potts produces spreadsheets with the company of his client to provide him with any certain information. This is done by inviting his client to his office and working at his computer or he meets up with his client at their house and works on his laptop. As mentioned before, Mr Potts sends important files to herself by email so he can access them later. When he is free, he often spends time finishing off his spreadsheets. Occasionally, as he is on the move he does not take his laptop, however he is still able to complete his tasks by connecting to the internet by the integrated wireless technology on his HP iPAQ 200 Enterprise Handheld and accessing the files from his email account and downloading them onto his PDA. He is able to complete this spreadsheet as his PDA has the Excel application provided by Microsoft Office Mobile. In conclusion, I suppose that without the help from the above technologies and other technologies, Mr John Potts will find it very difficult to complete his day to day life. As mentioned previously, he is not able to perform many tasks without the aid of the above technologies. For example, without the help of his PDA Mr Potts cannot easily access his client’s personal details. Also, without his computer/laptop he is not able to complete any other tasks. Due to the aid provided by these technologies, Mr Potts has been able to develop his personal, social, and work life.