Do you have a budding artist in the family? Does your son or daughter love to draw or paint? Does he constantly pester you for coloring books or art materials? If so, encourage them to continue what he or she is doing. Those meaningless scribbles might be the start of a bright future. Your kid might not become another van Gogh or Salvador Dali but he or she will surely benefit from a good art education.Unknown to many, a strong art education is important, as it helps children develop skills that they need to be successful in life. Among the many benefits of art education are self-directed learning, improved school attendance and better creative skills. Recent studies have shown that the creativity and innovation used in the artistic process are highly valued by employers.Creative arts programs play a big role in shaping students’ self-image and increasing their skills in math, science, geography and language. Early exposure to visual art, music or drama is known to promote brain activity. It encourages learning and helps people understand other subjects easily. Art also promotes creativity and inventiveness and helps develop self-esteem, self-discipline and self-motivation.But that’s not all. Art activities help kids understand the human experience. It teaches them to respect other people’s’ ways of working and thinking, helps develop creative problem-solving skills, and enables them to communicate their thoughts and ideas in many ways. Unfortunately, the hard times have affected the way people see art. Often, art programs are the first to be sacrificed in implementing cost-cutting measures. Several schools have limited classroom space and art “studios” are mostly found in a cart that is transferred from room to room. This greatly limits the art education that students receive.How do we solve this problem? Start by encouraging kids to draw. All you need is a pencil and a piece of paper, yet this simple process provides the basis for other creative activities, such as painting and sculpture. Drawing is a direct link to reading, writing and math. This is the most accessible art form available that will go a long way in making your child a better person someday.
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Integrated Systems Vs Separate Systems
ReportEase of Implementation (Winner: Integrated)While separate solutions for accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), etc. are easier to implement one-by-one than a integrated system, one must consider the time it takes to implement the communication between these separate solutions.For example, a business owner signs up with SalesForce, a popular CRM, and then signs up for Freshbooks, a popular accounting software for small businesses. Signing up for both of these systems takes very little time and effort. (Of course, signing up for an integrated solution takes the same amount of time.)The business owner will also take about the same amount of time and effort to load data into the separate CRM and the accounting software as he or she will take loading the information into the integrated software. (Although, some time and effort is saved with the integrate systems, since accounts and contacts need only be loaded once, compared to twice with the separate systems.)But, when the business owner tries to connect information from the CRM to the accounting software, he or she is limited in option and must use a workaround. He or she could either a)install a third party integration software, increasing the chance of a system breakdown, b)hire someone to code a new integration method, increasing the cost and effort required to implement the whole system, or c) just deal with the separate system ad hoc, which ads complexity for the entire time the business owner continues to use separate systems.On the other hand, an integrated solution is just as easy to sign up for, easier to enter information in (since you are not entering information twice), and far easier to connect information, since the system is already designed with all the data connected.Therefore, considering the Ease of Implementation for the total business solution, an integrated system is easy to implement than disconnected solution.Ease of Use (Winner: Integrated)We have found that integrated systems are, in general, easier to use than a network of disconnected business systems.Every business system, integrated or not, has different levels of usability. It is not the scope of this report to compare all these systems. Rather, we’ve found that as a whole, integrated systems are easier to use because of their integration-a key requirement for business management systems.A business owner must be able to connect documents with customers, costs with service requests, and staff with projects, just to name a few. Using one system for project management and another for accounting and another for customer relationship management (CRM) compounds the difficulty of using the total business system for the user. The user is forced to integrate outside of the system. Once this step is taken, the integration is temporary and unusable by others. In other words, every time the integration must occur in a disconnected system, it must be integrated again by each user at that moment. The integration doesn’t last and it doesn’t transfer.An integrated system is built to connect all pieces of data together in meaningful integrations. The integration is part of the system, and the user is not given the task of making the integration, it is already done. This makes the system much easier to use for information retrieval and decision making.Therefore, considering the Ease of Use for the total business system, an integrated system is easier to use than disconnected systems.Low Total Cost of Ownership (Winner: Integrated)Even given the limited amount of data we were able to find on the costs of running disconnected system versus an integrated system, it’s clear that an integrated system gives the business owner a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)Disconnected systems can run anywhere for $4/user/month to $300/user/month. Considering a business that must manage accounting, customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), support, projects, and documents, the lowest monthly cost came out to be $597/user/month (considering an office with 5-10 users).This high subscription cost for disconnected systems doesn’t consider the costs of integrating the systems to make a functional business system. Whether that integration cost is recognized by developing/paying for integration software, or paying staff for the time they spend integrating individually, the lack of integration between disparate systems raises the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) significantly.An integrated system costs much less on average ($99 /user/month considering a 5-10 user office). Plus, with an integrated system, there is no integration cost, since the system is already built integrated.Therefore, considering the Total Cost of Ownership(TCO) for the total business system, an integrated system has a lower TCO than disconnected systems.Scalability (Winner: Integrated)An integrate system scales much more gracefully than disconnected systems since an integrated systems can scale up once where disconnected systems must scale up many times.Disconnected systems have their own abilities to scale as a business grows or shrinks. Some systems can reliably support 1-20 users, others 5-50, others 25-1,000. A business owner attempting to scale up a total business system, if he or she is using disconnected systems, would have to switch different systems at different levels of scaling. Every time a switch must occur, the costs and hassles of starting up and integrated a new systems reoccur.An integrated system, however, can scale all necessary features together, with no need to switch systems at any point. An integrated system that can handle 100 users in the accounting module will be able to handle 100 users in any other module.Therefore, considering the Scalability of the total business system, and integrated system is more scalable than disconnected systems.Ease of Updates (Winner: Integrated)An integrated system is easier to upgrade than disconnected systems since disconnected systems will need to be upgraded separately, and any integration between disconnected systems will most likely be destroyed with each upgrade. Each disconnected system will have its own team of developers processing the upgrades. Since each team is only concerned about upgrading its own system, upgrades will be released on schedules that don’t consider the needs of the total business system.Also, every time a disconnected system is upgraded, any third party integrations the user has implemented will likely need to be updated as well, doubling the time and effort it takes to update the total business system.Integrated systems, on the other hand, are updated by one team. Every update enhances the integration, rather than destroying it. An update to the project management module will cause benefits to trickle down to all modules connected to it. And the integration to the modules will not need to be updated separately by a different team.Therefore, considering the Ease of Updates, an integrated system is easier to upgrade than disconnected systems.In Total (Winner: Integrated)The integrated business system meets the needs of the business better than disconnected systems.The integrated system is easier to implement, easier to use, less expensive, more scalable, and easier to update.Business Vision is an integrated online Business Management solution. Business Vision handles Project Management, Support, Human Resource Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Accounting. All features are integrated for maximum efficiency.
