| Course | AC314 Accounting Information Systems and Enterprise Risk Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 800 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Accounting |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for AC314 Unit 9
Fourteen Paper Forms in a Drawer: A Unit 9 Seminar Reflection on a Year-End System Outage
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
AC314: Accounting Information Systems and Enterprise Risk Management
Unit 9 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Stillbrook Nursery, its staff and every figure are composite; the framework, textbook and standard cited are real.
The Case
Stillbrook's enterprise system went down on December 27 after a failed update and came back on December 30. Receiving kept working: crews logged 31 deliveries of liners and containers on blank paper forms. After the restore, the receiving clerk keyed 17 of them. The other 14, worth $212,000, stayed in a drawer until the auditors' search for unrecorded liabilities found the January invoices with no receiving reports behind them.
Question 1: What Failed?
My first answer was the receiving clerk. She had the forms and did not key them. The discussion took that answer apart. The forms were blank sheets with no numbers, so no one could tell how many existed. No one counted the paper reports against the receipts keyed after the restore. And the outage procedure, which was a single line in a binder, said only to "use paper forms," with nothing about how they would get back into the system. A careful clerk might have keyed all 31, but the design depended entirely on her doing so. I came to see the failure as a missing control, a completeness check, rather than a person's mistake (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, 2013).
Question 2: What Reached the Statements?
This was where my view changed most. I said at first that the error did no harm, because inventory and payables were both understated by the same $212,000, so working capital and income were unaffected. The facilitator put four lines on the board:
1. Current assets: as reported $5,840,000; corrected $6,052,000.
2. Current liabilities: as reported $2,410,000; corrected $2,622,000.
3. Current ratio: as reported 2.42; corrected 2.31.
4. Working capital: $3,430,000 either way.
An error that leaves working capital untouched can still misstate the balance sheet a lender reads, and it breaks the completeness assertion for liabilities, which is the one an auditor tests hardest because owing money is what management has the least reason to record.
A classmate added that the liners were planted in January into containers already on hand, so if the invoices had arrived after the books closed and been booked as January expense, the cost would have landed in the wrong year. My "no harm" answer only held because the auditors caught it. Searching invoices and payments after year end for liabilities that belong to the old year is a standard audit procedure for exactly this reason (Arens et al., 2020).
Question 3: Who Should Have Noticed?
I first said the accounts payable clerk, who received invoices in January with no receiving reports. That is partly right: an invoice without a receiving report should be held and investigated, and these were held. But holding them was where it stopped. The controller should have required a count of paper forms used during the outage and compared it with receipts keyed afterward. That one comparison, 31 against 17, would have shown the gap on December 30. The system design should also have prompted it: an outage procedure is a business continuity control, and the textbook treats recovery of data captured manually as part of that plan (Romney & Steinbart, 2018).
What Changed for Me
I came in looking for the person who made the mistake. I left looking for the count that would have caught it. The three questions also showed me that the effect of an error is not just its income effect; a balance sheet a lender relies on can be wrong while net income is right.
What I Would Write in the Outage Procedure Now
After the session I rewrote the binder's single line as an exercise. Paper receiving forms would be prenumbered in books of fifty, kept by the yard lead, and issued only during an outage. On restore, the receiving clerk would key every form, and the controller would compare the last form number used with the count of receipts keyed, signing the comparison before the month could close. Any gap would be investigated the same day, while the drivers and crews still remember the loads. Written that way, the procedure does not depend on anyone's memory or diligence; it depends on a count that either agrees or does not.
What I Will Do Differently
When I review any manual workaround, I will ask three things before accepting it: are the forms numbered, who counts them against the system afterward, and when. If no one owns the count, the workaround is incomplete, however well the people involved intend to follow it.
References
Arens, A. A., Elder, R. J., Beasley, M. S., & Hogan, C. E. (2020). Auditing and assurance services (17th ed.). Pearson.
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. (2013). Internal control: Integrated framework. https://www.coso.org
Romney, M. B., & Steinbart, P. J. (2018). Accounting information systems (14th ed.). Pearson.
