The Hotel Reservation System

The Hotel Reservation System Abstract The Riviera resort is a tourist resort. It is located in Greenwich, in the south east London of United Kingdom. This resort was established in 2000. This resort has 38 rooms with all the facilities. There are double, single and family rooms with attached bathrooms. There are indoor and outdoor games facilities with a swimming pool. Air-conditioned rooms too are available. Within a distance of a few yards the real maritime view is attractive for the tourist for enjoyment. As Hotel Riviera a customer based Company it is identified that providing an efficient customer service is a major factor that is considered in all customer based Companies, to remain competitive in the market. One major barrier to this is the manual system does not provide any facility for the Managers, Accountants and other employees to trace the routine details on time and provide a quality of service. Which ultimately lead to a lot of problems and inefficiencies? In the aim of solving these problems and making the company operate efficiently, the Hotel Reservation System with online Environment to Hotel Riviera System project was undertaken. In here this system was strengthen in web base access as well as with a Visual Basic component that was used to track the reservations done by the Employees each day. In this system the Administrators get the chance to view their routine details as well as the reservation details at the company. So the managers can get a good idea what sort of things they have to do in order to improve their business activities The benefits of the system are numerous. The system will help the company to operate efficiently by eliminating all the time consuming procedures and provide a better service to their Customers. Introduction Hotel Riviera Information The Riviera resort is a tourist resort. It is located in Greenwich, in the south east London of United Kingdom. This resort was established in 2000. This resort has 38 rooms with all the facilities. There are double, single and family rooms with attached bathrooms. There are indoor and outdoor games facilities with a swimming pool. Air-conditioned rooms too are available. Within a distance of a few yards the real maritime view is attractive for the tourist for enjoyment. To maintain the resort there are working thirty employees as Managers, Accountant, Supervisors, Cashier, Room boys, Servants, Cleaners, and Cookers. Everyday foreign and local guests visit and enjoy with the resort facilities. The resort owner is very happy about the success of his resort. Room Information 20- A/C and 18 Non A/C rooms. 12-Rooms with single bed facility A/C, 8 non A/C single bed rooms 10-Rooms are the double bed A/C and 8-double bed non A/C. Problem Identified Out of survey done by me, I found the numerous problems faced by the Owner and other employees of the company. The main drawback of their currently available system is that for many processes are very time consuming. So the company required a system that will produce out puts in on time. Also the time that takes to send services to customers are quite high. Next the company does not have an easy way to trace the reservation process. Introduction of the Current Information System The Resort is one of the famous resorts in United Kingdom which is currently doing everything in a manual way. Although if they have a number of computers even they dont have any computerized system. Their Guest and staff are facing lots of problems in their day today activities. So I proposed them to carry out their resort reservation system details in a computerized manner. These are the major functions/processes occurring which is manual way. Guest registration Room reservation Food order Payment calculations Functions of the Existing System Hotel has four departments: 1. Front office This department contains 2 employees: Receptionist and Front Office Manager. Main functions: 1. Request booking information 2. Confirm booking. 3. Cancel booking. 2. Kitchen department. This department contains 15 employees: Chief cook, Cooks, Supervisor, and Supplier for groceries Main functions: Prepare meals according to the guest preference. 2. Prepare food menu information. 3. Housekeeping department. This department contains 8 employees: House keeper, Record keeper Supervisor and Cleaners. Main function 1. Check the room availability information and pass to the front office. 2. Reservation of room. 4. Finance department. These departments contain 5 employees: Accountant, Manager, Finance Manager, Account operators Main Functions: 1. Calculate Guest payments. 2. Prepare invoices. 3. Salary functions. 4. Profit and loss analysis. Purposes and Objectives of This Project The proposed computerized system purposes and objectives are as follows. With the earlier system the customers had to idle till the receptionist filled all data. But, with the proposed system the customer related activities will be very quick and efficient. Less waste of resources, because only necessary data will be taken into Hard Copy out puts. In the manual system data duplication was happening frequently. But, with the proposed system data redundancy will be reduced to a great extent. Security measures will be introduced; therefore data is 99% accurate and reliable. The company can convert into new trends of technology and give a Better competition with its competitors. The company profitability can be increased because the cost that was incurred for maintaining the system will be cut down. Work load of the employee is lifted off. The proposed system requires only a computer therefore