The Effects of Globalization on Both Accounting Profession and Education
Innovations in technology has catapulted the financial district into a global market. Globalization has had a large influence on the way businesses conduct business. Firms are not only responsible for being privy to information involving consumers in their own backyard but also understanding consumer culture as well as economic, political, and legal structures that exist in other countries. Due to the influence globalization has had on businesses, it has changed the expectations that are required of incoming business students and their education. More specifically, accounting students are being impacted by the changes globalization has influenced the market with. These students are challenged more particularly throughout their undergraduate years to understand not only the rules and regulations of GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles) but also the standards set forth by the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). Within the accounting sphere, the primary focus has been on external reporting which involve the preparation of financial statements and auditing. However, due to the ever changing world of the global market, future accountants are required to possess perspectives that influence both external and internal reporting. The market will continue to change due to the fast paced journey of information making globalization an important factor in accounting education.Businesses in the United States have largely adopted GAAP which is a guide to how business are to construct financial information to produce statements. GAAP has been useful in the last couple of years because it facilitates the way businesses in the U.S. communicate with each other. However, in the global environment, GAAP proves to be burdensome for most companies. Overseas, they have adopted IFRS which is another guide to producing financial information which aids foreign companies with communicate amongst each other. Most countries use IFRS as a basis for the way business transactions are conducted. Since most of the world is using IFRS as the standard it leaves the U.S. with the tedious task of having to incorporate two different principles to conduct business. In the article, “How Globalization is Affecting U.S. Accountants” by Bruce Pounder, Pounder states that “U.S. accountants will find themselves at a severe disadvantage to the many foreign accounting professionals who have already mastered international accounting standards and who are therefore much better-positioned to take advantage of rapidly growing career opportunities in China, India, and other emerging economies” (Pounder, 2007, p. 3). He then goes on to predict that as GAAP becomes more overshadowed by IFRS, U.S. accountants will find their skills and knowledge becoming obsolete. Therefore, IFRS has become more integrated into the accounting curriculum for education. Students are required to understand not only GAAP but IFRS and the changes that occur when working with both. By involving IFRS into the learning process, students will be prepared to later take the CPA Exam which has recently been updated to include information about IFRS in the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) section. Students are becoming better equipped with skills and information that will make them more marketable and efficient in the globalized business environment.In the U.S. economy, a thriving financial sector is usually supported by a strong public accounting and auditing firms. Therefore, the focus over recent years has been to ensure that accountants excel at compiling information involving a company’s assets, liabilities, equity, investments, etc. However, due to globalization, external accounting practices aren’t as valued if internal practices are not also implicated. Internal practices are important because it shapes the way businesses reach their customers in the foreign market. Authors Paul Danos and Richard L. Measelle stated in their article, “Globalization of the Business Environment: Implications for Accounting Profession and Business Education”, that “In a competitive global market place, the internal accountant must be sensitive to what drives the costs of products and he/she must work with production and marketing people to rationalize all cost accounting procedures” (Danos, 1990, p. 79). The responsibilities of the internal accountant is becoming more critical to the success of businesses. For a business wanting to expand into foreign territory, cost accounting is used to accurately develop product price information, location of manufacturing facilities, picking suppliers, etc. Due to these factors, internal accountants have to be familiar with regulations across borders, tax treatments, and currency conversion costs. When it comes to public accounting, auditors must be heavily versed in global accounting standards because “the world’s economies are becoming increasingly interdependent… ” (Needles, 2010, p. 602) according to Belverd E. Needles Jr. author of the article “Accounting Education: The Impact of Globalization”. The author goes on to encourage global standards for auditors because it strengthens their practices by only having to be familiar with those regulations. In order to be well versed in the global market, accounting students are advised to take courses specifically designed to analyze different cultures, languages, and political factors that influence societies.Globalization has influenced many changes that have taken place in both the accounting profession and education. Students are now exposed to problems that occur in the global market and how to go about solving them. Not only are these students expected to understand all the mathematics and jargon involved with the business world, but they are also expected to have a good sense of foreign consumer culture as well as the regulations bound to each country. Implemented with these skills, students will be able to excel in the new business world.ReferencesDanos, P., & Measelle, R. L. (1990). Globalization of the Business Environment: Implications for the Accounting Profession and Business Education. Human Resource Management, 29(1), 77-84
Needles, B. E. (2010). Accounting Education: The Impact of Globalization. Accounting Education, 19(6), 601-605. doi: 10.1080/09639284.2010.501578
Pounder, B. (2007). How Globalization is Affecting U.S. Accountants. Montvale: Institute of Management Accountants.