ACC 6070 Module 2 Database Design Assignment Example

Course	ACC-6070 Accounting and Information Systems Design and Implementation
Module	Module 2
Paper type	Module 2 written assignment: database management systems
Length	About 741 words, 5 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Thomas Edison State University
Program	Master of Science in Accounting
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for ACC 6070 Module 2

From One Spreadsheet to Five Tables: Documenting and Designing a Sales Database for a Trenton Bike Shop

Student Name

Master of Science in Accounting, Thomas Edison State University

ACC-6070: Accounting and Information Systems Design and Implementation

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title states the design change the assignment makes and names the composite business whose sales cycle it models.

From One Spreadsheet to Five Tables: Documenting and Designing a Sales Database for a Trenton Bike Shop

Introduction

A database management system stores data once, in related tables, and lets many users and applications read it. Compared with files or spreadsheets, it reduces redundancy, enforces consistency and supports queries across the business. Documentation tools describe the system so that accountants, auditors and designers can understand it (Romney & Steinbart, 2018).

For a small business, the practical question is whether to keep improving a spreadsheet or move to a database before growth makes the problems worse.

Part A: Comparing Documentation Tools

Auditors favor flowcharts because they show where documents are created and approved, which reveals control points. Data flow diagrams are better for design because they show logic without committing to technology.

Tool	What it shows	Best use at the bike shop
Data flow diagram	Data sources, processes, stores and flows, without physical detail	Explaining to the owner where sales data comes from and goes
Document flowchart	Documents and their movement among departments	Tracing a repair ticket from intake to invoice
System flowchart	Inputs, processing and outputs, including computer steps	Showing how the point-of-sale system posts to the ledger
Business process diagram	Activities and who performs them, in sequence	Training new staff on the sales and payment process

Part B: The Spreadsheet's Problems

Each spreadsheet row records a sale with the customer's name, address and phone, the bike or part, its price and the payment. A customer who buys five times appears five times; when a fleet customer, the city parks department, changed its billing address, staff updated three of its rows and missed two. Deleting a customer's only sale would lose the customer, and a new customer cannot be recorded until a sale occurs. These are the update, deletion and insert anomalies that normalization removes.

The spreadsheet also weakens control. Anyone with access can change a past sale's price or delete a row without a trace, there is no link between a sale and the cash that paid it, and totals depend on formulas that can be overwritten. A database with user permissions and transaction logs addresses each of these weaknesses.

Part C: An REA Model and Normalized Tables

The REA model describes the sales cycle as resources, inventory and cash; events, sales and cash receipts; and agents, customers and employees. A sale and a cash receipt are linked many-to-many, because a fleet customer pays several sales with one check and a large sale can be paid in installments.

Each table holds facts about one kind of thing, each nonkey attribute depends on the full primary key alone and every many-to-many link has a table of its own, so the design meets third normal form. The address now lives in one row, so the parks department's change is made once.

Table	Primary key	Other attributes	Foreign keys
Customer	CustomerID	Name, billing address, phone, credit limit, terms	None
Inventory	ItemID	Description, list price, quantity on hand	None
Sale	SaleID	Date, salesperson	CustomerID, EmployeeID
SaleLine	SaleID and ItemID	Quantity, actual price	SaleID, ItemID
CashReceipt	ReceiptID	Date, amount, method	CustomerID
SaleReceipt	SaleID and ReceiptID	Amount applied	SaleID, ReceiptID

What this page is doingShowing each anomaly from the spreadsheet before normalizing it ties the design rules to problems the owner has actually seen.

Part D: A Query for Management

The owner wants to see fleet accounts with sales unpaid after 30 days. In SQL, the query joins Sale, SaleLine and SaleReceipt, totals each sale and the amounts applied to it, and selects sales where the date is more than 30 days ago and the amount applied is less than the sale total, grouped by customer. In the spreadsheet, this required filtering by name, which failed whenever a name was spelled differently.

