ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Financial systems and technology
A finance director wants a system that lets her enter different assumptions about exchange rates and raw material prices and immediately see the effect on forecast profit for semi-structured decisions. Which system best fits this need?
A decision support system fits best. It lets managers vary assumptions and run what-if analysis on semi-structured problems, showing effects on forecast profit. Transaction processing and payroll systems only process routine data, and ERP integrates business processes rather than modelling scenarios.
- ADecision support systemCorrect
- BTransaction processing system
- CEnterprise resource planning system
- DPayroll system
Explanation
A decision support system allows managers to model scenarios and run what-if analysis on semi-structured problems using internal and external data. A transaction processing system only records routine transactions, and an ERP integrates operational processes rather than offering ad hoc modelling.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Financial systems and technology shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Financial systems and technology questions
- A company is replacing its payroll system. The IT team decides to run the new system and the old system side by side for two months, process…
- A firm uses a cloud provider that supplies the hardware, operating system and development tools, so the firm's developers can build and depl…
- A company stops buying its own servers and instead rents computing power, storage and software over the internet from an external provider, …
- A retailer is installing a new inventory system. The finance director wants staff to practise using it with realistic sample data before it …
- A retailer collects millions of customer transactions, social media comments and sensor readings from stores, arriving rapidly in many forma…
- A project team is building a new customer system. Users see no working software until the end, when requirements are found to have changed. …