Transcript Flowcharting Conventions 1/N

Flowcharting Tips
For Manual and
Computer-based Systems
Created by TerryAnn Glandon
2006, 2007
Document Flowcharts
• illustrate relationship among processes
and documents that flow between them
• clearly shows separation of functions in
the organization
Common Document
Flowchart Symbols
document
Left comment box
Terminator Used to start
and stop processes
Manual
process
Right comment box
Files Use for storage of
paper documents
Journal
Or Ledger
On page connector Avoid long lines across
flowchart
Off page connector Use when flowchart
requires multiple pages.
Directional arrow
When to use Comment Boxes.
• Comment boxes hang off manual
processes
• Keep symbol sizes standard
– Don’t make manual process symbols bigger
to fit in more text.
• Use left or right comment box, wherever it
fits best on the flowchart
This is not good…
document
Reconcile documents,
initial documents, and
post to journal
Yadda, yadda, yadda
document
Use a comment box instead
document
Record in journal
Reconcile
& initial
documents
document
document
Journal
document
Flowcharting Conventions 1/4
• Avoid drawing long lines
– Use on-page connectors instead
• On-page connectors have numerals
• Off-page connectors have capital letters
• Do not cross lines
Flowcharting Conventions 2/4
• Documents stored in a temporary file are
retrieved upon some trigger, such as
– Invoice arrives from Vendor
– Credit is approved by Credit Dept.
– Validated deposit slip is returned by Bank
• All documents must be filed, sent to
another department not being flowcharted,
or sent to an outside party (customer,
vendor, bank, shipper, etc.)
Flowcharting Conventions 3/4
• Arrowheads show direction:
– When one gets information from a file or
journal, the arrowhead points away
– When one updates/records/posts data to a file
or journal, the arrowhead points toward it.
• In Systems Flowcharts, there may be an
arrowhead on both ends of the line.
Flowcharting Conventions 4/4
• Avoid violating the "sandwich rule"
– Think of a document symbol as a slice of
bread and a manual process as baloney.
– The sandwich rule says you must have bread
(documents) above and below the baloney
(manual process)
• Another way to say this is “Drag the
documents along” or “Copy/paste them
after the manual process or a Temp. file”
1
SO1
Check customer
credit
Violates
the
sandwich
rule! Two
pieces of
baloney.
Credit records
Approve
credit
Approved SO1
2
1
SO1
Put 2 “actions” in one manual process.
Only 1 piece of “baloney”
check
credit &
approve
Approved SO1
2
Credit
Records
System Flowcharts
• used to represent relationship between key
elements of computer systems
– input sources, processes, and output
• shows type of media being used
– paper, tapes, disks, and screens/monitors
Common System
Flowchart Symbols
document
keyboard/
printer
database
Directional arrow
Terminator Used to start
and stop processes
Display
(screen)
Computer
process
On page connector Avoid long lines across
flowchart
Off page connector Use when flowchart
requires multiple pages.
Files Use for storage of
paper documents
Conventions for Connectors
On page connector Use numerals--one set of each number per flowchart.
So you would have two 1s, two 2s, two 3s, and so on.
Off page connector Use alpha—one set of each letter per flowchart.
You would have two As, two Bs, two Cs, etc.
Only used when there is a multiple page flowchart.
Sales Dept.
Credit Dept.
Excerpt from Revenue
Flowchart. Note that SO1
goes from Sales to
Credit, using the (1). The
(1) is not used again in
the flowchart.