Accounting Cycle

The purpose of this assignment is to select a step in the accounting cycle that is not currently automated at one of our team members ' organization. The place of business we have selected is an independent financial brokerage firm, LPL Financial. The firm places a strong emphasis on the recruiting of established financial advisors throughout the country. When a financial advisor joins LPL Financial, so does their clients. One of our team member 's works in the transfer department. The transfer department handles the transferring of accounts held at other financial institutions into LPL Financial. The transfer department handles various types of securities including stock, mutual funds, bonds, retirement accounts, and cash. The first step of the accounting cycle is to "identify the business events that can be considered accounting transactions and to collect relevant economic data about those transactions." This step in the cycle occurs during the accounting period. Each transfer that takes place in the transfer department can be considered a business event. Therefore, we have selected to automate a step in the transfer process, more specifically, the tracking of incoming mutual fund transfers. Currently, a Mutual Fund Transfers Access Database exists which contains information related to the incoming transfer of mutual funds. Some of the information contained in this database includes the client 's name, social security number, account number at both LPL Financial and the delivering firm, the name of the mutual fund, and the unique mutual fund code, called the CUSIP. An employee of the transfer department manually enters this information into the Microsoft Access Database. The information is entered after the employee verifies the information from the Accorde System and the Beta System. The Accorde System is an electronic imaging system, which scans and images all hardcopy transfer forms delivered to LPL Financial from the financial advisors.