“LUCIAN BLAGA” UNIVERSITY OF SIBIU FACULTY OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES MASTER IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT DISSERTATION PAPER SCIENTIFIC COORDINATORS: Conf. univ…. [630041]
“LUCIAN BLAGA” UNIVERSITY OF SIBIU
FACULTY OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES
MASTER IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
DISSERTATION PAPER
SCIENTIFIC COORDINATORS:
Conf. univ. dr. Razvan Serbu
GRADUATE :
SIBIU
1
“LUCIAN BLAGA” UNIVERSITY OF SIBIU
FACULTY OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES
MASTER IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
IMPROVING E -BUSINESS MANAGEMENT BY
DEVELOPING A WEB -BASED APPLICATION
SCIENTIFIC COORDINATORS:
Conf. univ. dr. Razvan Serbu
GRADUATE:
SIBIU
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
CHAPTER I. E-BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ………………………………………………………………. 3
1.1 E-business and e- commerce concept …………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
1.2 The technological base of e-business ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
1.3 Enterprise resource planning system (Web-based) …………………………………………………………………. 5
1.4 Comparative analysis of desktop and web applications ………………………………………………………….. 7
1.5 Cloud technologies in financial reporting …………………………………………………………………………………… 9
CHAPTER II. TECHNOLOGIES USED FO R THE E -BUSINESS APPLICATION ……………………. 18
2.1 Dissertation methodology …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
2.2 Primary data collection ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18
2.3 System Analysis and Design ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24
2.4 System implementation ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24
2.5 System Testing ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 25
2.6 System Evaluation …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 25
2.7 Management information system ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 26
2.8 The MySQL database management system ……………………………………………………………………………….. 27
2.9 The PHP programming language ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29
CHAPTER III. THE ARCHITECTURE AND FUNCTIONALITY OF THE BUILT APPLICATION ….. 31
3.1 The design of the database ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 31
3.2 The implementation of the application …………………………………………………………………………………….. 32
CONCLUSIONS AND RECO MMENDATIONS …………………………………………………………… 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 59
APPENDIXES ……………………………………………………….. ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED .
Introduction
Each economic and financial operation undertaken by a company involves its
recording in a supporting document, which is a time -consuming action. An automatic
data processing application can be a solution regarding the efficiency of operations
within the operating cycle. For example, the sale process, an essential phase of the
operating cycle, c an be made more efficient by entering the data related to the
operation in such an application that by its speed of calculation significantly reduces
the time consumed by the financial-accounting department in order to prepare
invoices and of other supporting documents and of the sales department through the efficient administration of orders.
Also, the use of a computer system leads to the reduction of costs, which gives
the company a better competitiveness in the market, by reducing the necessary
workforc e responsible for highlighting the operations performed within the operating
cycle.
The Internet provides the IT infrastructure needed for new business models,
new business processes and new ways of disseminating information. Thus, developing an applicatio n that can be accessed in the online environment offers the
user several advantages like easy accessibility from any location that has an Internet
connection and the fact that it is necessary to install it only once . Also, developers can
provide updates via the Internet which is a fast way as opposed to desktop
applications that are constrained by a physical location.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the facilities offered by the open-
source PHP and MySQL tools and to present the implementation pro cess and the
functionality of a web application that aims to streamline the operating cycle of a
company whose object of activity involves the retail trade of electronic equipme nt.
This company sells the equipment in a physical location but also on the Internet .
Being an online solution, this application can improve the e -business
management of the company through modern technologies.
As a result, the first chapter of the paper describes the e -business concept along
with the e -commerce concept , but also shows the difference between the two
concepts. In addition, this chapter presents h ow a web-based application can improve
e-business management and the considerations that must be taken in account when
building it. The chapter highlights the advantages of having an enterprise resource planning system within a company and compares web and desktop applications in terms of conectivity requirements,algorithm protection,scalability, installation, mainte nance, hardware requirements, data collection, implementation, licensing, cost
and other characteristics .
Chapter two starts with the dissertation methodology applied in order to realize
it and develop the application. It can be categorized as a management information
system and b ecause the development of such a system requires technological
knowledge, this chapter also describes the technologies considered for using in its
development. Mainly, the technologies involve a database management system and a
programming language that can be used in web development. The presented
application was developed by using the database management system MySql and the PHP programming language, but also other web technologies and languages such as HTML and Javascript.
The la st chapter presents the functionalities of the developed application, each
designed for three user groups this being customers, administrators and sales
personnel and I believe that a n automatic data processing application such as the one
presented in the present work canmake the e-business activities within a company
more efficient.
CHAPTER I. E-business management
1.1 E-business and e -commerce concept
E-commerce is a concept that implies using the Internet, applications for
smartphones and browsers that operate on computers and devices in order to do busines s.
More broadly, e -commerce may be described as business transactions that are
digitally allowed between and from organizations, and individuals. Each of these components of our concept o f working e -commerce is essential. Digitally allowed
transactions involve all transactions facilitated by digital technologies. For the most
part, this means transactions which take place via the Internet, the Web and/or mobile
devices. Commercial transact ions include commodity exchange (such as money)
through corporate or individual borders, in return for goods and services.
1
E-commerce is not "any digital thing" a company is doing while "e -business"
refers primarily to a company's digital enabling of transactions and processes, including information systems under the company's control. E -business for the most
part does not inc lude business transactions involving value exchange across
organizational boundaries. For example, a company’s electronic inventory
management systems are a part of e -business, but these internal processes do not
produce sales for the organization directly from other businesses or customers, as e –
commerce, by nature, does. It is real, however, that a company's e -business
architecture offers resources for e -commerce transactions online, resulting in the
presence of the same technology and expertise sets in b oth e -business and e –
commerce. As shown in Figure 1 e -commerce and e -business systems converge at the
company's edge, at the stage where internal business systems are linked to vendors or customers. Exactly when a value exchange takes place, e -business app lications turn
into e -commerce applications.
2
1K. Laudon, C. Traver, E- commerce. Business.Technology. Society.13th Ed., Pearson Publishing, London, 2017, pag. 9
2 Ibidem, pag. 9
Figure 1:The difference between e -commerce and e -business
(Source:K. Laudon, C. Traver, E-commerce.Business.Technology.Society.13th Ed.,
Pearson Publishing,London, 2017, pag. 10)
1.2 The technological base of e-business
The technologies behind e -business are the Internet, the Web, and the mobile
platform, increasingly. The Internet is a computer network built on common standards throughout the world. The Internet has since grown into the world's largest netwo rk,
created in the late 1960s to connect a small number of mainframe computers and their
users. The Internet connects businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and individuals, providing services such as email, document transfer, shopping, research, videos, music, instant messaging and news services to users.
3
The World Wide Web (the Web) is an Internet infrastructure -based information
system and it is what made the Internet commercially interesting and extremely popular. Google and other sea rch engines provide access to billions of web pages
indexed by Google. These pages are generated in the language called HTML (HyperTextMarkup Language). HTML pages can include text, maps, animations etc. Before the Internet, the Internet was primarily used for text correspondence, file
transfers, and remote computing. The Web added features relevant to the market which are much more efficient and economically important. The Web has increasingly brought colour, speech and video to the Internet, providing a
communication network and information retrieval system competitive withradio ,tv,
newspapers, and libraries.
3K. Laudon, C. Traver, E- commerce. Business.Technology. Society.13th Ed., Pearson Publishing, London,
2017, pag. 10
The mobile platform is the Internet infrastructure's newest development. The
mobile platform provides the ability to access the Internet through wireless networks
or cell phone service from a variety of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and other ultra -light laptop computers. Mobile devices now play an increasingly
prominent role in accessing the Internet.
1.3 Enterprise resource planning sy stem (Web -based )
An e nterprise resource planning system (ERP) refer s to enterprise -wide systems
and software packages that support all core business processes, such as inventory
management and control, sales order processing, financial organization and
production and distribution planning.
Figure 2: The fields of application of an ERP system .
(Source : adapted afterK. K. Panigrahi„Management Information System ”,
Tutorialspoint ,2017 , pag. 18
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_information_system/mis_tutorial.pdf,
accessed on 21.12.2019)
A web -based ERP system is a system running on a web server where the user
needs a web browser in order to use it. It must be stored on a reliable cloud server so
the application is still ready to use and stable. In comparison, a web-based ERP
framework needs a smaller IT network than a database server .
The creation of a web -based ERP framework based on a three -layer
architecture would be :
● The data layer that includes the MySQL server database.
● The presentation layer which include s all web forms
● The business layer whichcontains all the modules of the ERP system with
their logic .
The web -based ERP system has many benefits compared to a client- server
system. That's why many companies are now opting for such a system as opposed to a
client -server. A framework reduces the need for server management software and
related licenses, but perhaps the most significant feature of such a program is that it
can be used remotely and at any time. For example, you can enter data such as sales
orders from any location. The need for IT personnel to maintain an ERP infrastructure
inside is largely eliminated due to the existence of a web-based system .
