Table of
ents
S.C.A.C.CO.'
An Expert System for Financial Accounting Teaching
Raffaele D’ Alessio
Dipartimento di studi e ricerche aziendali
University of Salemo
Via Ponte Don Melillo
84084 - Fisciano (SA)
Tel. 003989963213
e-mail: rdalessio@ unisa.it
Index
1. Introduction
2. IT support application to Management and Accountancy didactic in Italy.
3. S.C.A.C.CO. and its engagement in the teaching of Financial Accounting.
4. IT model
4.1. The knowledge basis
4.2. The module “Accounting registrations”
4.3, The module “Balance Sheet”
5. Concluding remarks
Bibliography
' Acronym for“Computerized System for the Learning of Accountancy Circuits”, meaning in Italian
“chess”.
Abstract
From Luca Paciolo Abaco Era to modem ERP, accounting teachings methods are not really
changed at all. In fact, students have to leam a group of Accounting rules which are not always
organized in systematic way.
The aim of the paper is to show the main technical characteristics and the impact on
students’ performances of an expert system, programmed by the author in Visual Lansa, for
formalizing and supporting Financial Accounting leaming process.
The expert system “Scacco®” simulates, step by step, the systematic logic process every
student has to follow in order to solve:
1) bookkeeping and accounting system problems;
2) annual report (balance sheets and income statement) “building” problems.
From the System Dynamics point of view, Scacco is a systematic model which, on one hand,
represents firm operations and, on the other hand, is based on “try and correct” feed-back
mechanism.
The Scacco ® software has just been tested in the Financial Accounting course of the
University of Salemo. The software has led to a remarkable improvement in students’
performance.
1. Introduction
In Italy, during the academic year 2001-2002 the University structure reform has been
gradually carried out (the so-called 3+2), as provided by law, by deeply innovating syllabuses
structure and teachers architecture by introducing for the first time in Italy the Credits System
(CFU).
Financial Accounting teaching thus requires a considerable reengineering process regarding
training objectives, contents to be included in Syllabuses, didactic technics to be adopted,
learning testing criteria.
The courses gradually introduce the student to the solution of problems of accounting, with
particular reference to Bookkeeping and Balance Sheet drawing.
Today a radical re-thinking of “traditional” didactic instruments is enforced by many events:
the modular logics ispiring the Reform; the numerous solutions proposed by Italian Faculties on
how articulate the teaching of subjects dedicated to financial accounting; the change of the firm;
the training standards that firms management expect from University graduates.
2. IT support application to Management and Accountancy didactic in Italy
During the last years in Italy two phenomena have been imposing to the attention of
management and accountancy scholars:
- the gradual, unbreakable change of the object of research, its borders, its relations with the
environment;
- the evolution of the way of producing, organizing, communicating, leaming knowledges,
in and out of the firm (Ferraris Franceschi, 1998).
Both phenomena solicit a re-thinking of management and accountancy teaching objectives,
contents, methods.
It appears of particular importance, thus, the introduction or the widening of IT use in
support of didactic, especially academic one.
In the evolution process that brought Italy in the 80s-90s to concrete operative actions in the
field of Management or Accountancy academic teaching, a cycle of development of IT
applications to the solution of didactic problems can be noted. We can isolate three phases
conventionally definable:
- “pioneeristic phase”;
- “a-systematic phase”;
- “mature phase”.
Each phase appears characterized essentially by:
- the level of the student basic knowledge;
- the friendly use of the IT tools employed;
- the didactic objectives effectively pursued.
