INTRODUCTION

Students of BAcct. (Hons) and BAcct. (IS)(Hons) program who have pursued
practical training are required to write and submit a final report. This report is
a major vehicle for them to communicate to us what they have learnt and
experienced during the practicum. Students are expected to be able to
demonstrate some understanding of the existing knowledge in the subject
matters, as well as to analyze and discuss the subject matters very well by
relating them to existing knowledge and interpreting their significance and
contributions to the organizations. The aim of this set of guidelines is to
provide students with some help towards producing a meaningful report on
their practical training. In preparing this report, students are subject to “Akta
Dan Peraturan Kecurangan Akademik, Perenggan 12 Akta UUM (Peperiksaan)
1988”.

TYPES OF REPORT

Basically, there are several types of report that would be applicable for
accounting students who have undertaken practical training at audit firms,
accounting/management service firms, private companies or government-
related organizations. With an aim to provide flexibility in report preparation,
faculty proposes the following scope of study to be undertaken by practicum
students:

1. Manual / Step by step Guide on Specific Accounting Procedure

2. Case Study of Specific Issue on Practicum Company
3. System Development
4. System/Internal Control Evaluation

Notes:
BAcct (Hons) Students are allowed to choose any type of report listed above
including system development provided that they have strong basic of
programming language and system development process.

BAcct (IS) (Hons) students are permitted to conduct either type 3 (System
development) OR type 4 (System/Internal Control Evaluation).

DESCRIPTION OF REPORT TYPE

(1) Manual / Step by step Guide on Specific Accounting Procedure

This type of report requires student to examine and describe specific

procedure from start to the end. In addition, students are also expected
to highlight standard/regulation/act and documents which are related

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 to the process examined and to prepare work flow diagram indicating
the process flow.

Examples of such study are:

- Complete procedure of auditing specialized business e.g. banking,

insurance etc,
- Step by step procedure of registering enterprise, partnership or
limited companies,
- Procedure on establishing secretarial /accounting service firm,
- Procedure on company’s liquidation, conducting annual general
meeting/ extraordinary general meeting etc.

Specific requirements of this type of report are:

- Narrative providing detail explanation of the procedure, related

act/standard and documents applicable to the chosen procedure
- Prepare diagram/workflow diagram to summarize the whole
procedure for better users’ understanding.
- Critical discussion/analysis of your finding about the selected
procedure.
- Supplementary materials e.g. a copy of relevant documents.

(2) Case Study of Specific Issue on Practicum Company

Individual or organization can be a good source for developing
problem-solving type of study or for writing a unique case study. For
this kind of report writing, you need to identify any significant
problem(s) faced by the organization, its employees or its clients.

Some of possible issues to be examined:

- The extent of application of accounting treatments (methods, tools,

techniques and concepts). This would allow students to examine
whether what they have learnt theoretically in the classroom is really
practiced by the organization, and find out what are the best
practices.
- Issues related to employee perception on specific issue e.g. paperless
auditing, importance of internal control, computer-based accounting
system, users’ satisfaction on computerized system etc.
- Examine types of audit report issued to clients, investigation on the
use of computerized audit procedure etc.
- Problem encountered while performing audit procedure, preparing
client’s account etc.

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 Note: It is advisable to obtain oral or written consent from the
organization prior to obtain confidential case materials. Alternatively,
you may disguise some aspects of the case material so that neither the
subject nor those who know the subject would be identifiable. Students
are required to consult with their supervisors (lecturers) and get their
approval on the topic/case chosen before writing the report.

(3) System Development

Accounting (IS) students may take up project management during the

practicum, involving the creation or modification of information
systems. In this project, students can combine knowledge of IT,
accounting, internal control and business, as well as organization
behavior and communications to ensure that new systems satisfy the
needs of the organization and possess sufficient internal controls.

Similar to problem solving or case study, for this project, you need to
identify what kind of information systems can be developed or revised
as required by the organization. By examining the background and
problems faced by the organization or by discussing with its staff, you
may get an idea of what would be the most appropriate information
system for the organization. You might want to discuss thoroughly the
feasibility of the project with your supervisors before you actually carry
it out.

The systems development or modification project may relate to

accounting processes, systems and records as well as problems of
educating, training, practicing, implementing or complying with any
aspect of accounting.

For this type of project, you must use the systems development life
cycle, known as SDLC to complete the project. SDLC has four phases to
be performed as presented below:

Phase Purpose Tasks

Systems Develop Study the problem and the
Analysis specifications for a environment.
new or revised Propose alternative problem
system solutions.
Systems Design Develop an Convert the logical solution
appropriate system into a physical design.
manifestation Choose software and
hardware.
Write the detailed design
specifications.

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 Devise implementation plans,
system tests, and training
programs.

Systems Begin using the new Write, test, and debug the
Implementation system computer programs.
Convert to new or revised
system.
Systems Use the new system Conduct post-implementation
Operation review.
Perform systems maintenance.
Adopted from ‘Accountant’s Guide to Information Systems’ by U.J. Gelinas, Jr. and
S.G. Sutton

You may not have the chance to actually perform the last two phases;
implementation and operation phases due to time limitations etc.
Nevertheless, you should give recommendations and expected future
actions to carry out these phases.