This kind of system enables organizations, especially small and medium -sized
enterprises with limited infrastructure, to carry out their entire operation through this environment. An effective program automates all of an company's internal processes
to ensure the e -commer ce benefits are provided to the enterprise as a whole.
Since all operations are conducted electronically, the use of a web- based ERP system
will save a lot of time and all transactions are transparent too.
Another benefit of an ERP system is that operating cycle time is popular. The
following example is the operation where an ERP program is not used:
When a customer places an order, the order manager must check that the
product ordered is available in the customer's nearest warehouse. When it's not available there, it's going to have to search if it's available in other warehouses or at
any of the dealers. The employee would then have to process the order, tell the manufacturer or dealer concerned to send the item and then tell the financial department to ge nerate and pick up the invoice etc.
They all used considerable hours, days, and even weeks. But with an ERP
program the system tests the availability of the elements as soon as the order is put in
the system. If it is not available in the closest warehouse to the customer, the closest
warehouse is found which contains the item in inventory . The warehouse is told of the
order and the shipping details are sent to the distribution center, which will carry out
the necessary tasks such as packaging, picking up and so on, ensuring that the items are delivered on time.
The financial module is also alerted to the order, making the invoice available
to the customer at any time in a very short time. All of these activities are activated by
the employee who is respons ible for order verification by clicking a button. The
reliability of the ERP program benefits the staff and the tools they use to reduce the
operational cycle time and eventually the costs .
1.4 Comparative analysis of desktop and web applications
In recent years, mobility has become a fantastic vision for human-computer
interaction: users with lightweight, low- power terminals, who communicate with
cloud providers via wireless and fast wireless connections, performing all imaginable computing tasks, from searching, through web and email to more computationally
intensive tasks such as video editing and the analysis of big data . All this, of course,
exists because of the existence of cloud technology. Therefore, there is a growing movement of web application development versus native desktop application development.
4
Web and desktop applications are very different in a number of ways, some of
these differences are described in the following figure :
Figure3. Comparative analysis of desktop and web applications
(Source: https://nurelm.com/the -lab/web- based -vs-desktop- software, accessed on
22.12.2019)
4https://w ww.andplus.com/blog/web- apps-vs-native -desktop- apps, accessed on21 .12.2019
For intense video work, like video games and graphical editing tools desktop
applications are remarkable , though in both areas there are many exceptions.5
Another consideration could be the development of desktop applications when
a quick connection is required between "backend" and "frontend" But this could be an
outdated distinction, as web- based tools like Freshbooks , Salesforce.com have shown
that accou nting and customer relationship management tools are not only candidates
for web -based applications, but also that they can be at least as good as their
counterparts on the desktop.6
Desktop applications are also good choices when it is not possible to ens ure
user connectivity. While web-based applications can be synchronized with servers on a regular basis to compensate for short interruptions in connectivity, a data -intensive
application will be frustrating at best when connectivity is unwanted or non-exi stent.
7
When the situations described above do not apply, web development has many
benefits :8
• Control. Controlling where the parts of the application are running offers the
ability to adapt the hardware of each component to its function. Intensive processi ng tasks are primed by cloud servers with lots of processors, databases.
The only risk of a developed web application is that it is likely to be run by a computer with a 10 -year -old browser.
• Safety. Web applications help the developer automate a lot of sec urity
problems. One benefit is the simple application of licenses and user
requirements, as web software enables such issues to be handled centrally.
• Flexibility . Web -based developing has a variety of options. From the language
and operating system that a developer creates, to the services that the code can
get, web development offers a wide range of options that desktop development, by its nature, cannot do.
• Sharing. Much of the Internet's attractions are based on sharing data in ways
that individual computers cannot do so easily .
• Implementation. Implementation refers to getting software and any updates for
clients, and web -based development makes this much easier. A good example
would be a critical software update that needs to be installed on 10,000 users.
Obtaining updates for these users in a desktop environment is difficult, to say the least, while doing so in a web-based tool is simply a matter of updating the core software environment upgrading it almost instantaneously .
Web applications have become increasingly popular in the last few years. As
Internet connection is almost everywhere and people are actively using their mobile devices for various purposes, the creation of web software is extremely
5https://www.seguetech.com/desktop -vs-web-applications/, accessed on21 .12.2019
6https://www.avestagroup.net/DetailsEN.aspx?PostID=1006&CataType=5&CataID=1006 , accessed on21 .12.2019
7https://artoftesting.com/manualTesting/difference -between -web-application -and-desktop- application.html, a accessed
on21. 12.2019
8https://www.sitepoint.com/web -desktop- apps/ , accessed on21 .12.2019
attractive. However ,the popularity of web -based applications, however, does not mean
that desktop software would vanish.9
1.5 Cloud technologies in financial reporting
Enterprises are young and their field of operations is constantly changing,
depending on market fluctuations. T he companies everyday use accounting
information, which is used in the assessment of the financial situation of the
enterprise, correct decision taking, review of the financial situation of the enterprise
according to the obtained performance, making plans for the future and managing the
entire enterprise.
Accounting information systems have an important role to play in supplying the
financial information within an entity for decision making. The systems also provide
knowledge in development, accounting, ma nagement, human resources, marketing,
and supply chain logistics for a number of other decision makers.
Sadly, the accounting systems still do not offer enough assistance to companies.
The triggers may be: systems are usually too big and complex to fully understand and conventional IT is not successful. Undertakings need to incorporate the latest technologies .
Moving to "cloud" technologies is a new and innovative approach that can help
companies cut costs. Companies with the newest technology can get a lot of
advantages. Yet it also has its own threats. In the following I will discuss the
advantages and risks of the company's newest technology.
There are two t raditional types of accounting systems:
a) System s locally installed on a computer;
b) Web -based a ccounting software installed on a server.
Web -based accounting systems today are closely linked to the latest approach
to cloud computing. One of the newest developments in the field of information
technology is a phrase 'cloud computing.' Cloud computing is a method which hosts
and delivers applications and data. The places where they live are in the cloud, rather than working with locally stored information and data. The cloud computing was developed to remove the need for buying and installing software on your computer. The service allows users to sign in from any device or website to access their
information. In this model, the applications are stored in the datacenter of the service
provider, and each time users start their browsers and log on, they ge t the latest
update .
10
9https://exoft.net/desktop -or-web-application -what -to-develop/ , accessed on21.12 .2019
10Kim, W.. “ Cloud Computing: Today and Tomorrow. Journal of Object Technology ”, 2009, 65 -72.
Some scholars have wrongly believed that cloud computing applies only to
services offered over the internet that their organization does not host. In general,
cloud computing services are divided into three distinct categories or levels:
1. Lowest stage is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Here customers can rent basic computing resources like processors and storage, and use them for running operating systems and applications.
2. The next step up is Platform as a service (PaaS). It all ows clients to install their
own apps using a framework provided by the service provider.
3. The highest standard of cloud computing technology is the Software as a Service (SaaS). It is a software delivery model in which a company or service provider hosts a pplications and makes them available to consumers over a
network, usually the Internet.
Therefore, the web -based accounting program today is Internet-based
technology where the information is stored on the internet or in the cloud. The cloud-based accounti ng system is essentially a way to manage business accounts entirely
online and delivered as a service (Software as a Service) on- demand to customers (in
reality from the "clouds") It is also known as online accounting, or SaaS (Software as
a Service) accou nting software in certain circumstances. Its effect will affect
consumers and businesses alike. On the one hand, customers can access all of their
accounting data from any computer, such as the personal laptop or cell phone. On the
other side, businesses w ould be able to rent the program from a service provider and
pay on request.The conventional accounting system is locally built in- house versions
of accounting software, as a contrast to cloud-based accounting software. The main
difference between the two platforms is that while conventional systems are designed
to serve enterprise -scale applications, cloud technologies can theoretically serve
multiple users on a broader scale, especially on the Internet.
11The web -based
accounting software may be bought as a traditional software license, or bundled as a
cloud -based system with an operating environment and services. Table 1 shows
variations of the two possibilities.
Table 1: Buying a license versus purchasing cloud -based solution
Source: Acumatica , 2011, http:// www.acumatica.com/saas_or_license , accessed
on 06.04.2020
11 Etro, F. “ The Economic Impact of Cloud Computing on Business Creation, Emplo yment and Output in Europe.
Review of Business and Economics ”, 2009, pp. 179- 208.
I have summarized accounting software types and proposed framework in
Table 2 and the accounting systems types are explained in Table 3 .
Table 2: Accounting software framework
Table 3:Explanation of the accounting systems types
Cloud Computing in Business
Cloud computing technology has already entered the business environment,
where companies are motivated by the benefits in terms of costs and efficiency of the
new technology.
