James A. Hall
COPYRIGHT © 2009 South-Western, a division of Cengage Learning. Cengage Learning and South-Western
are trademarks used herein under license
Objectives for Chapter 10
Economic foundations of the REA model
Key differences between traditional ER modeling
and REA modeling
The structure of an REA diagram
Create an REA diagram by applying the view
modeling steps to a business case
Create an entity-wide REA diagram by applying the
view integration steps to a business case
Traditional Approaches:
User-View Orientation
When data-modeling and IS design is too
oriented toward the user’s views, problems
arise:
multiple information systems
duplication of data
restricted user-view leads to poor decision-
making
inability to support change
Resources, Events, and Agents Model
REA is an approach to database design meant to
overcome problems with traditional approaches:
formalized data modeling and design of IS
use of centralized database
use of relational database structure
collects detailed financial and non-financial data
supports accounting and non-accounting analysis
supports multiple user views
supports enterprise-wide planning
Resources, Events, and Agents Model
REA models consists of three
entity types and the associations
linking them.
Resources
Events
Agents
Resources in the REA Model
Resources – the ‘assets’ of the company
things of economic value
objects of economic exchanges able to generate revenue
objects that are scarce and under the control of the
organization
can be tangible or intangible
Does not include some traditional accounting
assets:
artifacts that can be generated from other primary data
for example, accounts receivables
Events in the REA Model
Events are phenomena that effect changes
in resources.
a source of detailed data in the REA approach
to databases
Events fall into two groups:
Economic – increases or decreases resources
Support – control, planning, and other
management activities; but do not directly
affect resources
Agents in the REA Model
Agents can be individuals or departments.
Participate in events
Affect resources
Have discretionary power to use or dispose of
resources
Can be inside or outside the organization
Clerks
Production workers
Customers
Suppliers, vendors
Departments, teams
Elemental REA Model
Participates
External Economic
Agent
Stock Flow
Economic Economic Event
Resource
Give Activity
Duality
Receive Activity
Internal Agent
Participates
Take Order
Ship Product
Receive Cash
Step 2. Identify the Resource Entities
Identify the resources impacted by events
identified in step 1
Each event must be linked to at least one
resource.
Economic events directly affect resources
Support events indirectly affect them
Step 3. Identify the Agent Entities
Each economic event entity in an REA
diagram is associated with at least two agent
entities.
One internal agent
One external agent
It is possible to have only an internal agent
when no exchange occurs, as with certain
‘internal’ manufacturing processes.
Resources Events Agents
Customer Services
Clerk
Customer
Customer
Shipping Clerk
Customer
Customer
Cash Receipts
Clerk
REA Model showing Events and Related
Resources and Agents
Step 4. Determine Associations and
Cardinalities between Entities
Association – reflects the nature of the relationship between two
entities
Represented by the labeled line connecting the entities
Cardinality – the degree of association between the entities
Describes the number of possible occurrences in one entity that are
associated with a single occurrence in a related entity
Cardinality reflects the business rules that are in play for a
particular organization.
Sometimes the rules are obvious and are the same for all
organizations.
Sometimes the rules differ, e.g., whether inventory items are
tracked individually or as quantity on hand.
Associations and Respond to Customer Customer Services
Clerk
Cardinality in REA
Diagram
Verify Availability
Review Items Available
Request
Related Customer
to
Places Order
Process Order
Reserves Sales
Inventory Take Order Representative
Causes Ships
Shipping Clerk
Reduces
Ship Product
Receives
Customer
Duality
Remits
Increases
Cash Receive Cash Cash Receipts
Clerk
Processes
Remittance
Many-to-Many Associations
Many-to-many (M:M) associations cannot
be directly implemented into relational
databases.
They require the creation of a new linking
table.
This process splits the M:M association into two
1:M associations.
The linking table requires a ‘composite primary
key’.
