Accounting Information Systems, 12e (Romney/Steinbart)
Chapter 18 Implementing an REA Model in a Relational Database
1) Integrating separate REA diagrams developed for individual transaction cycles into a single,
comprehensive enterprise-wide data model
A) is possible.
B) requires understanding what the cardinalities in each separate diagram reveal about the organization’s
business policies and activities.
C) provides a single comprehensive enterprise-wide model of the organization.
D) All of the above are true.
2) The primary key for a Sales-Inventory table that consists of the Sales Invoice Number and the
Inventory Item Number, is known as a
A) concatenated key.
B) condensed key.
C) double key.
D) dual key.
3) When using an REA diagram to develop a database, many-to-many relationships must be
A) broken into multiple one-to-one relationships.
B) combined into a single one-to-one relationship.
C) combined into a one-to-many relationship.
D) broken into multiple one-to-many relationships.
4) The type of relationship between two entities is determined by
A) maximum cardinalities only.
B) minimum cardinalities only.
C) minimum and maximum cardinalities.
D) median cardinalities.
5) Which of the following is not one of the steps in implementing an REA diagram in a relational
database?
A) implement many-to-many relationships with foreign keys
B) create tables for entities
C) assign attributes to tables and identify primary keys
D) implement one-to-many relationships with foreign keys
6) An integrated REA diagram merges multiple copies of ________ and ________ entities but retains
multiple copies of ________ entities.
A) resource; event; agent
B) event; agent; resource
C) resource; agent; event
D) None of the above. An integrated REA diagram merges multiple copies of all entities.
7) An integrated REA diagram could contain multiple copies of
A) customers.
B) sales.
C) inventory.
D) sales-inventory.
8) An integrated REA diagram merges multiple copies of some entities in order to
A) minimize the repetition of agent entities.
B) maximize the legibility of the diagram by avoiding the need to have relationship lines cross one
another.
C) Both A and B are true.
D) Both A and B are false.
9) Combining REA diagrams for individual transaction cycles into a single, enterprise-wide model adds
two more rules to the three basic principles for drawing REA diagrams. Which of the following is not
one of those two new rules?
A) Every resource must be linked to at least one event that increments that resource and to at least one
event that decrements that resource.
B) If a specific event can be linked to more than one other type of event, but cannot be linked
simultaneously to all of those other events, then the minimum cardinality between that event and every
other event with which it may be associated must be 0.
C) If a specific event can be linked to more than one other type of event, but cannot be linked
simultaneously to all of those other events, then the maximum cardinality between that event and every
other event with which it may be associated must be 0.
D) All of the above are new rules for drawing integrated REA diagrams.
10) Concerning a correctly drawn enterprise-wide REA diagram, which of the following statements is
not true?
A) Every event must be linked to at least one resource.
B) Merging two transaction cycles on a common event may affect the minimum cardinalities between
the merged event and the other events.
C) Events can only be merged if they share the same resources and events.
D) Creating a set of tables from an REA diagram automatically results in a well-structured relational
database.
11) Which of the following is not one of the three steps to implementing an REA diagram in a relational
database?
A) Assign attributes to appropriate tables.
B) Create a table for each distinct entity in the diagram and for each many-to-many relationship.
C) Every event must be linked to at least one resource.
D) Use foreign keys to implement one-to-one and one-to-many relationships.
12) REA diagrams for different organizations may be similar, but will likely result in different
relationship cardinalities because of
A) differences in business policies.
B) different designers of REA diagrams.
C) different methods of drawing REA diagrams.
D) errors in drawing REA diagrams.
13) What is the first step to implementing an REA diagram in a relational database?
A) Assign attributes to appropriate tables.
B) Create a table for each distinct entity in the diagram and for each many-to-many relationship.
C) Identify cardinalities.
D) Use foreign keys to implement one-to-one and one-to-many relationships.
14) Concerning REA diagrams and relational databases, which of the following is true?
A) A well-designed relational database is the starting point for creating an REA diagram.
B) A well-designed REA diagram minimizes update, insert or delete anomaly problem when the
diagram is implemented into a relational database.
C) REA diagrams and database design are generic across organizations.
D) The design of a relational database is specific to the organization being modeled.
15) Concerning the creation of tables from an REA diagram, which of the following is false?
A) A properly designed relational database has a table for each distinct entity in an REA diagram.
B) A properly designed relational database has a table for each many-to-many relationship in an REA
diagram.
C) To reduce confusion, table names should not duplicate REA diagram entities’ names.
D) Many-to-many relationships will be shown in tables with hyphenated concatenations of the entities’
names.
16) When assigning attributes to each table,
A) the database designer must interview users to identify which facts should be included in the database.
B) the database designer must interview management to identify which facts should be included in the
database.
C) the database designer must use the REA diagram to help determine in which tables those facts
belong.
D) the database designer must do all of the above.
17) The primary key for M:N relationship tables
A) is a single attribute.
B) always consists of two attributes.
C) is the primary key of the most important entity linked to that relationship.
D) does not exist. Many-to-many relationship tables only use foreign keys.
18) Attributes other than the primary key are
A) included to satisfy transaction processing requirements.
B) included to meet management’s information needs.
C) both A and B
D) none of the above
19) Concerning tables for M:N relationships, which of the following statements is false?
A) Non-key attributes may be included.
B) Multiple attribute primary keys are used.
C) Single attribute primary keys may be used.
D) Concatenated keys are used.
20) Nonfinancial information should be collected because
A) it may indicate events that may affect resources.
B) it can be used to plan other activities.
C) it can be used in transaction processing.
D) both A and B
21) Concerning the creation of tables from an REA diagram, which of the following is false?
A) M:N relationships must be implemented as separate tables.