there is no need of large room space. There is no need of large storage cupboards because all data will be stored in one single database of the computer. The manual system did not have any back-up files, but with the computerized if any files have been missed up there is a back-up procedure to fix the problem. Issues of the Existing System The data is not long-lasting for this hotel due to the improper system:- The resort reservation System is maintaining their data and information in the files and some copies. So it is not secure for them. Not only that but it can destroy in a particular period. It can be misplaced somewhere. They have to buy the files and copies. So it is not proper system for them. It is time consuming :- Very important but this manual system is very slow and extremely time consuming. So that guest time also wasting. When more than one guest arrives in to the resort for booking, Receptionist cant manage with the short time. The checking process is very difficult in the guest departure time because, they cant easily find needed records in this manual system. The stationery costs are high :- There is a lot of paperwork to be done and lots of records of guest, cash books, room details, availability details etc. that have to be maintained, which makes it a very confusing job. Due to the large amount of paperwork that needs to be kept for later reference, there is also need for large storage space. Not only should there be space to store all the records but it should be stored in easy way to find the records and very high cost. It occupies lot of space to locate the file and difficult to search due to the different locations :- Currently, a large number of past and present guest and recruitment related information are stored in cabinets and racks. This way, files get dust collected and confidential papers get loose from the files with time. To maintain the paper in order, filing cabinets, stationary and employee is needed which comes with a cost. Some of these cabinets are kept inside the office congesting working areas and the others are kept in store rooms accruing valuable floor space. Calculation Process :- Also, the calculating process is very difficult such as customer charge calculation (food, Room, facility charges), the resort balance checking. In the manual system for every process there should be needed more workers. Not only cant they work accurately and in the correct. System Development Methodology I have selected the Water fall method model for developing a system for Riviera resort reservation because these models demand a systematic and sequential approach to software development. It presents a highly structured method of software development that starts at the system levels and progress. I am going to develop a resort reservation system which is more complex. This can be handled by using this methodology. And this model decreases the gaps between users and system developers and to increasing systems performance. Waterfall Model This is the most common and classic of life cycle models, also referred to as a linear-sequential life cycle model. It is very simple to understand and use. In a waterfall model, each phase must be completed in its entirety before the next phase can begin. At the end of each phase, a review takes place to determine if the project is on the right path and whether or not to continue or discard the project. Unlike what I mentioned in the general model, phases do not overlap in a waterfall model. Waterfall Life Cycle Figure 1.1 Reasons for selecting waterfall methodology for Hotel Riviera Works well for smaller projects where requirements are very well understood. Easy to manage due to the rigidity of the model each phase has specific deliverables and a review process. Good progress tracking due to clear development stages Phases are processed and completed one at a time. It is suitable for real time and critical system Suitable for small and large size projects. Simple and easy to use. System Requirements Functional Requirement To develop a fully tested Guest update, Room update process, it is asked that the application should allow the user to add, edit find details and handle payments. To accomplish this, it is required to create Access VB (Visual Basic) forms. It necessary to maintain reservation file, guest file, order details files payment file including registration fee in the database. So it is asked to design the necessary interfaces using VB to fulfill the above requirement. To fulfill the above requirements I have created a fully tested reservation system from the knowledge that I have on VB Access. I assumed that resort reservation system need to computerize the reservation process and I have directed my efforts and created a program which is coming out here. Front end Welcome Screen: Welcome screen with user verification facility. This screen will allow the user to type user name and password. This user name will be common for Administration members and another username and password for Manager. Registration of new users: This system should allow registering new users from this organization. Adding details to database: When a Guest comes to register, the system will be added his details to database. Such as name, address, designation, passport number, age, sex and nationality etc. Calculations: Calculations in the system will be found out the due amount. The due amount will be calculated from the requirement the reservation form. Rooms details: Details of rooms can be found in their database. And the system should be able to record their information. The system should assign unique number for each room