In the “pioneeristic phase”, (around the 80s), the diffusion of the Personal Computer within
Italian households is limited: electronics big companies are just experimenting the first
processors; the product is rather “expensive”, private users market seems not to be much
attractive (Barile, 1995). Students do not know the functioning and potential of PC and its
introduction in university courses is a revolutionary event, independently from the contents and
the abilities the PC allows to trasmit. It therefore “attracts” the attention and seems to gain an
euristic scope, independently from the context in which it is inserted. Innovator teachers are
thus in the position to perform as trainers, first of all: user-friendly programmes are rarely
diffused, due to bonds of time and available resourses; IT applications are limited to the
solution of particular problems; they are directed by the teacher or confined to game-playing,
well known by teenegers (for example Amiga, Commodore 64); finally, thy are used especially
in marketing and strategy advanced courses (Eminente, 1981).
The “a-systemic phase” extends to the first half of 90s. This is a phase of strong
development of PC on the private user market segment. The simpler applications, as
wordprocessor and spreedsheet, begin to be “attended” by an increasing mass of people. Thus,
whoever is intentioned to introduce an IT tool in university courses needs only partially to face
the problem of students training. In any case, PC is no more considered a “myth of progress”,
but a work instrument: attention is mainly concentrated on the objectives, the structure, the
communicative potentialities of the IT support. Consequently, also the students’ critical
capacity increases. In this phase teachers innovative energies are oriented mainly in three
directions:
- adoption of analysis instruments of the firm sub-system functioning (Bussolin, 1990; Panti,
1990);
- the construction of economic-financial models, such as balance sheet or budget (Favotto,
1985; Marchi- Paolini Quagli, 1997; Saita, 1996);
- the execution of guided exercises through tools such as the S.A.DI.CO. software (Marchi -
Ciaramella, 1994; Quagli, 1995).
In this phase the objective is to emphasize the active role of the student, who is asked to
learn and reproduce the acquired knowledge by interacting with the IT tool. The level of
complexity of the software used is still relatively low (spreadsheet and Visual Basic are in fact
the programmes and languages adopted). The applicative developments are still mainly devoted
to the reporting of quantitative aspects.
In the “mature phase”, that is the current one, PC represents one of the most used
commodities in the Italian households; young people have a basic IT culture, independently
developed when still very young. IT products are powerful, quick, reliable, and allows graphic,
textual and algorithmic, musical, informative functions, etc. Finally, it is to be highlighted the
tole of the Intemet and of software allowing access to the Intemet (Zavani, 1997). The
professionalities requested by finns must include in their own expertise “Basic IT knowledge”
(AA.VV., 1998) and “IT management of enterprise data” (Marchi - Mancini, 1999) which
become subjects regularly taught in Economy Faculties. All this does not seem to be sufficient,
though.
Many teachers of management and accounting subjects feel the necessity of introducing in
their courses advanced and personalized IT supports. Also the technologies used appear to be
much more complex and flexible than those of earlier periods. Web sites are more and more
used to allocate information, didactic material, exercises to be executed, download software.
“Traditional products” as the budget are revised (Antonelli - Cerbioni, 2000): Intemet Explorer
becomes the interface, multimedia language is used, the support consists of several parts inter-
connected by hypertextual links; from floppy-disk to CD-ROM. Models based on the “System
Dynamics” are developed for the analysis of small enterprises development conditions per
“extemal lines” (Bianchi, 1996; 2000; Mollona, 2000).
In the current phase, IT applications in the didactic appear less and less limited to
exclusively quantitative based models or procedures, useful for the solution of particular
economic-entrepreneurial problems; they remain under the teacher’s control in the software
planning phase or in the results testing and assessment phase, they are integrated in the teaching
course through the development of specific leaming aspects and routes, but they do not
substitute the basic didactic structure. However, the aspect of rigidity, due to the technological
structure adopted or the hy pothesis pertaining to the software functioning and logic, appears to
be overcome, though not completely sorted out (Antonelli, 1997).
3. S.C.A.C.CO. and its use in Financial Accounting teaching
The student should be offered an observation perspective of the enterprise phenomenon,
which highlights its systemic structure and its continuing evolution in a more ample social,
juridical, economic context, even when the objectives of the models construction are of a
didactic kind.
