Accounting information system

An accounting information system (AIS) is a system of collecting, storing and processing financial and accounting data that are used by decision makers. An accounting information system is generally a computer-based method for tracking accounting activity in conjunction with information technology resources. The resulting financial reports can be used internally by management or externally by other interested parties including investors, creditors and tax authorities. Accounting information systems are designed to support all accounting functions and activities including auditing, financial accounting & reporting, managerial/ management accounting and tax. The most widely adopted accounting information systems are auditing and financial reporting modules.

Traditionally, accounting is purely based on manual approach. Experience and skilfulness of an individual accountant are critical in accounting processes. Even using the manual approach can be ineffective and inefficient. Accounting information systems resolve many of above issues. AISs can support an automation of processing large amount of data and produce timely and accuracy of information.

Early accounting information systems were designed for payroll functions in 1970s. Initially, accounting information systems were predominantly developed "in-house" as legacy systems. Such solutions were expensive to develop and difficult to maintain. Therefore, many accounting practitioners preferred the manual approach rather than computer-based. Today, accounting information systems are more commonly sold as prebuilt software packages from large vendors such as Microsoft, Sage Group, SAP AG|SAP and Oracle Corporation|Oracle where it is configured and customized to match the organization’s business processes. Small businesses often use accounting lower costs software packages such as MYOB and Quickbooks. Large organisations would often choose ERP systems. As the need for connectivity and consolidation between other business systems increased, accounting information systems were merged with larger, more centralized systems known as enterprise resource planning (ERP). Before, with separate applications to manage different business functions, organizations had to develop complex interfaces for the systems to communicate with each other. In ERP, a system such as accounting information system is built as a module integrated into a suite of applications that can include manufacturing, supply chain, human resources. These modules are integrated together and are able to access the same data and execute complex business processes. Today, Cloud-based accounting information systems are increasingly popular for both SMEs and large organisations for lower costs. With adoption of accounting information systems, many businesses have removed low skills, transactional and operational accounting roles.

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