and allow the user to enter details such as room number, room type, rate and status etc. Banquet details: Banquet reservation also is another function of this resort. So details of banquet can be found in this system. Also the system should be able to record their information. Such as banquet no, location and charges. Engineering details: When customers reserve a hall for a function, they can be found what are the engineering facilities available in this resort for doing that function. Such as Sound system, Overhead Projector and Desktop computer. Foods details: Details of foods also can be found in this system with charges to customers to decide their favorite foods. Such as Egg w/ rice, Spaghetti, Chicken Salad, Coke (Medium) and Fried chicken w/ rice etc. Liquor details: Hotel Riviera has a big bar for their customers. So liquor details are very important for this system. Mainly it should be included description of liquor, price and expiry date. Details of pools: There are two types of pools available. One is adult pool and another one is child pool. Details of pools are most essential for this system. Order details: When purchase orders are made by customers or guests, presently all of them are filed and placed into drawers. But it will be great if the hotel can save those details in the system and be able to retrieve them later if required. Order details will be included ordering meals, and ordering liquor. Room reservation: This requirement is the hearth of this entire system. It is for the purpose of fulfilling requirement that most of the above requirements are met. Fulfilling this requirement will be the key solution in the system to be developed. Once this requirement is successfully tackled, the older access registry room will become obsolete. This system should be able to record details of room reservation number, guest ID, room number, reservation date, date reserved, length of stay, and status. Banquet reservation: This requirement also a very important function of this system. This resort is doing not only the room reservation but also the banquet reservation for their customers. This part should be included banquet reservation no, reservation date, client name, address, contact no, date reserved, starting time, finishing time and status. Search The ultimate purpose of any database system its functionality to support retrieval of data in a way it is expected. This is the case here also. If any reservations details are required, the system will be allowed to find the details from related database and make reservation using search function. Printing facilities Staff should be provided full functionality to printing relevant documents when they needed. Reports In this computerized system, reports will also be a part and parcel they are the means that help get printed outputs here. Staffs should be allowed to run reports and get prints. Common functionality requirements The system will be having a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) through which all the screens and reports can be reached. Colors to be used in the screen should be consistent. Blue with black will be interesting to see. Also buttons on window should be placed in the top of the screen. One window should be used for generating reports i.e. the user should be able to run reports one by one within one window. It can be by clicking on a button, using menus or shortcuts keys. Calendar with one month displayed; whenever there is a need for entering dates, the user should be given facility to pick it from a calendar. Short cut keys should be assigned to expedite the data entry work. There user should be allowed to backup the database to a certain location. This practice ensures the safety of updated data. Printer will be connected to one PC and others will share the printer. Non-Functional Requirements Although these requirements are not directly with the system to be developed, they are very important factors to take into consideration for the development and successful implementation of the system. Under this section I identify non functional requirement within the projects scope. Product Requirement Usability and Efficiency: Since the earlier version of Visual basic (6.0) is going to be used, performance will be high and it is very fast. The system should be very much easy to handle. Reliability: User should easily understand about the system. And they will find it very much handy. Portability: Database should be maintained with much care and give the database to that system in correct format. Operational Requirement Security: database access should be prevented from sight. In addition it should be impossible to access certain parts of the system without the proper logon procedure. This requirement should be strictly enforced at the log on single window or feature under this section. User Friendliness: The system should not be possible for a non- authoritative user to enter a single window or feature under this section. Interoperability: No other system could be intercepted while this system is running on the machine. Software Requirement for Implementation For the development of the new system, the following software packages are recommended to be used. Microsoft Visual basic (6.0) for the interfaces program coding. Visual basic data project will be used for the creation of this system. Is the data Environment, Data list control, Data combo Control, Data grid control, Microsoft- Calendar control and Date time picker control, etc. Microsoft Access 2003 as database back end. Crystal Reports 8.5 for the creation of reports. All the reports will be called within Visual Basic