To this purpose, in order to have the student concentrate on the enterprise systematic point
of view, it is necessary to analyse both the relation between the former and the production unit,
from which it has been isolated for didactic purposes, and the relations between the latter and
the environment in which it lives and operates.
If we proceed in the construction of didactic models aimed to favour the learning of the
structure and the functioning of the enterprise sub-systems, a sytemic vision that from the
“particular” always reconducts the student to think of the “general”, is useful.
Several are the possible solutions, if we want to formalize the logic scheme. This should be
first of all followed by an expert enquirer, so that any management operation is converted in
account values. The aim is to reach a complete and onmicomprehensive sequence of
instructions to be given to the software with which the human though reasoning is simulated.
This is testified by the more and more varied operative procedures available on the market of
administrative-management software.
From the didactic point of view, the needs pursued are obviously different.
First of all, it is possible to project the software, so as not be obliged to run variables
connected to the “context conditions” in which Financial Accounting is actually kept. It is thus
possible to “eliminate” elements such as the registration progressive number, the reference to
the original document, the operation description, the necessity to print periodically the
registrations, the input of VAT codes, or the necessity of costs and profits reclassification aimed
to management control. These semplifications are undoubtly useful since they allow to limit the
number of variables run by the person charged with registration and have him concentrate on
registrations more conceptually demanding. However, it is to be considered the fact that also
other data assume relevance, if the enquirer were in front of a computer of a real IT system and
should enter these data, in the presence of integrated systems as those that find everyday
increasing diffusion in enterprises. Such systems, furthermore, are based on the uniqueness of
the data input process and presume security and competence in finding all the aspects of a
management operation, including those wt influencing directly the dynamics of economic-
financial values.
Secondly, the aim is to ensure student be faced by problem-solving (the correct registration
of a management operation) and that he offers a solution responding simultaneously to two
validation criteria:
- the result is correct;
- the logic route to find the result is correct.
In case the student offers the correct solution at the first attempt, no machine is able to test
the mental, deductive, mnemonic process he followed, unless he is requested ex-post to
explicitate it. On the contrary, in case the student offers a solution moves away from the one the
software is provided with, the latter can verify the “shifting rate” and suggest a route structured
upon a hierarchy of logical phases chosen by the programmer for the research of the correct
solution. Needless to say that each possible segment of logical phases reflects the theorical
conception elaborated upon software programming.
S.C.A.C.CO. (Computerized System for the Learning of Accountancy & Bookkeeping
Circuits) is a multimedia software programmed on Visual Lansa language gathering numerous
applications.
The main aim of S.C.A.C.CO. is to offer an integrated and complete instrument to allow the
student to exercise his own knowledge and abilities in the solution of principal registration
problems.
S.C.A.C.CO. is currently structured in two basic modules:
- general accountancy;
- Balance Sheet.
S.C.A.C.C.O. appears to be particularly flexible and decomposable to attain specific and
delimited didactic objectives, according to a logic of integrated programming of contents and
didactic methods.
S.C.A.C.CO. appears as an instrument prizing the significant leaming and the discovery
learning: in fact, it requires the continuous reorganization of the knowledge relevant to the
registration of the single operation within the structure of the firm; moreover, though with some
limits, it allows the student to explore possible solutions, at least whenever solutions are not
completely rigid. This instrument, however, must not be confused with the decisional and
operative process, which prearranges, carries out and verifies the information and knwledge
acquisition activity by the student.
S.C.A.C.CO. is a didactic application useful for the formalization of the knowledge and for
the verification in the objective sense, that is, it is focused on the results of the individual
leaming.