Relational design matters beyond efficiency. McCarthy (1982), who first proposed the REA approach, argued that accounting systems should capture economic events in a shared database rather than only debits and credits, so that the same data can serve managers and accountants, and Dunn and McCarthy (1997) later traced how that idea shaped enterprise system design. A small shop can implement this design in an off-the-shelf point-of-sale and accounting package, as long as it keeps customer and item records as single master files.

The same tables answer other questions the owner has asked: which bikes sell fastest by month, which salesperson's sales are most often returned and how much each fleet customer has bought this year. Each answer comes from joining the same few tables in a different way, which is the practical payoff of storing each fact once.

References

Dunn, C. L., & McCarthy, W. E. (1997). The REA accounting model: Intellectual heritage and prospects for progress. Journal of Information Systems, 11(1), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.2308/jis-697364

McCarthy, W. E. (1982). The REA accounting model: A generalized framework for accounting systems in a shared data environment. The Accounting Review, 57(3), 554-578. https://doi.org/10.2308/tar-4487748

Romney, M. B., & Steinbart, P. J. (2018). Accounting information systems (14th ed.). Pearson.

ACC 6070 Module 2 instructions, in plain terms

This assignment pairs system documentation with relational design. Expect questions that compare data flow diagrams, flowcharts and business process diagrams, explain the advantages of databases over file systems, identify anomalies, design tables with primary and foreign keys, apply normalization and REA modeling and write or interpret simple queries. A case is sometimes supplied, and sometimes students design for their own workplace. Expect a short case narrative to document and design from, or a request to critique an existing design. Questions often combine a documentation tool with a design task, as this sample does, and some ask for SQL or query-by-example statements to answer a manager's question.

How this ACC 6070 Module 2 example is built

The introduction defines a DBMS and the purpose of documentation. Part A compares four documentation tools in a table, each tied to a use at the shop, and explains why auditors and designers prefer different tools. Part B shows update, deletion and insert anomalies in the shop's own spreadsheet. Part C models the sales cycle with REA and designs normalized tables with keys, explaining why they meet third normal form. Part D describes a query management needs and closes with McCarthy's case for event-based design. The tables can be read as a data dictionary for the design.

Where the marks sit in the ACC 6070 Module 2 rubric

The database paper earns up to 7 points under a rubric that rewards correct design. Mentors check accurate distinctions among documentation tools, correct identification of anomalies, tables with appropriate keys and relationships, a design that meets the normal forms and queries that answer the stated question. Connecting the design to real problems and controls shows analysis rather than recall. Tables and short explanations, with APA citations, keep the work clear. Designs that name the primary and foreign key of every table, resolve each many-to-many relationship and show how the design removes the anomalies observed in the original data earn full marks. A query explained in plain language, with the tables it joins, completes the answer. Pointing out the control weaknesses of a spreadsheet, such as untraceable edits, connects database design to the course's emphasis on control.

Common ACC 6070 Module 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Database answers often lose points for tables without a primary key, many-to-many relationships left unresolved, and normalization explained in the abstract. Name the key for every table. Resolve many-to-many links with a linking table. Show an anomaly from the case before fixing it. Draw the REA diagram before the tables; the relationships tell you which linking tables you need. Check each table against the normal forms one at a time. Name the relationship type on every line. Give each table a primary key you can explain in one sentence. A free first sample of your own ACC-6070 Module 2 assignment is available on request.

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More ACC 6070 and Master of Science in Accounting sample papers

ACC 6070 Module 2 questions, answered

Where can I find a free ACC 6070 Module 2 sample paper?

The bike shop database assignment appears above: documentation tools compared, spreadsheet anomalies, an REA model, normalized tables with keys and an overdue accounts query.

What is the difference between a data flow diagram and a flowchart?

A data flow diagram shows logical data flows and processes; a flowchart shows physical documents, processing steps and media.

What are update, insert and delete anomalies?

Errors caused by storing data redundantly: inconsistent changes, inability to add data without other data, and loss of data when a row is deleted.

What does the REA model represent?

It models a business process as the resources it uses or produces, the events that change those resources and the people or organizations involved.

What is third normal form?

Each table's nonkey columns rely on its full key alone, never on one another.

ACC 6070 Module 2 Written Assignment: Database Design and Documentation Example