SOFTWARE TO MONITOR ALL PAYMENTS MADE BY STUDENTS IN ALL SRC OUTLETS.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To develop software to monitor the payments made by students. 2. To test the functionality of the software. 3. To have a centralized server monitoring all SRC financial activities.

BACKGROUND
Polytechnic education in the 1970s seeks to provide career focused education and training at the tertiary level with emphasis on hands-on experience and entrepreneurship development to produce middle-level personnel. It is good to note that Students representation has existed for several decades within the country. Long before the formation of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS), the NUGS (National Union of Ghana Students) was in force. This comprised of all student unions typically, the Universities and Polytechnics. NUGS successfully operated in the country for years until late 1990s when issues of Leadership and other financial accountability were raised by Polytechnic representatives. They agitated that the highest positions like the Presidency among others within the Organization were often occupied by the Universities which intended to favour the Universities in the administration of the Organization with respect to finances. Unable to resolve these issues amicably, the Polytechnics had no choice than to pull out from NUGS to begin GNUPS, which had been actively in force since then. Subject to the Polytechnic Act, 2007 (Act 745), Polytechnics Statutes and these Regulations, the Polytechnic recognises the Students Representative Council (SRC) as the legitimate representative organ of the student body. The Polytechnic does not recognise which purports to speak on behalf of the student body of the Polytechnic. The Students Representative Council (SRC) shall make representation to the authorities of the Polytechnic on matters affecting students. The SRC shall be governed by a constitution promulgated by the Academic Board on the recommendation of the Residence Committee.

The SRC shall be represented on the Polytechnic Council in accordance with the Polytechnic Act 2007 (Act 745). The SRC shall have membership of and / or affiliation to the GHANA NATIONAL UNION OF POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS (GNUPS) and any other student or youth organization in so far as the aims and objectives of such organization do not conflict with those of the SRC. Just like every organization, the SRC has aims and objectives. These include: i. To seek the general welfare of the students and to advise in relation to such matters concerning students welfare.

ii. To work in all deliberations and in close harmony, with the Authorities of the Polytechnic in all matters affecting the interest of the students iii. To be responsible for the planning of major students function including the promotion of sports / games and entertainment. iv. To be responsible for all meetings incidental to representing the interest of student v. In pursuance of these objectives, the Council shall co-operate with the authorities and other agencies deemed necessary. In accordance to the aims and objectives of the SRC, funds must be generated to run the day-to-day activities of the Organization. Below are the ways finances are raised for the SRC. i. All students of the Polytechnic shall pay a prescribed fee per annum into the Councils coffers.

ii. The Council shall open a savings and current accounts with a recognized bank where all monies of the Council except the amount for IMPREST shall be kept. The bulk of the amount shall be deposited in the savings account to be transferred into the current account as and when the need arises. iii. All monies from the administration should be paid by crossed cheque into the SRC account. Before finances are generated into SRC coffers, monitoring becomes a must. The monitoring of the funds paid into the SRC is done by paying into the SRC account at a given bank. This slows down payment of fees as pressure is mounted on the given bank. The project seeks to generate software that will monitor the payments of SRC fees at the various outlets. This will make payments easier and more convenient to students.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem of managing the SRC account has been a challenge to the present and past SRC executives. Some of the problems are; To monitor payments made by students Misappropriation of SRC funds.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this project is to design software to monitor the activities of SRC executives as to how they use funds during their term of office. This will help them account for every penny spent and help make auditing very easy. The system will trace the root of signatories thereby ensuring that the monies are been put to proper use.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY The scope of the system shall strictly work within the offices of the SRC and not beyond ensuring that only authorized executives shall have access to the system. Since it is an electronic system, web-based technologies including PHP and MySQL shall be used.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY A delay in the misappropriation of funds needed to begin the project will disrupt the timing of the project. The project has been proposed to commence and complete on specific date. If what is required to start the project does not come forth, the proposed dates will not be adhered to. The project has to follow time frame but if due to delay from team members who have to submit their findings and works, it will affect the time schedule of the project. Therefore, the project might not be completed on time so good information is very vital to designing software in managing the system successfully. LITERATURE REVIEW According to System Analysis and Design by Shelly Cashman 6th Edition Introduction to Systems Analysis & Design, Application software consists of programs that support day-to-day business functions and provide users with the information they require. Application software can serve one user or thousands of users throughout the organization. Example of company-wide applications, called enterprise

applications, includes order processing systems, payroll systems, and company communications network. On a smaller scale, individual users increase their productivity with tools such as spreadsheets, word processors, and database management systems. Application software includes horizontal and vertical systems a horizontal system is a system, such as an inventory or payroll application that can be adapted for use in many in many different types of companies. A vertical system is designed to meet the unique requirements of a specific business or industry, such as a Webbased retailer, a medical practice, or a video chain. Most companies use a combination of software that is acquired at various times. When planning an information system, a company must consider how a new system will interface with older systems, which are called legacy systems. For example, a new human resources system might need to exchange data with an older payroll application. Different types of business commonly use computer to assist with such day to day operating activities as 1. Sales order entry: procedures for handling customers orders, including receipt of the order and verification of availability of ordered stock. 2. Inventory management and control, procedures for tracking, counting and reordering stock items. 3. Accounting procedures for maintaining the companys financial records. 4. Security procedures for controlling who has access to what data to and information at what time and where, and who may enter data to computer based information system. The use of ICT also help to collect and analyzed data, to produce concise information for management in a clear format suitable for making decision to help management avoid being overloaded with unnecessary information. In the Global Marketing Ltds reports, 2010, it states that some pay-in-slips do not reflect in the banks statement for that particular year. Therefore, in our review we decide that the software must be linked to the banking software to eliminate falsification of pay-in-slips. METHODOLOGY Software Development Life Cycle This section briefly describes the relevant software development theory used to plan and implement this project. The software life cycle used is a basic waterfall model with a prototyping cycle used within the design; this is shown by figure 1. The rest of this report follows this life cycle model, going through each of the four phases.

The Software Life cycle model used.

Analysis Analysis is the understanding and specifying into details what an information system should do which requires feasibility and the requirement analysis. Feasibility is the study that determines whether a particular project should go ahead. If the project is to proceed then the project plan and budget estimate for the other stages of development will be produced. From the above analysis, we realised that the project is very feasible thus, we shall continue with it. System Requirement

The requirements for the system are gathered at this stage. This should be recorded so that at the end of the project the software can be tested to ensure that it fulfils the requirements.
Software Requirements

The software specifications for installation will include 1. Microsoft Windows, Linux OS, or Mac OS. 2. Network connectivity, an intranet to be specific. Hardware Requirements 1. Minimum of 1.7GHZ or above CPU speed. 2. Minimum of 40GB of Hard Disk Drive capacity. 3. Minimum of 512 RAM speed.

Design The design focuses on; High level design eg; what programs are needed, what are their inputs and outputs and what are their interactions with other software or operating system.

Low level design eg; how will the program work, what models or algorithms will be used, what libraries are required.

We will be using the prototyping model to design the software in design phase. The prototyping model follows these stages 1. Draw concept We will get information on requirements from SRC to design the software. The system analyst will investigate the limitations of the proposed software in order work within the legal constrains. This stage will help us to develop a prototype software for SRC to try. If the prototype needs to be enhanced then we will proceed with the next satge. 2. Review This stage will help us to add more features that SRC want but are not in the prototype software or remove some features that they will consider irrelevant. 3. Refine This is the stage where the redesign of the prototype software is done to fit the requirements and specification of the SRC.