Link Tables in REA Diagram
Inventory-Verify
Verify Availability
Link
Customer
Places Order
Process Order
Sales
Inventory Inventory- Take Order Representative
Order Link
Causes Ships
Shipping Clerk
Customer
View Integration: Creating an
Enterprise-Wide REA Model
View integration – combining several individual
REA diagrams into a single enterprise-wide model
The three steps involved in view integration are:
1. consolidate the individual models
2. define primary keys, foreign keys, and attributes
3. construct physical database and produce user
views
Step 1. Consolidate the Individual
Models
Merging multiple REA models requires first
a thorough understanding of the business
processes and entities involved in the
models.
Individual models are consolidated or
linked together based on shared entities.
For example, procurement (expenditures) and sales
(revenue) both use inventory and cash resource entities.
Purchasing Clerk Cust Ser Clerk
(Employee) (Employee)
Order Product
Verify
Availability
Supplier
Request
Customer
Receiving Clerk Receive Product
(Employee)
Sales Rep
Supplier
Inventory Take Order (Employee)
Shipping Clerk
Cash Disb Clerk (Employee)
(Employee) Disburse Cash
Ship Product
Payroll Clerk
(Employee) Customer
Supervisor
(Employee) Get Time Integrated REA Diagram
Step 2. Define Primary Keys, Foreign
Keys, and Attributes
Implementation into a working relational
database requires primary keys, foreign keys and
attributes in tables.
Primary key – uniquely identifies an instance of an
entity (i.e., each row in the table)
Foreign key – the primary key embedded in the related
table so that the two tables can be linked
Attribute – a characteristic of the entity to be recorded
in the table
Rules for Foreign Keys
Primary key Foreign key: Relations are formed
by an attribute that is common to both tables in the
relation.
Assignment of foreign keys:
if 1 to 1 (1:1) association, either of the table’s
primary key may be the foreign key
if 1 to many (1:m) association, the primary key on
one of the sides is embedded as the foreign key on
the other side
if many to many (m:m) association, create a
separate linking table with a composite primary
key
Attributes
Using the customer as an example, these data include:
Financial Nonfinancial
Customer name Customer credit rating
Customer address Damaged goods
Customer telephone record
number On-time payment
Amount owed by record
customer Customer volume
Value of total sales to record
date EDI access
Terms of trade offered Internet access
Step 3. Construct Physical Database
and Produce User Views
The database designer is now ready to create the physical
relational tables using software.
Once the tables have been constructed, some of them
must be populated with data.
Resource and Agent tables
Event tables must wait for business transactions to occur
before data can be entered.
The resulting database should support the information
needs of all users.
SQL is used to generate reports, computer screens, and documents
for users.
User-Views
User-View #1 User-View #2
Sales Report
Past Due Accounts
Name Amount
James $500.00 REA Database
Henry $100.00
… …
Value Chain Analysis
Competitive advantages from the REA approach
can be see via value chain analysis.
Value chain analysis distinguishes between
primary activities (create value) and support
activities (assist performing primary activities).
REA provides a model for identifying and
differentiating between these activities.
Prioritizing Strategy: Focus on primary activities;
eliminate or outsource support activities.
Porter’s Value Chain
Revenue
Costs
Firm Infrastructure
Human resource management
Technology development
Procurement
Primary Activities
Competitive Advantages of the REA
Model
Using REA can lead to more efficient operations.
Helps managers identify non-value added activities
that can be eliminated
Increasing productivity via elimination of non-value
added activities generates excess capacity
Storing both financial and nonfinancial data in the
same central database reduces multiple data
collection, data storage, and maintenance.
Competitive Advantages of the REA
Model
Using REA can lead to more efficient operations.
Detailed financial and nonfinancial business data
supports a wider range of management decisions
supporting multiple user views (e.g., different
perspectives on a problem)
Provides managers with more relevant, timely, and
accurate information.
leading to better customer service, higher-quality
products, and flexible production processes