using the Crystal Viewer ActiveX control. Software Tools are Needed to Developed the New System Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Microsoft Word 2007 Microsoft Visio 2003 Microsoft Access Adobe Photoshop CS Hardware Requirement for New System The reservation system to computerize their reservation system, a computer system needed the following minimum requirements. Processor : 400 MHz RAM : 128 MB Hard Disk : 4 GB VGA : 32 MB Monitor : 14 Operating System : Windows 2000/xp Software : Microsoft Office 2000/xp Floppy Disk Drive : 1.44 MB 3.5 Summary This chapter provided a detailed description on why Hotel Riviera Needs a web and Visual Basic based System and how online room reservation and computerized reservation System solved the problems they are currently facing with the requirement analysis. Next section gives a detailed description about the system. System Analysis Introduction The tools of a system analysis, which are known as fact-finding methods, are found in the scope of the business application and its end users. Therefore these methods and techniques should be applied efficiently for finer and better results. There are many reasons for fact finding during systems development life cycle, but the most important time is when its system development has begun its basic stages. During the beginning stage the analyst must do the current system, which is being currently used. During these stages, the analyst must gather information on the requirements of the end user. Then when the system designing gets on the way, the analyst must gather, the following:- Facts about report formats. Input methods. Information about the organization. Goals and aims of the organization. Organization structure. Objectives and reasons of functional units. Information about the people. Authority and responsibility of relationship. Job duties. Information about the work. Tasks and workflows. Methods and ways for performing the work. Work times and limits. Information about the work environment. Resources available. Proposed System Descriptions The scope of my project is only reservation. So, Room, facility, needed food booking is will be included in this project. The processes will be started from check in and finished with the check out. Between, these two actions there are some processes available. Those are selecting the wanted room with facilities and food, advance payment; store the guest details, reservation details, charge calculation, payment settlement and report creation. Sometime there maybe cancellation process includes. In this system there will be receptionist, guest, cashier and supervisor involved. The receptionist will operate some the booking process of this application. The guest will select his needed suitable. Cashier will handle all calculation and payment processes. The supervisor will create the reports to the management. The detail information about this computerized Resort Reservation system is included in the DFD ER diagram. In this system my aims is to make the resort reservation System. This is fully secure and fully computerized Features of the New System Handling Customer Details Room reservations Banquet reservations Backup facilities Stores data permanently Security Cancellations Handling Rooms Details Making Payments Features like Update, Searching, Deleting, Editing Record etc Generating different kinds of report. Added Solution to Implement the New System The Data is not long-lasting due to the proper system Even if it is an important data which is been kept in a file, which is not secured, It can be misplaced somewhere. Not only will that it destroy in a particular period. So computerizing the manual system it will be stored in the Database to the computer, so which is more secured. And also we can take the Backup for safety. It is time consuming When the data is in a document, which is inside a file, it is very hard to get the necessary details in that particular time. To search the file it will take some time because they have to see the file page by page. After computerizing the manual system it will be much easier to retrieve the data quickly, this will increase the productivity of Resort reservation system. The stationary costs are very high When the data is maintained in a file or any kind of documents the stationary cost like pen, papers, ruler and files. Deleting, updating and editing also will affect the stationary cost. So after computerizing the manual system we can bring down the cost of stationary, which will economy. If a particular file is lost then the whole data will be loosed If a file is lost then every data regarding that resort information will be loosed which is a big blow for the Resort reservation system. It can happen very easily in this Resort. So we can protect the data by implementing this system. Because we can store the data in a particular database which is more secure. No one can steal any record file because they will have their own login. Without knowing password no one can enter in to the computer. Even they have a back up system. It is not possible to get the necessary Data with in a given time As the data is maintained in a file as manual it is impossible to get the data in a given period. If they want to get particular data then they have to seek one by one page. After computerizing all the data it can be retrieved quickly with the help of Query. So it is making easy to work Calculate the payment very Also, the calculating process is very difficult such as Guest charge calculation (food, Room, facility charges), the resort balance checking. In the manual system for every process there should be