(4) System/Internal Control Evaluation

For this type of report, you are expected to examine any existing
organization’s procedure (manual or computerized system) e.g. sales
system, expenditure system, fixed assets system, payroll system, loan
processing procedure, etc.

This study hopes that student is able to document the company’s

business process, use internal control knowledge to evaluate strength
and possible weaknesses of selected procedure. Besides that, student
might be able to observe implementation of internal control procedures
in practice.

Specific requirements of this type of report are:

- To provide narrative/description of selected system (by
identifying activities, person participates in the activities,
documents and records maintained by company and control
procedures applicable to the system),
- To prepare document flowchart or system flowchart to illustrate
the process using simplified technique,
- To evaluation of strengths and possible weaknesses on the
existing system and
- To provide recommendation for improvement (if applicable).

Note: This type of report generally requires good understanding of

accounting information systems and internal control procedures.

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REPORT WRITING GUIDELINES

The following guidelines apply to all types of reports.

Format

 Report should be written in English in not more than 50 printed pages

(excluding appendices).
 Use ‘Times New Roman’ of size 12 for font specifications.
 Topics and subtopics should be indented consistently throughout the
report. Numbering format may also be applied to topics and subtopics
in a consistent way.
 Use 1.5 spacing in the main text.
 Page numbering begins on introduction page.
 Use A4 size paper (210mm x 297mm or 8.27” x11.69”).
 Cover page must be plain paper (no design) of light blue colour.
 Report should be fixed binding (comb-binding is acceptable).
 Important: A soft copy of the assignment must be submitted together
with the printed report.
Report Presentation

A report is organized in such a way to make it presentable and readable. The

suggested arrangement for this practicum report is as follows:

# Cover and Topic Page

# Acknowledgement
# Disclaimer
# Executive Summary/Abstract
# Table of Contents
# Main Text
# Reference List (if applicable)
# List of Tables/Figures/Diagrams (if applicable)
# Appendices (if applicable)

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1. Cover and Topic Page
The formats for the cover and topic page are as follows:

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

PRACTICUM REPORT [TOPIC]

SESSION 2008/2009

[TOPIC]

[NAME OF THE ORGANISATION

BY IN WHICH PRACTICUM WAS
CARRIED OUT]
[STUDENT NAME] [CITY AND STATE OF THE
[MATRIC NUMBER] ORGANISATION]

Cover Page Topic Page

2. Acknowledgement
This section should be brief, condensed and may contain the following
information:
a) Reasons or purpose of conducting the study and
b) Expression of appreciation to all parties, individuals or organization,
who have assisted, financed, contributed or supported you in
carrying out the study.
3. Disclaimer
A disclaimer is to be disclosed and signed by students to acknowledge
that students will take full responsibility for the content of their reports
and that the reports were truly prepared by them. Students are required
to include the following disclaimer in the report:

DISCLAIMER

This practicum report is submitted to the College Of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor______, Universiti Utara Malaysia.

I, the undersigned, shall be responsible for the accuracy of all opinion, technical comment, factual
report, data, figures, illustrations and photographs in this report. I bear full responsibility for
checking whether material submitted is subject to copyright or ownership rights.

Name : ________________________________
I/C No. : ________________________________
Signature : ________________________________
Date : ________________________________

4. Abstract
An abstract is a comprehensive summary of the contents of the report
which enables readers to survey the contents of the report quickly. It
should be brief, readable, accurate, concise, and correctly reflect the
purpose and content of the report. Abstract should not exceed 300
words. Please avoid using abbreviations and acronyms. Abstract should
include important information; problem statement, purpose, methods,
key concepts, major findings and conclusions. It should be written in
active voice, using the third person, rather than the first person.

5. Table of Contents
List of the contents should be arranged in a sequence to show the topics
and appropriate subtopics with reference to their page numbers in the
main text.

6. Main Text
In the body of the report, students must introduce the problem or case to
be studied, emphasizing on its significance and outlining the objectives
of the study. Further discussion on how the study was carried out until
possible solutions are recommended should be divided into several
sections. The sections to be addressed in the main text are as in the
following order:
ƒ Introduction
o Brief description about the company
o Brief explanation of activities performed
during practicum training
o The background of the subject matter
(problem/case/accounting method/system)
chosen to be studied
ƒ Objective
o Objective of the study
o Scope of the study/investigation
ƒ Methodology
o Description of the method used to collect
information which is relevant to the study
ƒ Discussion
o Discussion/explanation of the findings
ƒ Conclusion and Recommendation
o Conclude your overall study
o Recommendation (if applicable)
ƒ Reference/Bibliography
o List of materials e.g. articles, accounting
standard, act, policies and etc cited in the
report

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Format for System Development Report (For project type3)

