CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Every institution seeks for more efficient ways to carry out their duties. Account is a very sensitive aspect of every business organization and hence there is need for the adoption of computers to aid the computation and recording of account information.

Accounting has long been an organizational function especially with the advent of non owner managers who need to update what is happening in the organization. Maintaining, preparation and presentation of accounts is crucial for effective decision making whether it is a nonprofit making organization or profit making because they have to report to the stakeholders of the organization through financial reports. However there was inefficient financial reporting due to loss of records, delay in preparation of records and its associated problems. In every organization for instance student union government, there is a system for maintaining accounts.

A student union is an association of students in a particular place of education with stipulated rules/regulations to guide the operations of the association, purposely and primarily to protect and defend not only their interests but also the entire society. The purpose of these organizations is to represent students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students’ unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Some of the major activities that are associated with student unions are:

• Students’ Welfare: With the aim of improving the lot of students in all areas connected directly and indirectly to their studies, the Student Union provides services such as monitoring prices of goods and services on campus, raising scholarship funds, finding jobs, improving public transportation and continually searching for discounts and benefits for students.
• Social activities: The Student Union seeks to enrich the social life of the campus by organizing activities such as parties, fairs and discounted trips for students and their friends; organizing fun trips and sports events; selling discounted tickets to concerts, plays and cultural events.
• Community Service: Student Union contribute to the community and society at large by organizing, initiating and encouraging various volunteer activities and organizations such as legal assistance to those in financial distress, blood donation drives, the collection of food, clothing and other necessities for the needy, and promoting environmental awareness on campus, by for instance encouraging recycling, among other activities.
• Responsible student union leadership is expected to:
• Represent the interests of all it membership at local, regional, national and international levels
• Be accountable to its membership
• Anticipate and respond to student needs and demands to ensure continuous improvement
• Operate efficient, high quality services and activities
• Promote constructive relations between students and the wider community
• Act professionally and responsibly to all external bodies

1.1 Background of the Study

Within the information system of management systems the accounting subsystem ensures the numerical figures can corresponding to reality – of the property, financial and profit status of the enterprise. As a consequence, processing the accounting information is one of the most decisive elements of the pre-decisive, i.e. pro-decisive process of managers. As a result of the important and spectacular development of informatics and information technology, wide-spread automatization can be observed relating to accounting work processing. This is proved by the appearance and spread of the different user software. Nowadays accounting software packages have a quite wide market – there are numerous software programs supporting book-keeping, reporting, recording economic events or processing – and in many cases they support the activity of the enterprise as an organic part of a complex, up to- date, integrated information system.

In a student union government, financial account records are kept and it is therefore imperative that an account information system is in place to maintain adequate records.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Many institutions of student union government  have long been accustomed to the use of manual methods for processing and presenting account information and it is common place for errors to occur making the accountants to repeat the process again. In addition, it is extremely time consuming to manually record and compute account information, the consequence of this is inefficiency as valuable time that could have been used for other problems is expended on preparing account information report. It is in view of this situation that this research study is carried out to develop  an account system for student union government 

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement  an account system for student union government  The following are the objectives of the study:

– To implement a workable accounting management system for student union government

– To develop a system that will aid in the computation of total income, total expenses and surplus/deficit

– to implement a system that will aid in the presentation of account reports

1.4 Significance of the Study

The significance of the study includes the following:

1. It will enable student union government to understand the significance of utilizing automated account management system.
2. The study will point out the relevance of applying computers in recording and preparing account information

• Other researchers will use the report as literature review in order to improve their research topic in another period.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study covers an account system for student union government using Akwa Ibom state polytechnic Student union government as a case study.

1.6 Organization of Research

This research work is organized into five chapters. Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the preliminaries, theoretical background, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.

Chapter two focuses on the literature review, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.

Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It presents the research methodology used in the development of the system, it analyzes the present system to identify the problems and provides information on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed system. The system design is also presented in this chapter.

Chapter four presents the system implementation and documentation, the choice of programming language, analysis of modules, choice of programming language and system requirements for implementation.

Chapter five focuses on the summary, constraints of the study, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Accounting – The activity, practice, or profession of maintaining the business records of a person or organization and preparing forms and reports for tax or other financial purposes

Computerize – To store information in a computer system or process it by computer

Government: A group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws.

Information – The meaningful material derived from computer data by organizing it and interpreting it in a specific way

Management – The organizing and controlling of the affairs of a business or a sector of a business

Student union – A student union is an association of students in a particular place of education with stipulated rules/regulations to guide the operations of the association, purposely and primarily to protect and defend not only their interests but also the entire society.