I believe that the virtualization of the accounting processes, the electronic
collection and recording of documents can increase the productivity of the accounting
staff by optimizing the time consumed with the data processing and its allocation for the ela boration of analyzes or decision support services. By default, this can lead to a
reduction of invoice processing costs and an improvement of the client-accountant
relationship by accessing real -time information of common interest.
For many companies, acco unting is a time -consuming and time -consuming
process. Collecting and recording data, organizing information, reconciling accounts
and generating reports can prove to be time -consuming, costly and error -prone
activities.
Most of the time this is due to the use of an outdated accounting system from
the point of view of information technology, which causes the information not to be provided in real time, affecting the responsiveness of the organization to the competitive business environment, and determining to keep the business running at an
optimal level. Traditional accounting systems are proving to be inefficient compared
to the technological alternatives in the market.
12
Some companies rely only on the use of spreadsheets, text documents, desktop
databases (single -post, undistributed) and files, and as the business develops, they are
aware of the need for more efficient ways of working informationally.
Managers' solution to this problem is to either buy more expensive accounting
software, but that brings more benefits, but in addition to the cost of the product, it is
often necessary to have the support of an IT expert to install the application, not to mention the additional costs generated by the constant updating of the system, either
to resort to the processes of novelty and innovation in their constant search to have
long-term competitive advantages.
13
An online accounting software in the Cloud gives managers and employees the
ability to access global data, being able to update information whenever they w ant,
regardless of location. Also, the Cloud is defined as a simple method of capturing the
content of significant data and managing accounts. The most motivated option in choosing the Cloud implementation is the cost reduction. Cloud technology promises
users easy access to resources through a self -service subscription method, thus
reducing the cost of managing the system. Cloud technology requires minimal
investment in hardware equipment, and maintenance (installing upgrades, troubleshooting, back-up) is provided by the vendor at no additional cost. As a rule, the costs involved in using Cloud applications are lower than those of locally running applications on their own equipment.
14
12Arslana, O., & Karanb, M. B.,“Credit Risks and Internationalization of SMEs. Journal of Business Economics and
Management ”, 2009,pp. 361-368
13Popescu V., Popescu N. Gh. , Popescu Gh. R,“Innovation’s Role in Nowadays Society and the Ways to Generate
Competitive Intelligence and Accountability: Case of Romania ”, Jurnal IBBP (IBIMA), IBIMA Publishing, Journal of
Innovation & Business Best Practices, 2012, http://www.ibimapublish ing.com/journals/JIBBP/jibbp.html , accessed on
23.02.2020
14 Beckham, J.. Cloud Computing: What it is and How Your Small Business Can Benefit, 2010,
http://blogs.cisco.com/smallbusiness , accessed on 04.03.2020
Figure 4: Characteristics of Cloud Accounting
As shown in figure 4, I believe that the Cloud service has a transversal
influence on the business environment, bringing changes and improvements in the
performance of financial activities at each organizational level.
With the increasing importance and responsibility of decision making at the
company level, Cloud Accounting can make available applications that meet business
needs. Thus, at the operational level, Cloud Computing has functions that support accountants for efficient and secure processing and storage of data on accoun ts
receivable, debt, taxes and bank accounts. At the tactical level, as a basis for the
reporting process, the accountant has dashboards, journals, cash flow analyzes
through the automatic access of financial data. At the strategic, management level, perma nent access to data by conducting activities on the other levels of responsibility
creates the opportunity for reporting, budget planning and efficient management of a company's internal controls.On the Romanian market, gradually, Cloud applications are ga ining ground over locally -operated applications. The advantages of Cloud
technology are numerous and cannot be overlooked, especially by small and medium –
sized companies.A report by Harshman Phillips, which provides accounting services in the US, brings a deeper picture of the benefits brought by Cloud to the operational level of a business, in the financial-accounting activity, as can be seen in figure 5.
Figure 5: The paradigm shift for accountants
Cloud
accountingAccessibility
Availability
Automatic
upgradesFunctionality
In this way, the financial relationship of the business partners can be greatly
improved in the sense that one can give up time -consuming activities and resources,
such as the physical exchange of data and information between the client and the
accountant. The more efficient alternative allows data acc ess to a common workspace,
real-time collaboration, secure and online storage of information and permanent
access, regardless of location and from any electronic device with an internet connection.
In order to minimize costs and implement value -added servi ces in a
subscription -based environment, cloud computing is slowly but steadily changing the
accounting industry by providing the possibility of streamlining accounting processes.
Tax planning, productivity tips, cash flow forecasts and the real- time approach to
scanned invoices can provide these services. Through the software -as-a-service
(SaaS) platform, accounting professionals will be able to provide services in an
innovative way. SaaS is the most widespread form of Cloud, which involves the use
of thir d-party managed applications without the need for additional applications. The
cloud is also characterized by other forms such as platform as a service (PaaS), which
is the most complex form of Cloud and offers the possibility to develop its own
applications, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), through which resources can be
accessed. infrastructure, storage or networking services. The large accounting firms and the accounting profession have responded to the phenomenon of increasing the
use of Cloud- based technologies in accounting by providing a guidance guide in
adapting Cloud services.
Advantages of Cloud Computing in Accounting
Automation of the process of data collection and processing
With the development of a business, the volume of information increases.
According to a study by VitalAnalysis, a technology research company, 4% of companies experience the need for a new accounting solution that meets the functional needs of the business as the size increases. Financial management based on
SaaS solutions automates the financial process and reduces the volume of manual documents.
Thus, the incorporation of the document scanning process is an essential aspect
of Cloud services. Invoices can be checked and posted into the accounting system
automatically, after which the accountant can check and validate the record. By scanning documents, the processing cost is reduced, as invoices can be scanned in a large volume or by each individual client. Through Cloud Accounting, accounting
firms can compete with those that provide accounting services at a much lower cost.
By encouraging clients to daily scan related invoices, the accountant can have
real-time information that can be used to generate adja cent services to add value. All
these aspects define a powerful tool especially for small and medium -sized
companies, because it simplifies the financial flow, as I summarized in Figure 6 .
Figure 6: Paradigm shift for small businesses
Cloud Computing can provide new classes of applications and provide services
that were not possible before. Thus, compared to traditional accounting, the cloud
accounting system can move from basic accounting records to developing real- time
business analytics, using large amounts of resources to understand customer needs,
buyer behavior, supply chains and so on. far away.
Process automation allows the financial department to collaborate with the
other internal functions of a company by facilitating the access to data and m akes
available the business units analysis tools. This improves the decision-making process
and allows managers and executives to perform their tasks more efficiently, with real-
time information, without compromising data integrity.
Improving the client -accountant relationship
Clients can access the accounting firm's portal and have access to information
for understanding and analyzing the company's financial position at a given time.
They can also analyze the impact of currency fluctuations or track the cash flow that is useful in the decision-making process. The accounting profession can offer new services such as business analysis or cash flow forecasts, in the sense of providing a more in-depth financial expertise that small and medium -sized companies will find
essential in maintaining or increasing the level of business.
Thus, if in the traditional accounting process the data and information were
valid by collecting physical documents, traveling to the client's office, sending and providing feedback through online channels (e -mail), Cloud Accounting transparently
simplifies the client-accountant collaboration by that the data is available in real time in a common space. It goes from an expensive, difficult process with security breaches and inefficient to a controlled, secure and transparent collaboration.
Eliminating duplicate information, preventing errors and increasing data
accuracy
Data accuracy is a key feature in financial management. Manual processing is
prone to errors, time consuming and unjustifiably expensive. For example, an
organization that extracts its data from one system to manually enter it into another
system is at risk of mistakenly entering the data.
SaaS -based accounting systems have implemented controls, which
automatically identify duplicate records and can thus prevent other errors. For
example, the goods and services purchased or rented are automatically assigned to the
invoices received or the payments made, and the expenses are correctly recorded
during the accounting period to which they correspond (the risk of cut -off is
eliminated).
Secure access, control and authorization
The most common concern among users or potential users of Cloud Computing
technology is related to trust, security and confidentiality, issues frequently raised in the context of using internet services and outsourcing. There is a general mistrust of
data outsourcing – especially if data processing is outside the control of the
organization.
The greatest attention from the point of view of accounting security is given to
the management of money and sensitive information, such as bank accounts.
15
On these considerations, Cloud application providers offer high levels of
security. Web-based systems are actually the same or more secure and have internal controls equal to or better than in- house software. Cloud technology includes
powerful authorization and authentication mechanisms, and communications between
the Cloud Computing provider and the client, as well as those between the data centers, can be encry pted.
Moreover, the logging tools of all actions taken at a given time (log files) can
detect possible system attacks or vulnerabilities.
