The data Processing Cycle and processing methods

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The data Processing Cycle and processing methods

Data Handling

All organisations and businesses no matter how big or small they are have to process data. Sales data, Wages, Invoices, and Purchasing are the four most common processing methods. They are two types of ways which data can be processed, Firstly is can be done by paper and pen this is called manually. This is not I good way to process data as it’s time consuming and errors can be made. Small corner shops can use this method as they don’t have to process much data. But it is not a good idea if big companies use this method as it would take too long and the chance of making mistakes increases. The second method is by using computers (electronically) most businesses use computers to process data. The main reasons for this is because computers are affordable for most businesses. And they can process data more efficiently and quickly. So computers have changed the way businesses operate as they are more reliable and they can process large amount of data within minutes.

The diagram below shows the data processing cycle. The processing cycle has 4 different stages in order they are Collection, Input, Processing and Meaningful output. It works like this, the data is collected after it’s collected it will be inputted, then it will get processed and finally the data is outputted it can be outputted as meaningful data.                       

The arrows with the dashes that goes from meaningful/output to collection can also be used again for the collections. This does not happen often but it is possible. If it did happen it works out something like this:

Collection                 Input                         Process                    Meaningful Output

Different stages of the cycle

Collection

The first stage is the collection here all the information/data is collected. It will collect information/data only that is needed for the input.

Input  

The second part of the cycle is the input part. Here information/data is stored and it is ready to be processed.

Processing

The third part of the cycle is processing here all the information/data that has been received from input will be processed and passed on to output.

Meaningful Output

The final stage is meaningful output, this means that the data that has been outputted can be used again as an input for another process or it can be used again for the same process.

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I have mentioned four different stages, but they are two more important stages that come after input these are sorting and validating data.

Sorting data

Sorting data is not necessary but it keeps the company more organised. For example in the payroll department the employee who as the lowest record number will be listed at the start of the database, and the employee with the highest employee number will be listed at the bottom of the database. This is useful because if the company decide to make any changes to the database the data will be ...

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