B) 1:N relationships are implemented with the primary key of the 1 side becoming a foreign key on the
N side.
C) 1:1 relationships are implemented with the primary key of either entity included as a foreign key in
the table representing the other entity.
D) All of the above are true.
22) Which of the following is not part of a “final accuracy check” when creating relational tables from
an REA diagram?
A) Every attribute in every table is single-valued (i.e., each table is a flat file).
B) Every event must be linked to at least one resource.
C) Every table must have a primary key.
D) Other non-key attributes in each table must be either a fact about the thing designated by the primary
key or foreign keys used to link that table to another table.
23) When comparing REA diagrams used to design an AIS with a traditionally designed AIS,
A) traditional AIS information, such as journals and ledgers no longer exist.
B) similar information is present as in a traditional AIS, but stored in a different format.
C) queries are used to input data into the AIS.
D) an REA designed AIS cannot recreate a traditional journal.
24) Concerning the use of REA diagrams to retrieve information from a database
A) although neither journals nor ledgers appear explicitly in an REA diagram, each can be created
through appropriate queries.
B) the information normally found in a journal is contained in the tables used to record data about
events.
C) much of the information about an organization’s assets that is traditionally recorded in ledgers is
stored in resource tables in an REA-based relational database.
D) all of the above
25) Much of the information about an organization’s assets that is traditionally recorded in ledgers is
stored in ________ tables in an REA-based relational database.
A) Account
B) Agent
C) Event
D) Resource
26) In an REA-based relational database, the information normally found in a ________ is contained in
the tables used to record data about ________.
A) journal, events
B) journal, resources
C) ledger, events
D) ledger, resources
27) Concerning REA models, which of the following is false?
A) Many financial statement accounts are represented as resources in the REA model.
B) Accounts such as Accounts Receivable show up as entities in the REA model.
C) Some accounts represent an imbalance between two related events in the REA model.
D) Much of the information about an organization’s assets that is traditionally recorded in ledgers is
stored in resource tables in an REA-based relational database.
28) Because information about temporal imbalances between two ________, such as accounts
receivable and accounts payable, is needed so frequently, such calculated values are sometimes stored as
________ in the appropriate tables.
A) events, agents
B) events, attributes
C) resources, agents
D) resources, attributes
29) Concerning the generation of financial statements from an REA-based relational database, which of
the following is false?
A) It is possible to use a completed REA diagram to guide the writing of queries to produce the
information that would be included in financial statements.
B) Many financial statement items can be displayed by querying a single table.
C) It is unnecessary to understand the REA data model to know which tables need to be included in each
query to generate the correct answers to financial statement questions.
D) A major advantage of the REA data model is that it integrates non-financial and financial data.
30) In comparing the REA model to the traditional AIS, which of the following is false?
A) Traditional AISs contain only data about the financial aspects of transactions.
B) A major advantage of the REA data model is that it integrates non-financial and financial data in the
AIS and makes both types of data easily accessible to management.
C) In the REA model, many financial statement items can be displayed by querying a single table.
D) Accounts in the traditional AIS are analogous to resources in the REA-based relational database.
31) The major benefits of using the REA model as the basis for designing an AIS include all of the
following except
A) the REA data model integrates non-financial and financial data in the AIS.
B) the REA data model makes both non-financial and financial data easily accessible to management.
C) the REA data model provides the basis for building the kind of flexible AIS that is responsive to
management’s changing information needs.
D) the REA data model reduces the need for accountants to understand the underlying accounting
journals and ledgers.
32) Concerning REA diagrams for individual transaction cycles, which of the following is false?
A) They depict basic give-to-get economic duality relationships.
B) They usually provide only a partial view of resources.
C) They need to be combined in order to provide a comprehensive enterprise-wide data model.
D) They show both how resources are acquired and how they are used.
33) Concerning enterprise-wide REA diagrams, which of the following is false?
A) Merging two or more REA diagrams that contain the same resource entity does not require any
changes to the cardinality pairs in the individual diagrams.
B) Merging two or more diagrams that contain a common event entity, however, often requires changing
the minimum cardinalities associated with the other events to 0, to reflect the fact that the merged event
may be connected to any one of several different events, but not to all of them simultaneously.
C) The minimum cardinalities associated with agents may also have to be changed to 0.
D) All of the above are true.
34) Concatenated keys are
A) only needed when combining two or more REA diagrams.
B) foreign keys used to implement 1:N or 1:1 relationships.
C) multiple attribute keys used to implement 1:N relationships.
D) required to implement M:N relationships.
35) How many tables are needed to implement an REA data model that has six distinct entities, three
M:N relationships and four 1:N relationships in a relational database?
A) 6
B) 9
C) 11
D) 13
36) How many tables are needed to implement an REA data model that has five distinct entities, two
M:N relationships and three 1:N relationships in a relational database?
A) 5
B) 7
C) 8
D) 10
37) When combining two REA diagrams by merging common entities, changes in the cardinality of the
merged entity is needed when it is a(n)
A) agent.
B) event.
C) relationship.
D) resource.
38) Information traditionally found in journals are stored where in an REA database?
A) Event entity
B) Agent entity
C) Relationship
D) Resource entity
39) Which table is most likely to have a concatenated key?
A) customer
B) sales
C) customer-sales
D) accounts receivable
40) Integrating separate REA diagrams into a single comprehensive enterprise-wide model of the
organization requires understanding what the ________ in each separate diagram reveal about the
organization’s business policies and activities.
A) cardinalities
B) data
C) events
D) transactions
41) When integrating separate REA diagrams,
A) common resources are placed between the events that affect them.
B) each resource is connected to two agents.
C) resources are duplicated to show the give and get of economic duality relationships.
D) resources are merged if both events in the stockflow relationship are modeled.