Cover Page
Acknowledgement
Disclaimer
Executive Summary/Abstract
Table of Contents & Table of Figures
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Company’s Background
3.0 Current Business Systems
4.0 Proposed Systems
5.0 Project planning, feasibility study:
ƒ Establishes a high-level view of the intended
project and determines its goals…
ƒ …Gantt Chart
ƒ …Fact Findings
ƒ …Methodology
6.0 Systems analysis, requirements definition:
ƒ Refines project goals into defined functions
and operation of the intended application.
Analyzes end-user information needs.
ƒ …Flowchart
ƒ …DFD
ƒ …ERD
ƒ …Relational Table
ƒ …Use Case Model
ƒ …Activity Diagram
7.0 Systems design:
ƒ Describes desired features and operations in
detail, including screen layouts, business
rules, process diagrams and other
documentation.
8.0 Implementation:
ƒ The real code is written here.
9.0 Acceptance, installation, deployment:
ƒ The final stage of initial development, where
the software is put into production and runs
actual business.
ƒ …User Manual [please put this as appendix]
ƒ

Bibliography
Appendix

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE REPORT COMPONENTS

 Introduction
Some relevant discussions in this section are:
- Brief description of practicum companies which include, company
profiles, nature of business, number of employees etc.
- One page introduction of the practical training undergone by the
students
- In the closing paragraphs of the introduction, a general statement to
express your intention or purpose of the study or investigation
should be made.

 Objective
In this section, you should explain what you are intending to achieve by
doing the study. You may list down the objectives. Alternatively, you
may pose the objectives as a set of research questions, which would
satisfy the requirements of the objectives or to develop feasible answers
to the questions.

This section is extremely important because at the end of the study, its
value is assessed with respect to this basis, which is whether the
objectives have been achieved. You may also describe the scope of your
study or investigation as needed in this section.

 Methodology

In this section, you should describe how the study or investigation was
completed and where the data was gathered from. These may include
explanation on the method used, types of data collected and how the
data was analyzed.

The method used could be survey (using questionnaire), interview, and

case study or archive data collection.

As for systems development project, the systems development life cycle

methodology (SDLC) must be applied. Normally, it is used when
information systems are developed, acquired, or maintained.

 Discussion
In this section, you will report the results from your study or
investigation. Inclusions of related table, chart, workflow diagram or
flowchart are expected to be integrated in this section.

 Conclusion and/or Recommendation

Based on the findings, you will draw conclusions. In this section, you
should also provide recommendations and suggest further actions based

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 on the conclusions. Normally, alternative actions to solve the problem
would also be discussed.

 Reference/Bibliography
Please refer to the following discussion.

7. Reference List
Details of all references, act or accounting standard that you have used
to complete your study must be disclosed immediately after the main
text. The citation of each reference in the main text as well as in the
reference list should be consistent. You may refer to American
Psychology Association (APA) reference style (http://www.apa.org).

8. List of Tables, Figures and Diagrams

This may be in the form of graphs, maps, photographs and other types
of illustration. The lists contain the exact titles of tables, figures or
diagrams as they appear in the text. They are to be numbered in a
consistent way. Title, number and page number of each table, figure and
diagram is to be disclosed in the list.

9. Appendices
Supporting documents, forms, questionnaire and other significant
materials to support the report are disclosed in this section. Resize the
material to fit into the report so as to make it tidier and more
manageable.

In summary, your practicum report should have the above components and
follow the suggested format and guidelines. You may contact your
supervisor/lecturer to find out more or to clear up any confusion or query.
Furthermore, you may increase your understanding by doing additional
reading on related topics.

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ASSESSMENT OF PRACTICUM

Components included for practicum assessment and its proportion are as

follow:

Intake Prior to 2004/2005

Components BAcct (Hons) BAcct (IS) (Hons)
Entrepreneurship Workshop 50% 50%
Employer’s report 10% 10%
Log book 5% 5%
Practicum Report 35% 25%
Report Presentation - 10%
Total 100% 100%

Intake 2004/2005 (A041) onwards

Components BAcct (Hons) BAcct (IS) (Hons)
Entrepreneurship Workshop - 50%
Supervisor’s report
30% 10%
(Organization)
Log book 5% 5%
Supervisor report (Faculty) 15% 5%
Practicum Report 50% 30%
Total 100% 100%

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PROGRESS REPORT

To avoid last minute report preparation, it is advisable to report your progress

from time to time to your respective supervisor. The progress milestones are as
follow:

DESCRIPTION DATELINE
Report Proposal
Brief written explanation about: Two months after practicum begin
- Propose title of the report, Feb 15, 2009
- Objectives of the study and
- Method of obtaining the case
materials

Progress report
Describe the progress e.g. questionnaire April 15, 2009
preparation, status of data collection
and other relevant information,
problem encountered while obtaining
data.

Final Report 2 weeks after practicum end

(Printed report and diskette/CD) June 29, 2009

REFERENCE

Akta dan Peraturan. (1993). Jabatan Hal-Ehwal Akademik, Universiti Utara

Malaysia.

Gelinas, U.J., Jr., and Sutton, S.G. (1999). Accountant’s Guide to Information
Systems. Cincinnati, Ohio, International Thomson Publishing.

Publication Manual of the American Psychology Association. (5th ed). (2001).

American Psychology Association, Washington D.C.

“To succeed is the ability to know what you want and how to get it”