Challenges in the implementation of Cloud technology in Accounting
Even if the benefits of Cloud Accounting technology are recognized at the
corporate level, implementation of Cloud applications is rather slow, due to
management uncertainty regarding control and ownership of information. D ata
security and confidentiality are among the main concerns of users regarding the use of
15Beckham, J.. Cloud Computing: What it is and How Your Small Business Can Benefit, 2010,
http://blogs.cisco.com/smallbusiness, accessed on 04.03.2020
services based on Cloud Computing. Security concerns are based on the fact that
company confidential information is stored on a server that can be accessed through
the Internet and not on its own computer.
Tom Brennan, VP of Marketing at Financial Force brought to our attention the
most common justifications for not deploying Cloud Accounting solutions, as listed in Table 4.
Table 4: Arguments pro and agains cloud technologies in financial reporting
Pro Cons
Improving the financial performance of
the client through proactive consulting
services Why change an accounting system that
works?
Increasing the percentage by which
sales exceed the costs of a company, by
offering higher added value services by
increasing productivity A new accounting system would be far
too expensive
Saving time and reducing costs It takes too long for the new system to
be installed and functional.
Implementation can interrupt the
financial flow
It supports collaboration between
business partners through real -time
access to information Data is not secure on the Cloud
Business companies change their area of operation continuously based on
consumer impact. Environmental constant change includes organizational strategy adjustment in line with the global changes in research, industry, and technology that
can affect business efficiency. Digital technology (remote network networks, the Internet and mobile devices) may be used to promote business and other organizations' decision -makin g processes.
Based on the analyzes I can conclude that cloud technology is a change for the
accounting profession. It will lead to a considerable improvement in the way the
financial activities are carried out, the interaction with the clients and the spee d and
efficiency of responding to their needs. Accounting processes will be highly
automated, supporting transparent information, which makes accounting professionals reconsider their position and perceive analysis and consulting as the basis of the role they play. With the new technology, an accountant can provide real -time reports and
consulting services regarding business profitability, cost analysis or decision support.
Motivated by higher efficiency and customer satisfaction, the decision is no longer a
"yes" but a "when" cloud technology will be implemented in financial reporting.
CHAPTER II. Technologies used for the e-business application
The following section briefly describes the technologies that I used in order to
develop the application. Also, it describes the methodology applied in order to find
out information regarding the functionalities and the potential customer’s preferences.
2.1 Dissertation methodology
The aim of this project is to develop a computerised content management
system for staff members and a web -based user interface for. These two systems aim
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the company by being able to manage,
make and store products,inventory and orders in a more accurate way, avoiding as much as possible using paper reco rds that are open to errors and can easily be
damaged. The product will also improve the profit of the company because of
multiple aspects. All the company’s services will be displayed on the website where
any user can have access to them. The second aspec t is the fact that all operations
made by staff or customers will be recorded and this way mistakes can be easily found and resolved. In terms of security, data will be protected from unauthorised access as each company department including customers will have their own level of
access.
The goal of carrying out this research is to answers to the questions :
1. How can an IT solution improve a company's activity?
2. What are the technologies that can be used in the development of an e –
commerce content management system?
3. What should an e-commerce content management system(CMS) contain?
To answer these questions, the following list of objectives has been created:
• Questioning a target audience about the functionalities of a system that tries to make th eir business as efficient as possible
• System analysis and design
• System development
• Testing the developed system
2.2 Primary data collection
Sample description
The research made by using primary data was executed by appliying a
questionnaire to a representa tive sample of adult Romanian citizens. These citizens’
main characteristic is the ability to own or already own a company.
The representative sample is calculated by subtracting the number of people
under 18 (approximately 413480016) from the total popula tion (approximately
22175000 million inhabitants17) in Romania, thus obtaining the number of population
over 18 for the current year, namely 18040200 adults.
By applying a probability of 95% and an error of 5%, the representative sample
for this research consists of 384 people.
The questionnaire
The detailed questionnaire below was designed in a way that could address the
potential administrators of the CMS. Using a quantitative design with closed
questions, it was sought that as much information as poss ible be obtained from the
respondents. Most of the questions’ answers are having a nominal scale, with a
“Yes/No ” style or by simply choosing a single option. I chose the nominal scale and
these type of questions in order to avoid ambiguity, a problem usually encountered by
software developers as myself . Also, the respondent sbenefit from such close -ended
questions in order to answer efficiently .
The online survey was successfully completed by 39 2 respondents . The
questions are:
Questionnaire description . I am conducting this research in order to find out
potential functionalities to implement in a web- based content management system
that helps a company ’s e-business and also e -commerce activity. Supposing you own
a company that wants to expand into e -business through the development of an
e-commerce website , please answer the following questions:
1. What kind of business do you run?
Retail
Wholesale
2. To what kind of customers does/woul d your company sell to?
Individuals
Companies
Both
3. Please select the website you like the most, and whose functionalities you would like your CMS to mimic
pcgarage.ro
cel.ro
emag.ro
top-shop.ro
16https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/comunicat_1_iunie_2019.pdf
17https://insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/com_presa/com_pdf/pop dom1ian2020r.pdf
4. Would you like the website visitors to be able to register an account?
Yes
No
5. Would you like the website visitors to be able to place orders for
products?
Yes No
6. Would you like the website visitors to be able to review products?
Yes No
7. Would you like the website visitors to be able to leave messages?
Yes No
8. Would you like the website visitors to be able to download invoices?
Yes
No
9. Would you like to be able to generate invoices from the content
management system?
Yes No
10. Would you like to be able to manage the online shop’s inventory?
Yes
No
11. Would you like to assign specific people for managing orders
Yes
No
12. Would you like to be able to manage existing accounts in the online shop (customers,administrators or salespersons)?
Yes No
13. Do you think a computerized information system would improve the efficiency of a company?
Yes
No
14. What kind of software solution would you apply in a company?
Desktop -only (offline)
Mobile and desktop (online)
Results
Figure 7: Types of businesses run by the respondents
For the first question from the survey, we can see that 75% (294 respondents)
of the respondents run retail businesses and the rest of 25% ( 98 respondents) run
wholesale businesses.
Figure 8 : The customers of the respondents
From question two we can deduct that 17,6% ( 69 respondents) of the
companies sell their products/services to individuals, 23,7 % ( 93 respondents) of the
companies sell their products and services to another companies and 58,7 % (230
respondents) sell for both (companies and individuals).
Figure 9: Most liked e -commerce website among the respondents
For question eight,we have a variety of answers.As we can see,the most liked e –
commerce website is cel .ro with 138 votes,the second one is pcgarage.ro with 107
votes,the third one is emag .ro with 88 votes,the next one is altex.ro with 38 votes and
the last one is top -shop.ro with 21 votes.
Table 5: The answers for the Yes/No questions
Question Yes No
Would you like the website visitors to be able to register an account? 85,7% 14,3%
Would you like the website visitors to be able to place orders for
products? 92,1% 7,9%
Would you like the website visitors to be able to review products? 75,5% 24,5%
Would you like the website visitors to be able to leave messages? 92,6% 7,4%
Would you like the website visitors to be able to download invoices? 89,8% 10,2%
Would you like to be able to generate invoices from the
contentmanagement system? 92,3% 7,7%
Would you like to be able to manage the online shop's inventory? 87% 13%
Would you like to assign specific people for managing orders ? 91,3% 8,7%
Would you like to be able to manage existing accounts in the online
shop (customers, administrators or salespersons )? 87,2% 12,8%
Do you think a computerized information system would improve the
efficiency of your company? 91,3% 8,7%
We can see that 85,7% ( 336 respondents) of the respondents want the website
visitors to be able to register an account and the rest of 14,3% (56 respondents) do not
want that.
92,1% ( 361 respondents) of the respondents want the website visitors to be
able to place orders for products and 7,9 % (31 respondents) of them do not want their
visitors to place online orders.
75,5% ( 296 respondents) of the respondents want the website visitors to be able
to review products and 2 4,5% (96 respondents) do not want.
92,6 of the respondents (363) want the website visitors to be able to leave
messages and 7,4% (2 9)do not want this functionality for the website visitors.
89,8% ( 352 respondents) of the respondents want their website visi tors to be
able to downland their invoices and the rest of 10,2% (40 respondents) do not want
that.
92,3% ( 362 respondents) of the respondents answered positively, so they want
to be able to generate invoices from the content management system, and the rest of
7,7% (30 respondents) answered negatively.
87% ( 341 respondents) of the respondents said that they want to be able to
manage the online s hop’s inventory and the other 13 % (51 respondents) do not want
that.
91,3% ( 358 respondents) of the respondents responded positively for
assingning specific people for managing orders, while the other 8,7 % ( 34
respondents) do not want this function.
87,2 ( 342) of the respondents answered that they want to be able to manage
existing accounts in the online shop while 12,8 (50) do not want this addon.