needed more workers. Not only cant they work accurately and in the correct time. After that computerizing make easy to work Checking process When more than one guest arrives in to the resort for booking receptionist cant manage with the sort time. The checking process is very difficult in the Guest departure time because, they cant easily find the needed records in this manual system Check Room or banquet availability .after that computerizing easily identifies the room or banquet availability Summary This chapter presented information about the tools of a system analysis, which are known as fact-finding methods, are found in the scope of the business application and its end users and feasibility study about this entire system whether which is accepted or not. Also discussed regard features of this system and value added solution for their earlier systems issues. System Design Criteria Introduction In this part, I have discussed why it is important to have a design method when developing systems. Name and explain some strategies for generating design solutions, simplifying design decisions, evaluating designs, and terminating the search for alternatives, the purpose of design models and the principal categories of design models and summarized some differing perspectives on the nature of design Data Flow Diagram (DFD) Data Flow diagrams are a network representation of a system. They are the corn store for structured system analysis and design. The diagrams use four symbols to represent any system at any level of details the four entities that must be represented are: Data flows: movement of data in the system Data stores: data repositories for data that is not moving Processes: transforms of incoming data flows to outgoing data flows External entities: sources or destinations outside the specified system boundary The DFD shows how, through analyzing data flows, a systems internal processes interact with each other, how the system interfaces with its environment, how the system is partitioned into interacting sub-systems, how an existing or a proposed system can be described in a top-down manner. Existing system data flow diagram 0th level Figure 3.1 0th level Data Flow Diagram Figure 3.2 1st Level Data Flow Diagram Figure 3.3 2nd level Data Flow Diagram for Payment process 2nd level Data Flow diagram for report generation Figure 3.5 Data dictionary for proposed Hotel reservation system Data stores Name Description Number Owner Customer details Store the Customer details 1 Administration Payment details Store the Payment details 2 Administration Room details Store the Room details 4 Administration Banquet details Store the banquet details 5 Administration Bar details Store the bar details 3 Administration Pool details Store the pool details 6 Administration Restaurant details Store the restaurant details 7 Administration Table3.6 External entity Name Description Type Total occurrence Guest Describe the customer who are booking the room and banquet Person 1 Management Describe the management of Hotel Department 1 Table 3.7 Data processes Name Description Input from Output into Logic summary Administration process Check the room and banquet order. guest hotel When the guests come to the hotel, the administrator section receive the booking order then check whether the room are available or not, after that, reserve it for the particular guest. Payment process Provide the card to the management guest guest Collect the money from the guest, when they leave from the hotel. Room process Handle the room details. guest guest Keep the room details, bed details and other equipments details. Check the room, if there is anything damage, collect the details, and remove from the room and replace it another. Banquet process Handle the banquet details Keep the banquet details, standard equipment details and additional equipment details. Bar process Handle the bar details Keep the bar details, such as drinks items, chips items. If it is finish, order them. Pool process Handle the pool details Keep the pool details Restaurant process Handle the restaurant details Keep the food items Report generation Handle all the report All the details Report generation Keep whole hotel details and when the administration ask the report, get the print out and give it to them. Table 3.8 Data flow Name Description Source Destination guest details Represent the guest details Guest administration process payment details Represent the payment details Guest Payment process room details Represent the room details Guest Room process bar details Represent the bar details bar process administration process banquet details Represent the banquet details banquet process administration process pool details Represent the pool details pool process administration process Restaurant details Represent the restaurant details restaurant process administration process Check restaurant details Represent the checking restaurant details Restaurant process administration process Table 3.9 Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) Normalized ERD for the proposed system Figure 3.10 Relational Table Normalization Normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two goals of the normalization process: eliminating redundant data (for example, storing the same data in more than one table) and en

A Tale of Two Cities :: essays research papers