The didactic objectives pursuable through S.C.A.C.CO. are:
- leaming general accountancy and balance sheet technique;
- acquisition of an “IT perspective” through which observe registration problems, in a
context which, though extremely simplified, is aimed to reproduce the firm context;
- conceiving the posing of a problem and the search for its solutions, not in absence of
information, as usually happens in the didactic field, but on the contrary, exactly as it happens
in the firm, counting on numerous “help” (those to which professional diligency imposes every
time the consultant, the administrative manager, the enquirer do wt know the solution ‘in
default’: accounting principles, civil and fiscal rules, existing enterprise documentation, and so
on);
- inter-connect the “modules” in a systematic perspective, as obviously do the E.R.P., or
others administrative integrated systems, which the student will find in the firm.
The didactic objective will have to be always oriented to the creation of critic knowledge,
paying attention above all to the interpretation of evolutive phenomena, that is sensitive to
change, complex, able to connect the object of the research in its time-space coordinates to the
system it is inserted in.
The use of an IT support implies, thus, the clear individuation and personalization of the
didactic action model to which the perfomance of this software better adapt. To this regard, it is
possible to distinguish three logical moments:
1 - didactic programming, conceming the choice of the objectives intended to be pursued,
up to the rational articulation of the subjects and the modalities of introduction of the IT support
within the course;
2 - implementation of the didactic activity: choice of the teacher responsible for the course,
use of the available structures, work organization with the students, etc.;
3 - testing of the didactic action, referring to measures of customer-oriented e learning-
oriented performance.
IT application alone, however, can be sufficient. It presents several limits: reduction of
complexity, limitated options, absence of a critical element. It thus find in the interaction
teacher-student, still today impossible to substitute, a natural completion.
S.C.A.C.CO. software technological potentialities have to be fully valorized; in any case,
limits to concepts formalization and quantitification and the complexity of enterpise
phenomenon will have to be taken into account.
As discussed it appears clear that the introduction of S.C.A.C.CO. in the didactic presumes
the preliminary solution of multiple issues.
The contents this application is useful to must be organized and be systematic, new and
progressive in the development and exposition.
Through this instrument it is possible to target general and particular didactic objectives,
which however have to be defined in terms of competence, ability, attitude.
The human learning process that it is possible to activate with the software must be
consciously chosen. It is to define which objectives of discovery, reception, production,
organization or use of enterprise-economic knowledge we intend to valorize. The software
contribution to learning and self-evaluation through an unstructured route of interaction, must
be observable and measurable. Finally, coherence with the overall didactic scenary must be
ensured, that is the method adopted in the complex, together with the other technics in use in
the academic course or in the general training sytem of economic faculties.
The university structure reform, previously mentioned, oriented towards the training credits
system. The chosen model has several effects on the academic organization. The main effect is
to deeply affect the didactic action model, that is it influences:
- the training objectives;
- the activities of transmission and acquisition of knowledge and ability;
- evaluation criteria of the learning A.
The didactic action model, emerging from the credit system in criteria of programming,
management and control of didactic processes, seems inspired, therefore, by the following
criteria:
- contents modularity;
- problems sequentiality;
- possibility of leaming grade assessment and comparability, in time and space.
S.C.A.C.CO. is aimed to respond to such criteria.
The contents are modular in that the software allows various subsystems it is possible to
access separately from one another. Inside each of them, we can then delimitate a specific
learning route.
The problems faced are afterwards organized in a logic scheme of a sequencial type,
described in paragraph 2.
Finally, for each section an evaluation methodology is offered, considering both the contents
and the timing of the single activities and, therefore, cumulatively it allows to calculate the
overall time “used” by the student in front of the computer.
Obviously S.C.A.C.CO. does not allow to solve all the problems created by the reform. In
fact, its introduction depends preliminarily by te individuation of the student’s knowledge
background, the teacher's capabilities, the contents we want to trasmit. In some universities it
also depends by the availability of feasible hardware resources.
In conclusion, the partial innovation introduced with S.C.A.C.CO. inscribes in a new
didactic perspective, which long term effects are in any case unforeeable.
4.S.C.A.C.CO.: the I.T. model
The development of a didactic model of financial accounting implies the maintainance of the
functioning principles of this registration instrument.