91,3% ( 358 respondents) of the respondents think that a computerized
information system would improve the efficiency of their company, while the 8,7%
(34 respondents) do not agree with this.
Figure 10: Preferences regarding the solution type
For the last question, almost all of the responden ts, more specific 86,5% (339
respondents), said that they would use mobile and desktop software solution (Online),
while the rest of 13,5% (53 respondents) would use desktop -only (Offline).
The choices regarding the developed application presented in the following
pages and the technologies used were based on these results of the primary research in order to increase the probability to sell it to a customer.
2.3 System Analysis and Design
In this section, the developer uses a number of techniques to define t he classes
that will be used to start developing the product. To do that, a research has been made
to identify which approach would be suitable for the project and it have been decided to use the Object-Oriented Analysis (PDOA) approach that will be used a longside
with the following techniques: Textual Analysis, Significant Event Analysis and Commands, Queries and Constraints.
Using Textual Analysis, the engineer will identify candidate classes and
operations for the identified classes. The Significant Even t Analysis will also be used
to find any other classes. An event table will be created for each key event that happens in the current system. Using events tables, the following are identified: the candidate class routine(s), the candidate system classes and the candidate attributes for each class. Using Commands, Queries and Constraints technique, the designer will create BON class charts with information regarding the routines of each class,
attributes and constraints/rules that the class must follow. Thes e charts will also
describe how the classes interact between each other.
After the classes are defined, the engineer will use the classes to create the
entity -relationship diagram (ERD) followed by the wireframes. Creating the
wireframes involves producing drafts of graphical user interface (GUI) designs based
on the requirements gathered from the first section and the classes defined. Next step will be to arrange a meeting with the client to check whether the wireframes meet the
requirements and if not, th e wireframes will be modified and sent back to the key
stakeholders for confirmation.
2.4 System implementation
In this section, the product will be developed using PHP programming
language based on object-oriented programming (OOP) principles. This language has
been chosen for its fast load time, flexibility regarding the database connectivity and
its accessible price for hosting as it only requires running on a Linux server. To store
and retrieve data, phpMyAdmin will be used to create the MySQL database.
During the development of the product, the engineer will hold regular meetings
with the client, so that the client will be kept up to date with the progress that will be
made and ensure that the functionality of the system meets the client’s expectation.
2.5 System Testing
This section is essential to ensure that the system is functioning properly. This
is done using testing strategies, such as: On-Going testing, Black-Box and White -Box
testing, as seen below:
Table 6: System Testing Techniques
2.6 System Evaluation
When the solution system meets all the client’s requirements, the system is
evaluated using a variety of techniques, such as: Usability Evaluation Strategy,
Thinking aloud and Post Event walkthrough. Usernames and passwords will be
created for each staff member and will be able to use the system by logging in on the
website. When doing the Usability Evaluation Strategy, the engineer will give instructions to the staff members and they are expected to follow several steps to complete different ta sks.
Training manual will be given to staff members and Thinking Aloud, and Post
Event Walkthrough techniques will be used. For Thinking aloud technique, the user
has to describe each step that they are doing. For Post Event walkthrough, the user is
asked to describe the process of completing the task. These two techniques will be
used to check if the information provided in the help books is sufficient and whether there are any tasks difficult to achieve because of the system’s functionality.
The strategie s mentioned above enable the engineer to get feedback from staff
members and identify whether there are issues that were not considered previously.
2.7 Management information system
A management information system collects, analyzes and processes the data of
an organization to create meaningful and useful information on the basis of which
management can make the right decisions to ensure the organization's future growth.
The goals of a MIS are to incorporate the enterprise 's operati onal structure and
dynamics in order to effectively control the organization and harness the information system's capacity for competitive advantage.
The key goals of an information management program are :
18
• Capturing contextual or operational information f rom various internal and
external organizational sources that will lead to decision making.
• The processing of the collected data into information needed at the political, tactical and operational level to schedule, organize, coordinate, direct and monitor functionalities. Data processing involves estimating, sorting,
classifying, summarizing information with the data.
• It is then necessary to store information or processed data for future use.
• The system should be able to retrieve this information from the s torage as and
when needed by different users.
• Finally, through the organizational network, the dissemination of information or the final product of the management information system should be
transmitted to its users on a regular basis.
As a result, the characteristics of a management information system are:
• It should be focused on planning for the long term.
• It should offer a holistic view of the organization's dynamics and structure.
• It should function as a systematic and complete system that covers all of the organization's interconnecting sub- systems.
• It should be designed top- down, as decision-makers or management will
actively participate and provide clear guidance at the MIS development stage.
• It should be focused on an organization's managers ' ne ed for strategic,
organizational and tactical knowledge.
• When recording these circumstances, it should also take care of exceptional situations.
• It should be capable of making predictions and projections and producing
advanced information, thus offering a competitive advantage. On the basis of such forecasts, decision-makers will take action.
18K. K. Panigrahi, Management Information System,2017, pag. 11 -13
• It should connect all sub- systems within the company so that decision-makers
can make the right decision based on a holistic view.
• It should promote the flow of inform ation across different sub -systems, while
preventing data duplication and duplicity. It should be as realistic as possible to
simplify the operations.
• Despite the fact that the MIS is an integrated, complete system, it should be
made so versatile that it c an be easily split into smaller sub- systems as needed.
• The foundation of a well -built MIS is a central database.
• It should be able to process data correctly and at high speed, using different
techniques such as research on operations, simulation, heuristic s, etc.
• It should be able to collect, organize, process and update large amounts of both
related and unrelated raw data from different internal and external sources at different times.
• It should provide information about ongoing events in real time without delay.
• It should support different production formats and in practice adhere to the
current rules and regulations.
• For all levels of management, it should provide structured and relevant
information: political, organizational and tactical.
• In data storage and retrieval, it should strive for extreme versatility.
2.8 The MySQL database management system
Database Management Systems (abbreviated DBMS) are a set of programs that
facilitate the interaction of users with a database, in order to create, update and query
it. The DBMS is responsible for :
• ensuring and supervising the insertion of information into the database, as well
as updating and extracting them;
• authorization and control of access to data;
• maintaining the independence between the database structure and the programs.
The essential objective of a DBMS is to provide an efficient environment,
adapted to the users who want to consult or update the information contained in the database. Databases are designed to process a large amount of information. Their
management requires not only a rigorous structuring of the data, but also a rationalization of the access and processing procedures.
The main functions of a DBMS are:
• description of the data set at the physical and conceptual levels;
• creating (initializing) and operating (consulting and updating) the database;
• integrity control of the information base;
• confidentiality of the information contained in the database;
• simultaneous access of multiple users to information;
• security in operation;
• provi ding a set of commands and instructions necessary for the users to consult
the database directly, through a manipulated language, as well as the
programmers, for writing the work programs with the database;
• revising and restructuring the base;
• performance monitoring.
A DBMS generally has the following modules :19
• File manager, which allocates memory space on disk and manages the physical
data structures used to represent information.
• The database manager is a module of programs that performs the interface
between the internal data (from the disk) contained in the database and the
programs (or commands) for consulting and updating. He translates the DML
(data handling language) instructions into system instructions, at elementary
level, being responsible for t he smooth running of data read / write operations
in / in the database.
• The query processor translates the instructions of the query language into
elementary, "intelligible" instructions for the database manager. He optimizes
the consultation, to obtain the results in a short time.
• Data Manipulation Language (DML) modules perform the conversion of the
language manipulation instructions used in a program into current host-language procedures, interacting with the query processor in order to produce
the appropriate code sequences.
• The DDL modules (Data Definition Language) translate (by compilation or
interpretation) and execute the DDL instructions, obtaining the set of tables
representing the metadata stored in the data dictionary.
MySQL is a relational data base management system that offers the same
features found in competing products (Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL,
PostgreSQL).
The MySQL server controls the access to the data in order to guarantee the
possibility that more users can work simultaneously with them.
So, MySQL is a multi- user (multiple user) and multi-thread (multiple threads)
server. It uses SQL (Structured Query Language), the standard database query language worldwide.
Some of the reasons why MySQL is widely used are related to:
20
● Flexibility
19Gregory McFarland, A. Rudmik, D. Lange, “ Object -Oriented Database Management System ”, AFRL/IF,
1999
20W. Jason Gilmore , “Beginning PHP and MySQL From Novice to Professiona l Fourth Edition”,2010,Apress , pp. 477-
479
This DBMS works on most operating systems such as Oracle Linux / Red Hat /
CentOS, Oracle Solaris, Ubuntu, SUSE Enterprise Linux, Debian, Microsoft
Windows Server, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, FreeBSD .
● Performance
From the earliest launches, MySQL developers focused on performance, even
at the price of a reduced set of features. So far, the commitment to extraordinary speed has not changed, and over time, the capabilities that were initially lacking have
come to compete with those of many commercial and open -source competitors .