A Tale of Two Cities In the fictitious novel Tale of Two Cities, the author, Charles Dickens, lays out a brilliant plot. Charles Dickens was born in England on February 7, 1812 near the south coast. His family moved to London when he was ten years old and quickly went into debt. To help support himself, Charles went to work at a blacking warehouse when he was twelve. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly thereafter the rest of the family split apart. Charles continued to work at the blacking warehouse even after his father inherited some money and got out of prison. When he was thirteen, Dickens went back to school for two years. He later learned shorthand and became a freelance court reporter. He started out as a journalist at the age of twenty and later wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He went on to write many other novels, including Tale of Two Cities in 1859. Tale of Two Cities takes place in France and England during the troubled times of the French Revolution. There are travels by the characters between the countries, but most of the action takes place in Paris, France. The wineshop in Paris is the hot spot for the French revolutionists, mostly because the wineshop owner, Ernest Defarge, and his wife, Madame Defarge, are key leaders and officials of the revolution. Action in the book is scattered out in many places; such as the Bastille, Tellson's Bank, the home of the Manettes, and largely, the streets of Paris. These places help to introduce many characters into the plot. One of the main characters, Madame Therese Defarge, is a major antagonist who seeks revenge, being a key revolutionist. She is very stubborn and unforgiving in her cunning scheme of revenge on the Evermonde family. Throughout the story, she knits shrouds for the intended victims of the revolution. Charles Darnay, one of whom Mrs. Defarge is seeking revenge, is constantly being put on the stand and wants no part of his own lineage. He is a languid protagonist and has a tendency to get arrested and must be bailed out several times during the story. Dr. Alexander Manette, a veteran prisoner of the Bastille and moderate protagonist, cannot escape the memory of being held and sometimes relapses to cobbling shoes. Dr. Manette is somewhat redundant as a character in the novel, but plays a very significant

Ethical Decision Reflection Essay

To let go of someone you dearly love is very painful to do. The pains cause by ending relationship is very unbearable. Some people may find their world tear apart when they realize that their relationship with their partner is not going well. I have had this relationship in the past that truly marks in my heart and in my mind. I do love this person very much despite of his weaknesses and flaws but many people around us do not like the idea of being us together. At first, I try not to give ear to their comments and opinions because of my love for my partner. But in a long run, I decide to call it quits because I find out that my partner is having an affair with other man; take note, it’s a â€Å"man. † It truly hurts me a lot because he exchanges me to a man! It is a big slap my on face. That is the first factor I consider when I break up with him. He is not trustworthy and faithful. I just strongly believe that a woman is meant to be with a man and a man is meant to be with a woman. Though I live in a liberated world but I cannot just take and stand with this kind of idea that is having an affair with same sex. When I break up with him, I feel so much freedom that I never been experiencing when we are still together. I don’t know why I feel that way, but that is how I really feel. I feel like a bird being imprison in a cage for a long time and has the chance to be released. When my friends especially my parents learn about it, they are very happy and relieve. They don’t just like my partner because they can smell something fishy on him. After the break, I feel such joy in my heart and feel more beautiful inside.

Museum critique essays

Museum critique essays Place Visited: Collin County Community College Arts Gallery Title: Plano, Past Artist: Janee Reeder Method: Painting Medium/Media: Acrylic The two most dominant visual elements of design in this piece are line and color. Line is the basic element in art. It is capable of infinite suggestions. It is able to create different moods and feelings with minimal effort. This piece has a mixture of both, actual and implied line, and contour and gesture line. Color is actually a property of light, but very important to this piece. Usually in pieces set in the past you do not see color only black and white but in this piece you see vivid colors, with different hues, values, and intensity. The colors make the shading pop out and draw ones eyes directly to the little girl in the bright red coat. The artist used shape and form to make the painting look natural and realistic. The painting was very curvilinear. You could tell that the little girl was standing directly in front of the car because of the scale and proportion of her and the car. Unity is shown through the colors in the piece. It was somewhat of an asymmetrical balance to the piece also. The focal point of the painting was the little girl in red and it catches your eye right away. I liked this painting. It was interesting and caught my eye right away. Ive always liked old time picture and paintings. My family has always said I was born in the wrong time period, because Im so interested in the clothes, cars, and everything else from past time periods. I think it was very important for the artist to put the car behind the little girl in the painting, because it gives more to the picture. The meaning or message from this piece is time stopped in a picture. Or a look into the past would be another meaning or message in this piece. The colors give you more of the looking into the past feel, but ...