The following described model is formal one; in order to communicate with the electronic
elaborator, the knowledge in all its sintactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects necessarily was to
be coded.
At sintactic level, the software was provided with the rules with which lessical elements are
combined to create complex lexical constructions’; at semantic level, operations were carried
out on the lexical constructions by attributing a precise and univocal to the accounts’; at
pragmatic level, finally, the attitude that a certain linguistic construction should induce on ‘the
addressee, that is the student, was focused on.
The developed model is, moreover, abstract in that it does not consider the mass of details of
which operations must leave track in the information systems; however, it has to find the
aspects generalizable to all the classes of enterprises in terms of elements and relations among
> Ex, the software was taught that a costruct similar to “Merci c/acquisti a Fornitori” is correct, whereas the
use of a construct like “ Fornitori a Banca a Cassa “ is not correct.
> Ex. the software is taught to understand that a registration like “Merci c/acquisti a Fornitore 20.000 Euro”
is to be interpreted as debting on Merci c/acquisti e and crediting on Fomnitori for the amount of 20.000 Euro.
them; it has to be synthetic, in that it has to take into account only the aspects considered useful
for the aims of model creation; it has to be structured because the real system is represented as
important units and by subsystems, connected among them; it has to be significant because
from the exam of the model, it is possible to logically infer knowledge not explicitly
represented; it has to be interactive, in that it allows an immediate response
(confirmation/correction) to the student's activity (Marchi - Mancini, 1999).
The model in consideration can be examined under a double aspect of observation:
a structural;
Q operative.
4.1. The structure of Scacco
The model structure is formed by a knowledge basis consisting of a series of elements and
relevant characteristics inter-connected by several rules-relations. The elements are the single
accounts; the relations are the accounts characteristics. A complex object, the “extended a-
count” is created; it contains a considerable series of attributes which allows to teach in an indi-
rect manner, compared to the Partita Doppia functioning mules applied to the Sistema del Red-
dito and of the Capitale. The reference model can be synthesized in the following flow-chart
(subdivided into steps):
{ START.
Read
exercise
If last
exercise
Show
final score
Show the
exercise
to solve
The student
reads and start
the procedure
The procedure
Be should no be Add error
Bure started score at level 1 "
NO
YES
In the first step, as highlighted in the paragraph 2.1., the model checks that the exercise
proposed to the student be an external management exercise. It is only in this case that the
student begins the operations described in the following pages.
Tf the operation is of an exchange type, the student can begin entering the accounts he reck-
ons correct for the accounting registration proposed.
The insertion of the accounts can take place through two proceedings:
a First proceeding: group of accounts;
a_ Second proceeding: single accounts.
The first proceeding carries out a double function.
First of all, it allows to reduce the variety of accounts usable in relation to the operation pro-
posed.
In this way, it is possible to select only the group of accounts that will presumably offer ma-
jor guarantees for a correct representation of the operation.
This function is very important for the user in that he can use a predefined scheme from
which he can select step by step the single accounts as necessary, instead of being
completely free in labelling them.
The second function of the group of accounts is connected to the category of the groups of
accounts themselves.
The groups of accounts presented in the programme, in fact, represent a considerable
approximation to the structure of the Annual Report as defined by Law (Balance Sheet, art.
2424 civil code, and Profit and Loss Account, art. 2425 civil code).
In this manner, the user may acquire familiarity not only with the typical structure of the
Annual Report, as enforced by law, but he may reflect immediately on the destination of the
values involved in the single operations.
Once concluded the first research and entering proceeding, the second proceeding can be
considered. As decribed in the third chapter, it has been decided to allow research per single
word of the account, since such a condition approaches the model to operative reality, where
registrations are carried out on the base of a pre-defined plan of accounts.