MySQL also provides:
○ Enterprise -level SQL functions
○ Indexing and searching in the whole text
○ Query caching
○ Replication
○ Security measures
MySQL boasts a wide range of protection and configuration choices, allowing
the user to e xercise total control over almost any imaginable element of their service.
For example, the user can track features such as the following with MySQL
configuration options:
• The owner of the daemon, default language, default port, MySQL data storage
location and other key features.
• Memory allocation for threads, database cache, temporary tables, table
attachments, and main buffers index.
• Various aspects of MySQL networking capabilities, including how long it will
attempt to connect before termination, whether it will seek to resolve DNS
names, the maximum allowable packet size and more .
● Licensing
MySQL offers two licensing options:
1. an open source license of its software in accordance with the terms of the
General Public License (GPL).
2. a commercial license that is available if the user does not want to launch or
redistribute the project code or if the user wants to create an application that is not
licensed under the GPL or another compatible license.
2.9 The PHP programming language
21
PHP, an acronym that comes from "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", is a widely
used scripting language, developed and distributed in the Open Source system, which is specially developed to develop web applications, by integrating PHP code into HTML documents. Its syntax comes from C, Java and Perl and is easy to learn. The
21 The PHP Group, „Manualul PHP”,http://php.net/manual/ro/index.php, accessed on 22.12.2019
main purpose of the language is to quickly write dynamic web pages, but with PHP
the user can achieve much more.
PHP is among today's most popular innovations. Since it blends the most
advanc ed features with ease of use, PHP has fast become a leading resource for
creating web applications. Unlike other common web application development tools,
such as Perl, however, PHP is a simple programming language for beginners, and for those who haven't previously done programming.
Like other web -based scripting languages, PHP enables the provision of
dynamic Web content, i.e. Web content that changes from day to day or even minute to minute, automatically. Web content is an essential factor in promoting website
traffic; in general, users will no longer return to a web page containing the same
details as the last visit. On the other hand, frequently updated websites can attract
considerable traffic volumes.
In addition, PHP operates on the Web server, not the Web browser, unlike
scripting languages such as JavaScript. As a result, PHP can gain access to the
JavaScript inaccessible files, databases, and other tools. Such are rich diverse content
outlets that draw visitors in.
The several benefits of server-side scripting :22
• There are no browser compatibility issues. PHP scripts are interpreted only
by the web server, the language elements used are accepted by any browser.
• Allows access to resources on the server. In the example above, the date was
displayed depending on the web server on the web page. If the date were requested using JavaScript, it would only be displayed depending on the computer running the web browser. There are also many other impressive examples of server resource exploitation, such as interacting with a MySQL
database.
• Reduces the client’s task . JavaScript can delay displaying a webpage
significantly (especially on mobile devices) because the browser must run the
script before it can d isplay the web page. With the code executed on the server,
this burden is transmitted to the web server, which can be more powerful than the browser.
There are three main areas where PHP scripts are used:
• Scripts running on the server. This is the most traditional and most important for
PHP. It takes three things to make it work: the PHP interpreter (CGI or server mode),
a web server and a web browser. The web server needs to be started, with a PHP
connection installed. The useraccess the result of PHP programs with a browser
through the web server.
• Command line scripting. PHP can be run without the need for a server and browser,
but only for the PHP interpreter. This method is ideal for scripts that will typically be
executed using
22Kevin Yank, „PHP and MySQL Novice to Ninja 5th Edition”, Sitepoint, 2012, pag. 51
CHAPTER III. The architecture and functionality of the built
application
3.1 The design of the database
The database is a structured set of concrete data, free of unnecessary
redundancy that are used by an organization's application systems and that allow
efficient data processing by both one a nd more users. Databases are useful in storing
and managing data, being generally the embodiment of several tables linked to each
other by means of common fields. 23
The following database model contains the tables and their attributes that were
taken into account for database creation. It was designed for both the management system and the customer interface. Each column in the table was created with a data
type and a maximum character length.Each table has a primary key column indicated
by a yellow key. The external key attribute is specified by the red dot, while the rest
of the columns have full or empty blue dots. The filled point represents a constraint that forces the fields on that column to be null, while the blue ones do not impose any
constraint ap plied. For each foreign key created, an index was initially created in each
child table. Then, one -to-many relationships were created from the child table by
linking the external key to the child table with the primary key from the parent table.
Also, a on e-to-one relationship was created between the „nomenclator” table and
„stoc” one by linking the ir primary keys that are representing the product code .
Figur e11: The database relational model
23 Cristescu M., Baze de date- Laboratorul nr.1, note de curs, Universitatea Lucian Blaga Sibiu, 2017 .
For some foreign keys, referential constraints were applied. In the table of the
nomenclature tables, in reference to the category table, the "CASCADE" update and
deletion rules were applied, as shown in the figure below .
These constraints were applied to delete all products belonging to a category
when that specific category is deleted. For the update rule, if the category code is changed in the „categorii” table, all entries with that code in the "cod_categorie" column of the product table will be updated as well.
Figure 12: Referential constraints
3.2 The implementation of the application
The main three groups of users of the system are the customers, the
management team and the sales team. The functionalities of the application have been
identified on the basis of each user group, as the system will have different
characteristics for each user group.
The management system has a dynamic navigation bar that changes depending
on the registered user's rank. The administrator has access to a complete navigation bar with the functions of adding, modifying and deleting the products, product
categories, third parties and all users of the content management system . customer
interface, subscribers and reviews and has the ability to delete them. Also, besides
being able to confirm orders the administrator can create invoices and goods received
notes.
Sales staff have access to a navigation bar without the functions of adding,
modifying and deleting the products, categories and users of the content management
system . It also cannot create goods received note s.
This was done by searching the "admins" table for the record that contains on
the admin_email_address column equal to the registered user's email address and rank equal to "administrator". Then the row numbers of th e result table are counted using
the "rowCount ()" function. If there is at least one row in the results table, it means
that the registered user has the rank "administrator" and a full navigation bar will be
displayed. If there are no rows in the result table, an incomplete navigation bar will be displayed on the screen. The written script that shows the dynamic navigation bar is
shown in appendix 1.
