1 Travel Agency

A travel agency arranges holidays for customers. Bookings are made directly by customers. When a customer makes an approach, the
reservations clerk selects appropriate flight details and hotel details from lists which are regularly updated. The details are entered
onto a Provisional Booking file.

The customer must confirm this booking within three days by sending a deposit of 10% of the costs. On receipt of the deposit,
Reservations transfer the details from the Provisional Bookings file to the Full Bookings file.

Four weeks before the flight is due, Accounts send an invoice to the customer for the remaining costs. Accounts notify Customer
services when the full payment is received, and Customer Services then send tickets and joining instructions to the customer.

Exercise

Draw a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) of this system.

2 Cheapotick
Cheapotick is a ticket agency dealing in Concert and Theatre tickets. Concert and theatre venues provide Cheapotick with a constant
stream of information on forthcoming events, which is then used by the Manager to compile a fixture list for use by the sales staff in
responding to customer calls. The manager selects some events for which Cheapotick will purchase a number of tickets in advance,
thereby benefitting from discounts negotiated with the venues. He personally sends the orders for the tickets together with the
agreed payments to the venues, and once tickets are received, he files them in the ticket File.

When customers ring the sales team, their ticket requests are checked against the ticket file. If pre-purchased tickets are available
they are put in an envelope marked with the customer's name and address, and filed in a provisional orders file. If not, the sales team
fill out a ticket request form and put it in a tray for collection by the post clerk.

The payments section check the provisional orders file daily. They send an invoice to the customer and await payrment. A copy of the
invoice is kept on file. When a payment is received, the payments section match the payment with the appropriate invoice, and if
satisfied place another copy of the invoice in a despatch file with instructions to despatch the tickets.

The post clerk checks the despatch file each day, and retrieves the appropriate tickets from the provisional orders file and sends them
to the appropriate customers.

Exercise

Create a physical Data Flow Diagram (DFD) for the system described above for handling pre-purchased
tickets
3 Scargill Ltd
Scargill Ltd is a distributor of imported ironmongery with a manual accounting system in which sales orders and invoicing are carried
out as follows

1. Orders are received by the sales order/invoicing department, mainly by telephone.

2. On receipt, an official order form is prepared and passed to the sales ledger clerk to be vetted for creditworthiness of the
customer.
3. From there it is passed to the despatch department to prepare prenumbered despatch documents and assemble the goods for
despatch.
4. The despatch department then prepares a delivery schedule for delivering the various orders by its own transport. After
delivery a copy of each delivery note, signed by the customer, is returned to the despatch department for matching with the
original.
5. The despatch department accounts for all despatch note numbers and passes executed notes to the sales order/invoicing
department for invoice typing.
6. The invoicing department despatches top copy invoices direct to the customers and the second copies go to the ledger clerk
for entry into the sales journal and posting to the sales ledger.

Exercise

Prepare a physical DFD showing the activities of the various departments described above and the
movement of documents.
4 Martin & Trainor
Martin & Trainor are two well qualified and experienced chiropodists with a flourishing practice in Saundersfoot. They employ a
receptionist and an accountant. Both chiropodists maintain detailed records of therapy sessions. In addition, they maintain detailed
patient records held in reception. When a patient arrives, the receptionist enters new patient details and checks that old patient
details are correct. If they are not, she updates them. The receptionist also reminds patients if their account needs paying, and
receives payments where offered. She records details of payments and sends them to the accountant. Each week the partners send
details of therapy sessions to the accountant. The accountant costs them, and sends a bill to each patient, together with a statement
of unpaid fees where appropriate. An overdue balance report is prepared and sent to each partner. Patients may send payments by
cheque in the mail, or pay by cheque or cash at reception. Credit cards are not accepted. Payments are banked daily. Once a week
the accountant tracks the payments. She updates the ledgers and records the updated balance on the patient records for the
receptionist. She sends a list of transactions to each chiropodist. Twice a year, a breakdown of therapy administered has to be
prepared by each chiropodist and dispatched to the Department of Health.

Exercise

Draw a physical Data Flow Diagram (DFD) of this system.