The system then analyses the appropriateness of the accounts used to the reference circuit of
the exercise proposed, after the user has chosen the account based on the proceedings described
: son 2
\2 level error
lmessage: add
lerror scorring
2°
error on
Za level
In case the student is not capable of performing the accounting registration of the operation,
because he cannot find out its nature (for example, he continues registering the subscription of
Capital as a purchase operation), obviously he does not need to “work” on the accounting
aspect, but on the analysis of operations. The software, thus, suggests preliminarily if the
accounts used for the solution are or are not pertaining to the circuit to which the operation can
be assimilated. Only when the student has inserted one or more accounts relevant to the
“correct” circuit, the software does not give the autocorrective message, “ the operation is
correct when insert into circuit of ...”, anymore and moves to the next step.
Once the circuit has been identified, the accounts at the student's disposal must be obviously
reduced to the only ones useful to representation of that class of operations. Tehrefore, accounts
pertaining to other circuits (n - 1) are “darkened” in the plan of accounts.
At this point, the student must find the original and derived observation aspect. Preliminarily
he must establish whether the operation is registered during the administrative period or upon
the determination of the Income. In the first case, in fact, the original aspect is numeric or, as
generally accepted, financial; on the contrary, in the second, it is the economic aspect.
It is in this level that the software analyses the solution to compare the scheme with that of
permutations.
It will consequently search for the original aspect in:
* economic-financial permutations;
* mixed permutations;
* financial permutations.
Continuing operations, especially those of the Share Capital circuit, which generate only
economic permutations, are separately coded.
Pll
laccounts of the
lright cireuit
NO
2h Level error
message: add if2°
error scoring PN on
level
Tiallows to
search only
the accounts in }¢—
12/31n date
After having correctly found the aspects of observation, the student must preliminarily
establish in which permutation scheme he has to find the answer to the text of the exercise.
This step has a considerable information capacity since it allows to correct the student's
conceptual scheme, which could also be uncongruous with the operation to be analysed.
The student will have then to decide if the operation generates financial and economic
variations, positive or negative.
Such a choice is oriented in a double direction:
1 - the student can access only to the accounts having reference to the circuit previously
found;
2 - the financial values are distinguished in certain numeral values, assimilated, assumed
and financing credits/debts; whereas the economic values are distinguished in active / passive
values of patrimony, pending costs / profits; plur-annual costs / profits, yearly costs / profits.
The software signals to which of these classes the accounts to be used must belong to.
The system shows the student a prospect similar to that of modern administrative systems in
which the user can enter the chosen accounts.
It is the system’s internal logical mechanism that transforms the bi-sectional prospect
containing the accounts chosen in a quadrant scheme of the decribed type.
This logical transformation is possibile thanks to the following correspondence:
(FINANCIAL / ECONOMIC) VARIATION
NATURE OF THE ACCOUNT
ACCOUNT
The System in fact steps back from the single account (ex. “Cash and bank” ) to the nature of
the account itself, and, through the third correspondence, it associates the type of the chosen
account to its nature (in the example, “financial type”).
NO
conic stet ? Y
Yes
In this step, the model compares the answer given by the user to the permutation scheme and
to the nature of the variations within the scheme.
10
Show the right
\debiticredit or
conomic/financial
[Then reduce
disposable accounts
4 level error
message: add
level scoring,
No
is 2 error
on level 4
YES
it allows to
search only the
account of the
right nature
At this step, the final comparison between the accounts proposed by the user and those
provided by the solution is to be to executed.
5 Level error
message: add
error scoring
YES
gteP
Being certain of the correcteness of the accounts entered, the balancing of the sections
“debit” and “credit” is to be verified.
11
tt allows the
selection of right
accounts
6 level error
message: add 6
error scoring )
Finally, tie problem of the amount defimton is imposed. The stident can use a calculator
and a calendar, above all. Afterwards, for some classes of operations (purchases and sales of
goods and services, acquisition of professional services, etc.) motivation of occurring
calculation errors is also given.
gtoP 7
NO
Level 7: add
the NO is
error scoring
YES YES
. @&
It is only to be verified if the user has understood the moment in which the registration is to
be correctly carried out.
