Impacts of Microsoft Visio

Visio is a business oriented drawing program used to create flowcharts, timelines, and networks for business purposes. Being that I am an accountant, I will focus on the areas that would be most beneficial to my industry.

                First I would like to focus on creating a simple flow chart in MS Visio.  Every year, before we start preparation of year end audit, we have a meeting in which we plan and orient and discuss the important aspects of audit. With the use of Visio we would be able to increase the productivity of our planning and getting ready our financial data for auditors. The more time we can save on the preparation of audit, the sooner our audit will be done. We can create audit preparation template for employees in the Finance department such as for Accountant, Accounts receivable, Accounts Payable person to follow every year. We can also go over the flowchart every year and make adjustment to minimize our audit time preparation based on previous audits.

                We receive NJ State funding through Federal Government Funds for certain projects. The most challenging part is tracking where and how the funds are used. We don’t organize on how to utilize the Funds; we will overspend and/or lose funds to unnecessary expense.   Accounts payable department and Purchasing must understand one another and must be informed of one another’s actions. When using the visual diagrams that can be produced form Microsoft Visio, we can cut through the confusion of communication barriers. Providing a visual aid with the outlining of business concepts such as organizational hierarchy, flowcharts, business processes, or the steps of a newly assigned project allows employees to strategically and logically approach the assignment at hand with the burden of information overload while, creating a foundation for time management in the office space. The tool has the ability to link to live data for constant updates while also allowing for collaboration between team members.  This feature could be especially useful when consulting with external clients on our business processes and integration of our lines of communication.

                               After discussing these above benefits with all department heads, the suggested course of action we came up is to buy Visio which will cost us a $500 additional expense. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact me.