Accounting Ch 4

CHAPTER 4

RELATIONAL DATABASES

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

4.1 The database approach is possible because of the database management system (DBMS). As shown in Figure 4.2, the DBMS is a software program that sits between the actual data stored in the system and the application programs that use the data. As shown in Figure 4.4, this allows users to separate the way they view the data (called the logical view) from the way the data is actually stored (the physical view). The DBMS interprets the users' requests and retrieves, manipulates, or stores the data as needed. The two distinct views separate the applications from the physical information, providing increased flexibility in applications, improved data security, and ease of use.

In a database system the manager will rarely, if ever, need to understand or be familiar with the physical view of the data. In most instances, the internal auditor and the programmer will not need to understand or be familiar with the physical view of the data. Most everything they do requires only an understanding of the logical view of the data.

If accountants understand logical data structures and the logical view of the data they are better able to draw the information they need from the database.

4.2 A major difference between spreadsheets and databases is that the former are designed primarily to handle numeric data, whereas the latter can handle both text and numbers. Consequently, the query and sorting capabilities of spreadsheets are much more limited than what can be accomplished with a good query language and a DBMS. Accountants’ familiarity with spreadsheets might hinder their ability to design and use relational DBMS because many links in spreadsheets are preprogrammed and designed in, whereas a well-designed relational database is designed to facilitate ad-hoc queries....