Reading the AC 314 Unit 9 instructions
The ninth AC314 seminar examines a system or control failure, and the reflection asks how your understanding changed across the facilitator's questions. Use the first person and organize the reflection around those questions, so each section can show a first answer and what moved it. Describe the case briefly with its key figures. Be honest about first answers that blamed a person, and explain what design flaw the discussion exposed. Show the financial statement effect with a small before-and-after comparison, including effects beyond income. Identify who should have noticed and what count or check would have caught the error. Connect the failure to business continuity, completeness and audit procedures. Close with a habit or a rewritten procedure. Around 900 words is common. Cite COSO, the textbook and an auditing source in APA 7.
Inside the AC314 Unit 9 example
The sample describes the outage from December 27 to 30, the 31 paper forms, the 17 keyed and the auditors' discovery of January invoices without receiving reports. Under the first question, the writer moves from blaming the clerk to the missing completeness check, citing COSO. Under the second, a four-line comparison shows the current ratio falling from 2.42 to 2.31 with working capital unchanged, and the highlighted sentence explains why completeness of liabilities matters. A classmate's point about the year in which costs land and Arens and colleagues on the search for unrecorded liabilities follow. Under the third, the writer moves from the payables clerk to the controller and the outage procedure, citing Romney and Steinbart. A section rewrites the binder's single line with numbered forms and a signed count. Three questions for any workaround close it.
Where the points sit in the AC314 Unit 9 rubric
AC314 seminar reflections are graded on the visible change in thinking under each question. A first answer stated plainly, followed by what changed it, earns more than a polished final view. The case figures must be accurate and the statement effects correct; a reflection that says the error had no effect without qualification loses credit. Showing effects on ratios or assertions, not just income, demonstrates depth. Identifying the missing count or check, rather than a careless person, shows control thinking. Linking the failure to continuity planning and audit procedures adds breadth. A rewritten procedure or specific habit makes the learning concrete. Organizing by the facilitator's questions keeps the account clear. Purdue Global instructors in this course expect COSO, the textbook and an auditing text cited in APA 7.
Common AC314 Unit 9 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Reflections on control failures often stop at blaming the employee involved, which misses the design point. Others describe the case in detail and say little about what changed. The financial effect is described as none because both sides were understated, without noticing ratios or the completeness assertion. The person who should have noticed is named, but not the check they should have run. Business continuity is not mentioned, though an outage procedure is exactly that. Closings are general. Figures are rounded so loosely the comparison cannot be followed. If your seminar discussed a different failure, such as a lost backup or an unauthorized change, a writer can draft the reflection around your facilitator's questions and your notes.
Get an AC314 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Seminar notes will do: the failure discussed in your Unit 9 session, any balances the facilitator put up, and the rubric, or the written-option prompt for anyone who skipped the live session. A first-person draft arrives within 24-48h, leaving your own remarks to add. There is no charge for a first custom sample. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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AC314 Unit 9 questions, answered
Why organize the reflection around the facilitator's questions?
Because the change in understanding happened question by question. The AC314 sample keeps the order of the session, so each section can show a first answer and what moved it. If your seminar followed a different structure, a case debate or a demonstration, the reflection follows that instead. What matters to graders is that the shift is visible, not the headings used.
What if I completed the written alternative instead?
Then the prompt usually poses the failure directly and asks for an analysis in the same reflective voice. The sample's order still works: what failed, what reached the statements, who should have noticed. Without a live exchange, the turn comes from testing your first explanation against the case facts, and the sample shows how a first answer can be recorded honestly before it is revised.
Where can I find a free AC314 Unit 9 sample paper?
This page holds a complete AC314 Unit 9 seminar reflection on a composite nursery's year-end outage, with three questions, a balance comparison, a rewritten procedure and APA 7 references.
What did the unkeyed forms do to the statements in AC314 Unit 9?
Inventory and payables were both $212,000 too low. Working capital stayed the same, but the reported current ratio was 2.42 instead of 2.31 and liabilities were incomplete at year end.
Who should have caught the missing forms in AC314 Unit 9?
The controller, by counting the paper forms used during the outage against receipts keyed afterward. Thirty-one against seventeen would have shown the gap on December 30.