What You Need to Know About Libel Laws

What You Need to Know About Libel Laws As a reporter, its crucial to understand the basics of libel and libel law. Generally speaking, the United States has the freest press in the world, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. American journalists are generally free to pursue their reporting wherever it may take them, and to cover topics, as The New York Times motto puts it, â€Å"without fear or favor.† But that doesn’t mean reporters can write anything they want. Rumor, innuendo, and gossip are things hard-news reporters generally avoid (as opposed to reporters on the celebrity beat). Most importantly, reporters do not have the right to libel the people they write about. In other words, with great freedom comes great responsibility. Libel law is where the press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment meet the requirements of responsible journalism. What Is Libel? Libel is published defamation of character, as opposed to spoken defamation of character, which is slander. Libel: Exposes a person to hatred, shame, disgrace, contempt or ridicule.Injures a person’s reputation or causes the person to be shunned or avoided.Injures the person in his or her occupation. Examples might include accusing someone of having committed a heinous crime, or of having a disease that might cause them to be shunned. Two other important points: Libel is by definition false. Anything that is provably true cannot be libelous.â€Å"Published† in this context simply means that the libelous statement is communicated to someone other than the person being libeled. That can mean anything from an article thats photocopied and distributed to just a few people to a story that appears in a newspaper with millions of subscribers. Defenses Against Libel There are several common defenses a reporter has against a libel lawsuit: Truth Since libel is by definition false, if a journalist reports something that is true it cannot be libelous, even if it damages a person’s reputation. Truth is the reporter’s best defense against a libel suit. The key is in doing solid reporting so that you can prove something is true.Privilege Accurate reports about official proceedings – anything from a murder trial to a city council meeting or a congressional hearing – cannot be libelous. This may seem like an odd defense, but imagine covering a murder trial without it. Conceivably, the reporter covering that trial could be sued for libel every time someone in the courtroom accused the defendant of murder.Fair Comment Criticism This defense covers expressions of opinion, everything from movie reviews to columns on the ops might include a rock critic ripping into the latest Beyonce CD, or a political columnist writing that she believes President Obama is doing a horrible job. Public Officials vs. Private Individuals In order to win a libel lawsuit, private individuals need only prove that an article about them was libelous and that it was published. But public officials – people who work in government at the local, state or federal level – have a tougher time winning libel lawsuits than private individuals. Public officials must not only prove that an article was libelous and that it was published; they must also prove it was published with something called â€Å"actual malice.† Actual malice means that: The story was published with the knowledge that it was false.The story was published with reckless disregard of whether or not it was false. Times vs. Sullivan This interpretation of libel law comes from the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Times vs. Sullivan. In Times vs. Sullivan, the court said that making it too easy for government officials to win libel suits would have a chilling effect on the press and its ability to aggressively report on the important issues of the day. Since Times vs. Sullivan, the use of the â€Å"actual malice† standard to prove libel has been expanded from just public officials to public figures, which basically means anyone who is in the public eye. Put simply, politicians, celebrities, sports stars, high-profile corporate executives and the like all must meet the â€Å"actual malice† requirement in order to win a libel suit. For journalists, the best way to avoid a libel suit is to do responsible reporting. Don’t be shy about investigating wrongdoing committed by powerful people, agencies, and institutions, but make sure you have the facts to back up what you say. Most libel lawsuits are the result of careless reporting.

