

					       INTRODUCTION

		Accounts & Cash section of IIT-Bombay is one of the vital sections of 
the institute.One of the major draw backs of the existing system is both the 
sections function independently,and a lot of paper work goes in between them.
The existing soft ware though robust is obsolete and modifications are tedious.
we aim to provide a framework/architecture in integrating the above two sections 
and provide the end user all the benefits of current day higher level languages
and systems.
			
			The framework encapsulates the flow of information as adapted by 
both sections and strive to keep the end user at maximum ease ,by providing an
interface that they are familiar with.We visited the above sections and had a 
peek at the current system and collected suggestions regarding the improvements.
The built prototype is by no means complete ,but fully realises the basic issues 
and is exapandable.
																	existing	
			A look at the past scenario  reveals the essentials of the^ system.
Account section collects bills from various sections (academic ,administrative,
hospital,hcu etc) and forwards them to the cash section for payments/reciepts.
the existing software is only used to keep track of the flow of information 
rather than to create bills.An instance of bill creation to its processing 
is helpful.suppose say academic section issues a scholarship to student x.
The concerned employee forwards the list of students on plain paper to the 
concerned clerk in the account section.Account section prpeares a bill keeping 
an entry for himself abt the student and sends a copy of that to EDP cell and 
another to Cash section.The EDP cell enters the data in the corresponding tables 
and updates the central database.when the student x goes to cash section the 
database is used to look up the pending bills against his name and the 
corresponding paper bill is fetched and student signs the bill and collects the 
money.This completes a life cycle of a bill.

			The proposed framework/architecture does the following improvements.
	
i)   Eliminate the existence of EDP cell 
ii)  The clerks in the account section are provided with an easily undestandable 
	 GUI to enter the bills directly.The bulk uploading is done by files.

iii) The cash section as before looks up the database and transacts the pending 
	 bills,eliminating the paper work.

iv)  The existing system provides the user no method to query the database 
	 and know the details.we provide one in the prototype.
	 
v)	 Automatic reminders to users abt their pending bills is also undertaken.

vi)  Salary bills are calculated by the computer according to a given formula
	 and provide a means to change the formula according to times.
	 (ex da % changes one can reset the fileld.)

vii) A  browser based uniform GUI.

			Let us look at the lifecycle of a bill in this two layer architecture.
A clerk in the accounts section enters the bill details in the database in the 
first tier,and the clerk in the cash section processes that in the second tier.
The bills preparation is triggered by the concerned clerk in the accounts section.

Though the proposed strucure satisfies the essentials ,due to time constraint 
we could not implement but suggest the same .

i) The data entered over the browser is private to the organisation,and should 
	be away from prying eyes.A security wrapper that encrypts/decrypts data
	is required.

ii) The main concern in a businees information system is the accessibility 
	of the data to its user based on their rank/designation and privileges.
	We implememted a two layer accessibility ,student and employee in our 
	prototype though in a real life orgainisation there are often many .

iii)Error handling is kept simple,though in our implementation we handle 
	basic processing of data and evaluate its correctness a robust error 
	handling is required.

	