The functionality of the management system
The management user group is of the utmost importance, as this department is
responsible for managing all the company's processes. Its functionalities are related
to:
a) Records regarding clients with account on the client interface
Any e -commerce website should provide its administrator the ability to monitor
the num ber of customers it has and ways to display information necessary to contact
them. This way the company that owns the website has the potential to know if it is
popular or not on the internet and learn more about its customers. Because of this the
back -office system allows the user to :
Figure 13. Administrator’s
navigation bar Figure 14. Salesperson’s navigation bar
• View customer records
• Display all information about a particular client
• Search for a specific c ustomer
• Dele te customers
Figure 15. Page with the customer list
b) Records regarding third parties
Companies that have the role of customers or suppliers are considered third
parties. Being able to store information about them and having access to that information helps the user track the company’s relationship with them and also create invoices, goods received notes. In this regard the content management system allows:
• The c reation of records related to third parties
• Editing of records related to third parties
• Displaying of records related to third parties
• Displaying of information related to a specific third- party
• Third- party search functionality
• Deleting of third parties
Figure 16. Page with the third parties list
c) Personnel records
Because the results of the questionnaire indicate that the future users of the
content management systems want to be in control of the information and activity of the other users that manage the website, I created facilities such as:
• Creation of accounts f or sales and administrative staff
• Editing of accounts for sales and administrative staff
• Displaying of accounts for sales and administrative staff
• Displaying of information regarding a specific sales or administrative staff
• Staff search functionality
• Delet ing of staff accounts
Figure 17. Page with the users of the management system
d) Record s regarding products
The products offered by a company are essential in its success and having
control over what is shown on a website is crucial when it comes to organizing it in a professional and efficient way. Also, for e -commerce websites it is important to be
able to track the inventory in order to manage the flow of products proper ly and
reduce the probability of having inefficient inventory. Also, this helps the company know which products are selling well and which are not. Because most answers of the
questionnaire support the idea of being able to manage inventory the following list of
functionalities were included in the content management system:
• Creation of records of products
• Editing of products
• Displaying the records of products
• Displaying information regarding a specific product
• Search functionality for a product record
• Generating the warehouse record for the inventory of a product
• Viewing the warehouse inventory sheet
• Printing the warehouse inventory sheet
• Removal of products
Figure 18. Page with the list of products
Figure 19. Page of product detail
e) Management of customer orders
If customers are able to place ordersvia an e -commerce website it must have
functionalities that allow the users to manage them. The placement of an order is a
form of communication between the seller and the customer and the CMS I built offers allows the users of the back-end interface to:
• Display order records
• Display all information about a particular order
• Search for an order
• Approve orders and notify the customer who made the order through an
electronic mail
• Generate the invoice for the order made by the client
• View the invoice
• Print the invoice
• Cancel and delete orders
f) Sales invoice records (in case of selling the product at the physical store)
Some companies are not doing business exclusively on the internet and they
may sell from a physical location. In order to make it easier for them to create a document that justifies the act of selling, I created a section within the content management system which helps the with the following:
• Creating invoice records
• Modifica tion of invoices
• Finalizing invoices
Figure 20. Invoice filling
Figure 21. Completing invoice
Figure 22. Finishing invoice
• Viewing invoice records
• Display all information about an invoice
• Invoice search functionality
• Generating the invoice for a sale
• View the invoice
• Invoice listing
• Deleting invoices
Figure 23. Page with the list of invoices
Figure 24. Page with the details of an invoice
g) Management of goods received note s
Also, in order to provide the users a tool that helps them justify the existing
inventory of the company I created the functionalities related to the goods received
note, functionalities that are listed below:
• Creating recordings of goods received note s
• Changing goods received note s
• Completion of goods received note s
Figur e25. Creation of goods received note
Figure 26. Completing the goods received note
• Display of recordings of receiving notes
• Displaying all information about a goods received note
• Functionality of searching for a goods received note
• Generation of the goods received note related to a purchase
• View the goods received note
• Printing the goods received note
• Deleting goods received note s
Figure 27. Page with the list of goods received note s
Figure 28. Page with the details of a goods received note
h) Management of reviews
Reviews on a website help the company in building the customers’ trust in the
products or services it sells and also allows creating a community around the activity
of the company. Reviews allow customers to express their needs, thoughts and
recommendations, but they also need to be monitored in order to see if they are appropriate with the company’s policy. As a result, I developed for the users of the
content management systems means to:
• Approv e reviews with the purpose of posting th em on the customer interface
• View reviews
• Delete reviews
Figure 29. Page with list of reviews
i) Subscriber management to the newsletter
Sometimes customers want to be informed when new products appear or there
are some discounts about the products and services of the company and subscribing to a newsletter is a way to let the company know that they would gladly receive their offers. This way the company is enabled to send promotional information about its activity to the email addresses whose customers subscribed to the newsletter. From the back- office of the website the users can:
• View subscribers
• Delete subscribers at the customer request
Figure 30. Page with the list of subscribers
Functionality of the sales system
The user group represented by the sales team has more limited access to records
compared to the user group representing the management team. It is focused on addressing customer issues including orders and sales as follows :
a) Recordings regarding clients with account on the client interface
• Viewing customer records
• Display all information about a particular client
• Search functionality for a specific client
• Deleting customers
b) Records relating to suppliers
• Creating records related to suppliers
• Modification of records r elating to suppliers
• Displaying records relating to suppliers
• Displaying all information about a particular third party
• Search functionality for a third -party client
• Deleting suppliers
c) Personnel records
• Displaying the accounts of the sales or management staff members
• Displaying all information about a certain member of the sales or management staff
• Search functionality of a specific staff member
d) Product records
• Creating product records
• Editingproductrecords
• Display of product records
• Displaying all information about a particular product
• Search functionality for a specific product
• Generation of the warehouse record related to the inventory of a product
• View the store listing
• Listing the store listing
• Deleting products
e) Order management
• Display order records
• Display all information about a particular order
• Order search functionality
• Approval of orders and notification of the customer who made the order through electronic mail
• Generating the invoice for the order made by the client
• View the invoice
• Invoice listing
• Deleting orders
f) Records of sales invoices (in case of sale of the product at the physical store)
• Creating invoice records
• Modification of invoices
• Finalizing invoices • Viewing invo ice records
• Display all information about an invoice
• Invoice search functionality
• Generating the invoice for a sale
• View the invoice
• Invoice listing • Deleting invoices
Preparation and printing of the invoice
With the completion of a product ordering operation, the buyer is directed to a
page that contains a list of all orders placed so far by the buyer. Each command will
have a column called "Status" that describes the status of the operation and can take
the value of "CONFIRMED" or " PENDING" . In the following example, the last order
of the buyer was of two GIGABYTE GA -H110 motherboards worth 923 RON, and
the default order status value is " PENDING". The order status will be change from
"PENDING" to "CONFIRMED" only after the administrator verifies the order using
the content management system and press the "Confirm Order" button. The users of
the system have the possibility to see all the orders made by all the buyers, these being displayed in a list. System users can also view order details by clicking the
"Order Details" button, cancel orders by pressing the "Delete Order" button and confirm orders by clicking "Confirm Order" .
Figure 31. Pending order from the order list
When the "Confirm Ord er" button is pressed, the order status changes to
"CONFIRMED" and the change is visible both the content management system and
the customer interface .
Once the order is confirmed, the order invoice can be seen by the buyer, on the
customer interface, and the manager, in the management system, by pressing the
"Order details" buttons, and „Print i nvoice ”.
Figure 32. Printing the invoice
When the client or users of the content management system press the "Print
invoice" button, the invoice for the placed and confirmed order will be displayed
through the browser's PDF VIEWER tool which can be used to download, print or send the document to " OneNote” , Fax, etc. If you use a browser such as "Mozilla
Firefox", which does not have a PDF VIEWER tool (like "Google Chrome"), the
invoice will be downloaded as a PDF file on the device on which the browser works.
Figure 33. The printed invoice
The invoice contains the following information:
• Details of the supplier company on the top left; these details are automatically
added from the database in the " date_firma " table.
• The details of the client, individual or company on which the invoice is made
are displayed in the upper right -hand side; these details are automatically displayed in
the database. This section shows the name of the customer who placed the order or
the details of the company if the billing is done by legal entity. If the invoicing is
done on the individual , the items C.I.F, Nr.ord.reg.com., The headquarters, County,
Account, Bank, will remain incomplete.
• The details of the order invoice that are displayed centered on the page.
Each invoice has a unique number and a specific date based on the time the
order is sent. In the example above, the unique invoice number is " 30" and the order
date, respectively the invoice, is 13-11-2019. The invoice table contains the following
columns: current numbe r, product name, unit of measure, quantity, unit price without
VAT, value of product without VAT, value of VAT applied to each product, value of
product with VAT, total price, supplier's signature and stamp, data regarding the shipment, the name of the del egate, the identity card, the series, the serial number,
issued by, means of transport, the number of the delivery, the date and time at which
the shipment was made, signatures, the receipt signature. In Romania, the applied rate
for electronic equipment is 19%.
The column "Product name" contains the name of the ordered product, the
column "U.M." contains the unit of measure of the ordered product, respectively in the piece, the column "Cant" contains the number of ordered pieces, the column "P.U. excluding VAT "contains the price of a piece without VAT, the column" Value
without VAT "contains the total price of the quantities ordered without VAT, the column" VAT "contains the value of the VAT applied to the price of the ordered quantities of the product, the column" Value (with VAT) "contains the total value of
the quantities ordered including VAT. The spaces related to the transport are empty to
be completed by the courier company that performs the movement of the products
ordered from the supplier to the c ustomer.
When the customer clicks the "Send order" button, the information added in the
invoice form and the unique product / product code, together with the order quantities,
as well as the value data of each order quantity are inserted in the " comenzi " and
"comenzi_detalii " tables.
The script in the PHP tab named "list_com.php", performs a variety of
instructions. The information in the left corner is taken from the "date_firma " table,
the one on the right from the "clients" table, in the case of a billing per individual or
from the "orders" table in the case of a billing per legal person. The rest of the invoice
details are selected using SQL commands with INNER JOIN-type junctions from the "nomenclature", "commands", "detail_ commands" tables, stored i n variables via the
"FETCH" statement and displayed on the invoice.
At the same time, the PHP FPDF class accessed via the "require" function of
the "fdpdf.php" file is required to use the cell drawing functions on the page, thus
defining the invoice structure. A new instance of the FPDF class is created under the
name of "$ pdf". This instance is then used to access functions such as: "AddPage", "SetFont", "Cell" and "Output", etc.
The "AddPage" function adds a new blank page to the "list_com.php"
document. Then, the "SetFont" function sets the details of the font used to display the
information on the page .
Figure 34. Accessing the fpdf class
Using the "if" function and the variable "$cust_type", it is checked whether the
billing is done for an individual or company . If the invoicing is done on behalf of the
company, the cells are printed with the information provided by the client at the time
of order completion. If the billing is done on behalf of the individual , only the
customer's name and surname are printed .
The Cell () function requires the following parameters:
• The cell width;
• The cell height;
• The cell’s value can be a predefined string or a variable containing fetched
data;
• The border type (“0” means borderless and “1” for solid border);
• The next cell’s position (“0” means next cell goes to right of the current cell
and “1” means next cell goes at the beginning of the next line) .
