...Effects technology has on the accounting profession Sarah Holly ACC/210 June 29, 2015 Sander Moran Effects technology has on the accounting profession “The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential,” Ballmer (2001-2015). Accounting is the language of business. The way accounting is handled has changed so much through the years. Technology is always changing and making accounting better and easier. Technology has increased the efficiency and the accuracy in accounting as well as improving the security of accounting data and speeding up the process of the manual accounting tasks. The first attempt at something to assist with accounting was the adding machine. Once the adding machine was successful, the introduction of a calculator came into play. The calculator was designed to make information more accurate. Accountants still had to keep track of so much through paper and pencil because calculators and adding machines could not do it all. Near the end of the twentieth century, we were finally bringing in computers and different software that would help accountants with their many tasks. Microsoft Excel makes it possible for accountants to keep track of so much information by spreadsheets. This technological advance has made it possible to...
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...From the early days of clay tokens to the invention of the abacus, accounting is as old as civilization. It wasn’t until the commercial revolution at the end of the dark ages that double-entry bookkeeping came into existence. (It began in the Venice/Florence area in Italy.) A hundred years later, Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan monk, wrote a math book that suggested merchants needed three things: sufficient cash or credit, an accounting system, and a good bookkeeper. Today accounting is commonly offered as a major of study. What do you, as a prospective accounting major, need to know about the field and the technological advances in accounting? What is commonly known today as “cost accounting” (defined as “The discipline of estimating, tracking and controlling product and service costs”) didn’t start until the late 18th century, and was spawned by an unlikely source—a world famous potter. Josiah Wedgwood was a highly successful potter when a depression hit, and he discovered that not only were his clerks ignoring much needed paperwork, they were also stealing money hand over fist. He took the time to examine the books in detail, noting inaccuracies and becoming aware of the importance of calculating overhead into the costs of his pottery. He hired a new clerk and began weekly accounting reviews, and according to historians, the concepts of “economies of scale” and “sunk costs” were discovered. He changed the prices of his pottery to reflect the influence of demand, creating both...
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...As defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), information technology is the study, design, development, implementation support and/or management of any computer based information systems. This is related particularly to the use of computer hardware and software. It primarily deals with the use of computers and programs to process, store, protect and retrieve information (Hill, 2008). Today, this technology is widely used in global marketing and accounting systems as it helps in speeding up processing and storing information. Technology in marketing cannot be only used in information processing, but also it contributes much in production of goods. Production technology enables firms to produce products with more quality that has less cost. Through research and development, new products and procedures are introduced and are now widely used (Gopinathan, 2009). This paper contains some background information on technology, its advantages and disadvantages to the global market and accounting process. The researchers used three kinds of resources and they are scholarly books, scholarly edited books and scholarly journal articles. One of the sources includes Coombs’s (2001) Technology and the Market: Demand, Users and Innovation, a scholarly book which discusses how technology developed in the field of marketing some latest trends in market that involves the use of technology. Another is Weill and Broadbent’s (1998) Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How Market...
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...Effects of Technology on the Accounting Accounting is one of the key elements in any organization, which financial health highly depends on its accuracy. Modern enterprise involves a huge number of financial transactions, which reflected through the relevant information flows. Accounting includes many routine operations, repetition of the same computing operations, as well as preparation of financial reports and payment documents. In this regard, the traditional accounting involves a complex and painstaking work of accountants, which requires considerable effort and knowledge. The modern development of information technologies and their wide application in economic practice can solve this problem by automating some of the accounting processes. Currently, the use of information systems in the enterprise became an integral part of the production process. Application of the system has allowed the company to automate operations on registration receipts, transfers and disposals of its assets, as well as to improve the overall degree of control, the availability, and conditions. In addition, automation of accounting has other advantages over the traditional way of accounting, such as ability to improve employees productivity, reduce the influence of the "human factor”, increase the speed of reporting and documentation, as well as to provide the possibility of parallel accounting in a several different standards. Implementation of information systems and technologies in the work...
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...discuss the impact of technology on AIS and business processes based on the week 2 presentations. Business Processes: - Revenue Cycle -Acquisition Cycle - Conversion Cycle * Accounting Information Systems: -Collect data -Store Data -Use Data TECHNOLOGY Business is affected Business is affected by this theme? by this theme? -E-commerce -BI -CRM -SCM BI ERP -ERP -CRM -SCM -Cloud Computing -CRM -BI E-commerce Technology has made a big impact in how companies collect and use data as well as how companies increase profits, acquire materials and supplies, and convert those raw materials into the final product. One of the biggest impacts these technologies have made on accounting systems is to strengthen the ability of companies to develop and use computerized systems to track and record their financial information. Technology has shortened the time needed by the company to prepare and present financial information to management and allowing management to quickly create individual reports from stored data for management decision making. The technologies included in the diagram above also impact the business processes of a company with the use of innovations and creating the capabilities for users to understand their cash flow better, manage their storage costs, and enabling a company to save time and money. Accounting Information Systems ...
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...Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession ACC/210 August 15, 2011 Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession Technology, information, software, and even the machines used to input, translate, and interpret the data we enter are ever evolving at shocking rates. We must constantly stay on top of our skills in order to be able to navigate through the vast screens, shortcuts, functions, and utilities stored in these small computers that have the capacity to do what would take a room full of human brains to do in a fraction of the time. In a time where nearly every occupation can be automated, accounting is nearly no exception, but notice I did say ‘nearly.’ With a vast array of software programs, data collection methods, and forms of technologies to keep accounting professionals up to the minute on their financials, there is little reason to justify the use of the antiquated legal sized general ledger books anymore. By integrating AIS effectively in the manufacturing industry, the accounting department where I work has been able to promptly and accurately produce cost analysis reports for the machines we produce, determine our SG&A at any given point, and determine whether a customer’s credit can be extended based on their average days of payment. AIS are invaluable tools that are overlooked for the value that they truly add to an accounting department. An accounting information system is a system that combines traditional accounting practices such as...