12
it shows the right
amount
modify the
Idate of the
loperation
level 8: add
if the date error scoring
YES YES
Show the correct
date
S.C.A.C.CO. evaluate, thus, the route the student has followed to reach to the correct
solution, “weighing” the errors and registering the time used to find such a solution.
|
Shows the
exercise score
4.2. The module “accounting registrations”
The operation of the model develops along the two proceedings following described.
The teacher establishes first of all the exercises to be introduced, by proposing per each one
of them the answer considered correct in terms of timing , scheme of the operation, nature of
the accounts, denomination of the accounts, VAT code, by using the prospect similar to the
“prima nota” of any professional management software.
Having the user proposed his solution, the to chosen exercise, the model functions following
the steps described in the previous paragraph.
The model, however, does not compare directly the accounts of the solution proposed to the
accounts of the modelaswer; it firstly steps back to their general characteristics (intemal or
extemal operations, correctness of the circuits used, nature, type) and highlights the occurring
dicrepancies; afterwards it procedes to the exam of the other characteristics, less and less
important, signalling with appropriate messagges, the kind of error made.
13
In other words, further to the request for correction given by the user, the model operates on
the solution proposed, firstly recognizing the “characters” of the student's answer, secondly the
“characters” of the solution entered by the teacher. On the basis of difformities of the former
compared to the latter, error signals emerge, if it is the case.
The check-ups operated can be listed in three main classes:
REPRESENTATION ERRORS
(Step 1 to 5)
QUANTIFICATION ERRORS
(Step 6 to 7)
TIMING ERRORS
(Step 8)
Supposing the user is to register the following operation «We received a charge for a raw
material purchase 2.000 €; discount 10%, VAT 20% . Let us follow the various error messagges.
Step 1
According to the user, the operation must not be registered since it is not an exhange.
S.c.a.c.co. prompt the following message:
fo - 5 “Dita conperes
Odicota FETE Pvntegso me fETOIN Es Pateggo ETT
[Een wt ‘Stan ssecusone | commen i)
Inpoto/Imponible CodcelWA Ingoilo vA
= 2)
14
Step 2a
At this point the user can understand that it is an external operation, and therefore it has to be
registered.
He chooses then the account to be entered in “Debit” and “Credit”.
After that the user chooses the accounts, the system analyses their pertainance compared to
the reference circuit of the proposed exercise by providing the following message (Note how
errors are always highlighte in red).
allt ews om: 2.000,00 2.000,00
Impostare Dare/avere ‘Usare la ricerca per scegiere il conto. = Impotto / Imponibile Codice VA. Importo LV.A.
|| [ome 3i| Pestasarbecn a, = l=
| a >| [ - | s 7
sets n1 "Stato : in esecuzione
_Y Avvia esercizio _X Darones Danones @
4 Indien | esd &
Step 2b
The user, therefore, changes the account «bank loans», non-pertaining to the circuit with the
account « Exchange risk »
Contabilita
j Puntegoi ii ‘competenza —_
Sicots FE Pete mo TTT eves (EE esse FET pag —
‘Esercizion’1 Stato: in esecuzione ave] 2000500 2000.00
Import /Imponibie Codcel.V.A __Importo LV.A.
200 |
15
S.c.a.c.co. signal the user that performing yearly operations, the account used can be utilized
only in the closure / opening operations.
An opposite error to that just highlighted is the one signalled by the software whenever the
user upon closure / opening operations utilizes an account that can be used exclusively in yearly
operations.
Step 3 (a and b)
The following filter focuses on the type of scheme of the operation used, and on the sort of
accounts utilized (economic/financial). In this case, the student uses the accounts that cannot be
utilized in the logic scheme of the operation proposed.
For example, through the abstraction process previously described, the model realizes that
an operation requires two financial movimentations (one positive and one negative) related to
two economic variations (one positive and one negative).