Figure 35. Drawing the cells of the invoice
Additionally, an optional parameter can be used to align the cell’s value. It can
take the following values:
“L” aligns text on the left side;
“C” aligns text on the centre;
“R” aligns text on the right side.
The default alignment for the cell’s value is left.
Based on the used browser, the Output () function o pens its pdf viewer or
forces a download of the invoice .
Figure 36. Generating the invoice page
Afterwards, the pdf viewer’s functions of the used browser can be used to
download, print, send the document to OneNote, faxed etc.
Customer notification of the order
When an order has been placed, a confirmation email will be sent to the
customer's email address informing him of the details of the order and the fact that it
is being processed and will be contacted.
Figure 37. Email notification of the customer received when sending the order
When an order is approved by an administrator or a seller, the customer will
receive a confirmation email containing the order details and informing him of the
order approval.
Figure 38. Customer notification email received upon order approval
Also, when an order is canceled, the customer will receive an email containing
the order details and informing him about the cancellation of the order .
Figure 39. Email notification of the custome r received when canceling the order
Preparation and printing of the goods received note
Once the goods received note has been created addressing the procedure
shown, completed by adding selected products from the list of products of the
previously selected supplier and finalized by pressing the " GRN Completion" button,
it is available for listing by accessing the page with the list receiving notes and
clicking on the GRN Details button which redirects the user to the document details
page. From here, the users of the management system can press the "List GRN" button, and the completed goods received note will be displayed through the script
"list_grn .php" and the PDF VIEWER tool, if the browser allows this. , the document
will require a download of the document in PDF file format.
The columns of the generated goods received note table are :
Column 1 – Crt.no.: Specifies the row number in the table
Column 2 – Product name: Contains the name of the product entered into
management
Column 3 – U.M. : Contains the unit of measure of the ordered product,
respectively by piece
Column 4 –Qt. doc .: Contains the number of pieces written on the product
purchase invoice
Column 5 – Qt. rec.: contains the number of pieces entered into management
Column 6 – U.P.: contains the price of a piece without VAT
Column 7 – Value ( wihout VAT): contains the total price of the quantities
entered into management excluding VAT
Column 8 -%: specifies th e percentage of markup applied to the product
entered into management
Column 9 – U.P.: contains the value of the unitary markup of the product entered
into management¬
Column 10 – Total: contains the total value of the markup of the quantities
entered into ma nagement
Column 11 –U.P.: contains the unit sales price of the product entered into
management
Column 12 – Value: contains the total sales value of the quantities entered into
management
Column 13 – Ded. VAT. : contains the value of the deductible VAT applie d to
the purchase price of the quantities entered into management of the product
Column 14 – NeexVAT: contains the value of the non -demandable VAT
applied on the addition
Column 15 – Value ( with VAT): contains the total sales value of the products
entered into management, including VAT
Figure 40. Goods received note
The GRN generation script is similar to the invoice generation script for the
functions used, but information is obtained from the tables "date _firm a",
"nomenclator", " nir", "achizitii " and stored in variables as shown in the appendix 2.
Drawing up and printing the Warehouse inventory sheet
The content management system offers the possibility of generating and
subsequently listing the Warehouse inventory sheet for each product in the
nomenclature table, by pressing the Warehouse inventory sheet button as shown in
Figure 31 .
Figure 41. The option to generate the warehouse sheet
This document is generated through the PHP script "list_fisa_mag.php", using
the same functions of the PHP FPDF class presented above, but retrieving the data
from the tables "nomenclator", "moves" and “ date_firm a”.
Figure 42. Warehouse sheet
The columns of the table of movements in the Warehouse inventory sheet are:
• Date: Specifies the date of the transaction that affected the inventory
• Number: specifies the number of the document related to the operation
• Type: specifies the type of document, FF meaning Fiscal Invoice, and
GRNgoods received note
• Inputs: the qu antity of inventory entered in the entity's assets
• Exits: the quantity of inventory entered in the entity's assets
• Inventory : the inventory available as a result of the transaction
• Date and signature of control: In this column the signature of the fi nancial
control body appears on the occasion of the management verification, as well as that
of the inventory commission.
The display of the quantity of movement on the cell corresponding to the type
of movement was achieved by using the if function as can be seen in appendix 3 .A
increasing the quantity of products in inventory by creating a GRN and reducing a
quantity of products from the inventory by approving an order or the creation of an
invoice, in the table of movements, that quantity is inserted together with the type of the document, the number, the date related to the operation, the product code subject
to the operation, but also the type of movement. The increase in the quantity of
inventory s is recorded as a movement of type "I" ( IN), and its decrease as a
movement of type "O" ( OUT). Depending on these values, the script performs the
motion type check and displays the corresponding data in the cells. If the operation is ainventory entry, the cell in the " IN" column will conta in the amount related to the
operation. In the case of an out of inventory operation, the cell in the " OUT" column
will contain the amount related to the operation. Also use the variable "$stoc" to
which the value is increased or decreased depending on the type of operation and then displayed on the cell in the column " Inventory ".
The functionalities of the c ustomer’s interface
The third user group considered is the customer user group. This group will be
able to make changes only to their own records and will only be able to view records
related to products, reviews, their own shopping carts, their own orders, confirmations and billing records, as follows :
a) Records regarding the connected customer
It is important to let the customer see its own record rega rding the personal data
he inputs when creating an account, and also let him/her change it easily. This shows transparency from the company that owns the website and builds trust which is an
essential part in the customer ’s loyalty .
• View of own records
• Modification of own records
b) Product-related records
• View products and details regarding them and search for a specific product
Figure 43. List of products from the category " Motherboards "
Figure 44. The detail page of a particular product
c) Records related to orders
• Viewing the shopping cart
• Adding to the shopping cart the products you want to order in the next period
• Submitting orders
• View the orders and the situation regarding their processing
Figure 45. Customer’s cart
d) Records regarding invoicing
• View billing data
• List of invoices for confirmed orders
e) Management of reviews
• View reviews
• Creat e reviews
Figure 46. Customer reviews
f) Subscription to the newsletter
• Creating subscriber records based on email address
g) Contacting the personnel of the economic entity through a contact form
Figure 47. Section of the contact page
The application was developed in 6 months as can be seen in the Gantt
Chart(Appendix 4).
Conclusions and recommendations
In conclusion , the e -business management within a company can be improved
through a management information system, which allows especially the companies with limited infrastructure to carry out their entire activity through this environment.
An efficient system can represent a competitive advantage and automate all the
internal functions of the organization ensuring the delivery of the benefits of
electronic commerce to the entire organization.The development of such a system can be achieved by using the MySQL relational database management system and the
PHP programming language, both being open-source tools, accessible to all.
Using the open- source PHP and MySQL tools presented in the theoretical part
of the paper, a well- defined web application was be develo ped, with many facilities
that can be used by various user groups. Therefore, an automatic data processing application such as the one presented in the present work is able to fulfill its purpose of making the operating cycle more efficient, as it greatly improves the sales process, an essential phase of the operating cycle. By entering the data related to an operation in such an application the time consumed is significantly reduce d for the financial
department that has to to prepare invoices and other suppo rting documents and the
sales department through its speed of calculation and its availability in any
place. Therefore, a management information system was developed for three groups of
users which are customers, administrators and sales personnel.
The Inte rnet provides the IT infrastructure required for new business models,
new business processes and new forms of information dissemination. Thus, the development of an application that can be accessed in the online environment offers the user several advantages, such as easy accessibility from any location that has an
Internet connection and the fact that it only needs to be installed once. Developers can
also provide online updates which is a fast way, as opposed to desktop applications
restricted by a physic al location.
The client can view and interact with an interface that offers the following
facilities:
• View the product offer of the company and their reviews
• Registering and managing an account that can be used for adding reviews,
managing the shopping cart, placing product orders, viewing your orders, viewing and
listing the invoice for a specific order;
• Contacting the personnel of the economic entity and subscribe to a newsletter .
The administrator can manage several economic processes in the compan y’s
operating cycle through an interface that provides the following:
• Customizing the product offer
• Management of orders and supporting documents
• Product inventory management
• Management of third parties ( individuals or companies)
• Managing reviews and subscribers to the newsletter
• Managing the accounts of the sales administrators and staff
Sales staff have limited access to the content management system without the
following possibilities:
• Creating goods received note s and customizing the product offer
• Managing the accounts of the users of the content management system
In addition to the functionalities implemented within the application, I would
reccommend the possibility of implementing a system for online
paymentswhivh would further improve the process of obtaining liquidity and
implicitly streamlining the operating cycle of the company .
Bibliography
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Appendix – Gantt Chart
ProjectPlan October November December January February March April
Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Research
Draft Proposal
Review andSubmitPr
oposal
AnalyseProjectSpecifi
cation
DesignandImplementati
on
SoftwareProgramming
Testing
Evaluation
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