'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of Essay

'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of companies - Essay Example Exposure Draft ED/2013/6 'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of companies Financial accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has revised the Exposure Draft that outlined some proposed changes in the accounting rules for leases. The reason behind such a proposal is just to improve the comparability and quality of financial reporting, by increasing the transparency related to leverage. This signifies the use of assets in the organization in its day to day operations and the exposure to risk by entering into a lease contact. The Exposure Draft has proposed a dual approach through which identification, measurement and presentation of the cash flows and the expenses related to lease can be made. Apart from this, the board has proposed some disclosure that would facilitate the investors and other users of the financial information to understand the uncertainty of cash flow, amount and timing arising from leasing (IFRS Foundation, 2013a). This study focuses on the impact of new revised accounting standards that are fra med for leases, on the financial performance and position of the organization. Delta Airlines is a major airline, which is operating in America. It is headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia. It has an extensive network serving both domestic and international location in almost every continent except Antarctica. The organization along with its subsidiaries is operating with more than 5000 flights everyday and has approximate employee strength of about 80,000. Many of its aircrafts along with some ground facilities are taken on lease (Delta Air Lines, 2013; Delta Air Lines, Inc. 2013a). Thus, following section of the reports deals with how the revised accounting standard is going to affect the company. Lease Contacts by Delta Airlines Operating lease may act as an attractive option for the airlines industry as it increases the flexibility of the fleet, reduces the residual risk related to the aircraft for the aircraft industry and requires lower amount of capital commitment for the airline company. During the year 2012, Delta Air lines have entered into contact with T he Boeing Company and Southwest Airlines, to lease eighty eight B-717-200 aircraft. In the later part of 2012, these aircrafts were delivered. In the first fleet, 16 aircrafts were delivered and thirty six aircrafts will be delivered in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The B-717-200 aircraft that has been leased by the company will have advanced features like new and fully upgraded interiors, total seats of 110 that comprises of 15 Economy Comfort seat and 12 First Class seat, along with in-flight Wi-Fi (Delta Air Lines, Inc. 2013b). Thus, it can be expected to generate more income. Apart from this, most of the ground facilities of Delta are also on lease. Most of the lands and building that are occupied by the organization are on lease. The largest base for aircraft maintenance, principal offices, training facilities, kitchens, cargo and

Question 'Identify the main varieties and applications of the Essay

Question 'Identify the main varieties and applications of the 'standard model' of human behaviour in economics (as identi - Essay Example The main goal of these economic theories is to describe and give explanation to relations between economic phenomena. In order to achieve this, the theories are based on a number of assumptions (Baddeley, 2013:56). This explains why the concept of behavioural economics is important as it gives more explanatory power to the economic theory by giving it realistic psychological basis (Wilkinson and Klaes, 2012:1). This goes ahead to prove that behavioural economics seeks to augment the standard model of analysis, not to replace it. The standard model discussed in this paper is used to critique and understand behavioural economics. Outline of the standard model of individual economic behaviour The standard model in economic behaviour is also commonly referred to as the neo- classical model. It is a well established model in the subject of consumer choice and consumer welfare. The standard framework in behavioural economics is basically a decision making model that is normative and descri ptive in nature. Additionally, it associates the concept of self interest with maximising utility. This is owing to the fact that the model accurately defines how people behave and gives advice on how they should behave to attain specific goals and objectives. Assumptions Economic Rationality This assumption is based on the fact that acts rational so as to maximise utility. Economic actors face complex situations and a rational decision model describes how most people would act in such situations (Kahneman, 2011:86). The simple model of economic rationality is only applicable to uncertain decisions hence the outcomes are unambiguously related to the actions (Wilkinson and Klaes, 2012:5). This is the most important assumption in the model in fact, the model is referred to as the economic model of rationality. Rationality is a broad term that refers to the everyday reasoning. This interpretation is too complex in the economics context. To explain this assumption further, consumers der ive satisfaction or benefits from a particular activity. This is what is commonly referred to as utility in the field of economics. The standard model explains the benefits associated with consuming a good based on monetary value and other benefits including satisfaction. People have known Preferences This explains why the concept of consumer preferences was introduced the simple model of economic rationality is only applicable to uncertain decisions hence the outcomes are unambiguously related to the actions (Wilkinson and Klaes, 2012:6). In this context, individuals are assumed to weigh between different preferences and choose one that gives the preferred outcome (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008:379). There are two assumptions concerning the nature of consumer preferences. First, there is completeness that states that consumers consider an ordering across all the alternatives. Secondly, individuals are assumed to make rational choices. People Make Decisions Based on Full Information The standard model assumes that individuals are able to perfectly evaluate their own