Jata competenza
oom g Zl
Usare la ricerca per scegliere il conto Importo / Imponibile — 1h)
B| 2.000 ‘|
a 3 =
[ts
D = cae a
The user, on the contrary, has used a negative financial variation, which measures a negative
economic variation. S.c.a.c.co. signals the lack of a positive financial variation and of a positive
economic variation. The error at level 3 is very articulated, spreaded as it is in many “sub-
errors”. Such a scanning reveals particularly useful to the student, who may thus be more
specifically addressed to correction. The latter will always be the result of a riflection, however,
prompted by messages never originating mechanical reactions. With a view to it, after 2
repeated errors, the computer proposes the student the correct quadrant of the operation.
Step 4
Through such a filter, the error in the use of accounts of the correct type (economic or
financial), but having different nature from that requested by the nature of the operation, is
signalled.
16
07701702. Ricevuta fattura acquisto merci per 2.000 euro; sconto incondizionato 10%.
IVA 20%.
ia)
|| Impostare Dare/avere Usare la ricerca per scegliere il conto Importo / Imponibile
| 3
r, 200
| TT 3) [e
© - Enrore
=
:
Step 5
It consists in the use of accounts of the same type and nature of the correct ones, but with
different denomination.
0701702. Ricevuta fattura acquisto merci per 2.000 euro: sconto incondizionato 10%.
IVA 202.
Dificota [EI Punteggio max[ETIN Enoi ETE Purtegoio [ETON
| Es A ne
Impostare Dare/avere Usare la ricerca per scegliere i conto
Ft
| E:|
| La denominazione di uno o pitt conti inseriti é errata
[4
|
DF ficen
17
Step 6
This step and the next one analyse the quantification errors. At this level, the system
analyses the balance of ‘Debit’ and ‘Credit’. As we can note from the box on the up right
hand, the amount of “Debit” is 2.000 Euro, whereas the amount of “Credit” is 2.400 Euro.
2.20000 2400.0 |
Importa L.A.
Figure 6
Step 7 (a)
The system checks the VAT codes used. At the second error, it will propose the account
with the correct Vat.
Step 7 (b)
The system verifies the existence of any incorrect value relevant to a certain account. After
the second error, it begins signalling the correct amount to each account with wrong amount.
18
Step 8
In this step, the correct «timing» of the exercise is checked-up.
As we can see, the range of filters is organized hierarchically, in that, due to the relevance
attributed to theorical aspects more than to bookkeeping aspects, the filters on the moment,
nature of the accounts preceed those regarding the denomination of the accounts and the
relevant amounts.
The system, then, per each exercise executed, is able to draw a final chart of the errors made
by the user, distinguished per single steps previously analysed. Moreover, the time used to
execute the single exercise is reported, together with the vote in thirtieth and a ranking of the
exercises executed more rapidly and with a higher score. This form can be printed.
i Votazione finale
—Esetcizi
Codiee eserczio
Stato
Livela | Punteggia max.
Era
Punteggio
MinSec
ACQBENI -06
Chiusur eres per not era
1 100)
10
9]
3248
Frequenza enoiin questo eserc.
Livello | _Numete enor
7
6
5
1
2
3
4
8
5
3
1
0
tt]
a
i)
i)
Voto esercitazione
Voto | 0.0
Punteggio
0
Ranking
0.00
Eserii con migor perfomance ecegui da: PIPPO PEL
Daa Puntegaio.
Rankine,
Tenpo
109/01
5
95,00
08:34
13/08/01
al
20,00]
239
1109/01
i)
0,00)
00:29
13/09/01
0
0,00)
3248
& Siempa iulsto
(68) E sci dal epiogo
5. Concluding remarks
Figure 8
The expert system S.C.A.C.CO. allow to simulate accounting competencies of a very clever account-
ant according to the Italian tradition. The model allows to simulate student learning process and teacher
evaluation criteria. It help the teacher to solve many problems.
19
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