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...THE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION PAPER JEANETTE SANDERS XACC/210 JUNE 8, 2014 RICHARD VINCENT Abstract THE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION PAPER Thirty years age most financing accounting was done by hand, which indeed left a long paper trail. “Currently, most accounting information is recorded via computers and wide area networks (Journal of Accountancy, 1994). Technology has changed the face of accounting over the last fifty years. It is unclear whether technology’s has an impact on accounting which can be interpret as being positive and negative. It is clear that technology has changed the accounting period. Some of the impacts of technology are either positive or negative which are simply changes, The impacts of technology on accounting field has been positive, negative and neutral, but the impact results cause an demand on the profession to confirm ti the changes but sudden results ti cause a huge demand the profession to conform to the changes. The advantage of technology is the various tools that it has provided. One example would be computer-integrated manufacturing, communications technology, Image processing and the Internet. An example of the many tools of technology whose purpose is to provide detailed and correct information in a short period of time. The advantage of technology is computer-integrated manufacturing technology. Computer –integrated manufacturing has a significant and positive...
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...Vol. 1, No. 1, June, 2010 2010-023X Information Technology roles in Accounting Tasks – A Multiple-case Study Maria do Céu Gaspar Alves Abstract—Nowadays the business world is changing at a faster and faster pace. The reasons given for this is globalization, highs information technology (IT) investments and the rapid pace of technological change. Organizations are responding in different ways and at different rates to the wide range of IT based opportunities and pressures. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the effects of IT related organizational changes on the management accounting function and to contribute to the body of knowledge about to what extent IT affects the ability to solve accounting tasks. The relationship between IT and accounting practices was investigated qualitatively using six case studies and we will measure the impact of IT on accountants’ tasks. The findings suggest a tendency for change and the decentralization of accounting tasks. Index Terms—Accounting, Accounting Information Systems, Financial Documents, Information Technology, Management Information System. I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays the business world is changing at a faster and faster pace. The reasons given for this is globalization, highs IT investments and the rapid pace of technological change in combination with escalating costs of research and development (Frishamar, 2002). The role of information technology (IT) has shifted over the last decades (Teng & Calhoun...
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...Alicia Mazenkas Cythia Bus251 May 3, 2011 Pros and Cons of technology and Accounting I have been doing accounting for the last 13 years. When I started I would enter everything by hand on paper. I would have to figure payroll time cards and all the taxes with a calculator and enter them in the proper columns. I would hand write payroll and account payable checks, along with filing all the proper forms. This would take me several hours and days. Now with all the technology in the world and all the programs for accounting, bookkeeping has become so much easier. What use to take several hours for one or more person now only takes a fraction of the time to complete, all you have to do is just plug in the numbers in the program you are using and the computer does the rest. Entering all the numbers in to the computer also makes for more accuracy and more productivity. The technology world has made it with computers, printers, fax machines and the ease of sharing information over the internet. The cost of owning such items has become more affordable so that even a small company can take advantage of all the resourses. Along with all the equipment available there are also many different programs available: from the simplest programs to the more soficicated. Quicken has become a very affordable and sought after program for the home for personal bookkeeping along with Quick Books for small and large businesses. Alicia Mazenkas...
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...Technologies and the accounting profession Jamie Lee XACC/210 May 18, 2014 Carla White Technologies and the accounting profession Technology is changing at a constant pace. Within people’s lives, it has become the norm to have the newest and greatest in technology and everything it has to offer. The same goes for companies and the technology that they have. One of the differences is that those companies need to have the newest and greatest when it comes to technology. Their business depends upon it. If they do not have that technology, then the company is at a risk for not functioning at their utmost best, and could possible suffer or shut down. Accounting professions are not new to the advancements of technology either. In fact, they are probably more affected by the new ways of technology. Just as mentioned before, it a business does not keep up with the advancing technology, then their future is not bright. With accounting, many of the same effects this profession. If they do not keep up with the changing times, their methods become outdated and slow. We can go back to when the abacus was invented. It kept track of calculations in the business. Then the calculator was invented. This allowed for more accuracy with the number (Pepe, 2001). However, accountants still had to keep track of the business’s functions on paper. The process of measuring, identifying, and communicating financial information was documented by paper records (Pepe, 2011). Then towards the...
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...Effects of Technology on the Accounting Advances in technology clearly have affected many ambiguous processes to simplify, efficiency, record or easy storage, and create accuracy of any manual process. The accounting profession is one of many which have clearly changed its innovative way of conducting and processing systematically, but its principles have stayed the same. Information systems (IS) or computerized technologies purpose is to create efficiencies and simplify the manner in which data is collected, stored, and processed. It also provides the corporation with easy access to reports, accuracy, and historical data. In today’s world of technology accounting process for any organization is easily captured in a computerized system. Organizations maintain information of sales, supplies purchased, accounts receivables or billing process, and accounts payable on computerized systems. This allows the sharing of data, whereas in a manual process the accountant would have to retrieve the information from each department and maintain records in a spreadsheet and manually calculating the totals. This manual process was tedious, time consuming, and had many gaps for errors. In our current technologies there are software applications that provide the accountant with the necessary tools to obtain the data, calculate the totals and generate reports. So how does the effects of technology effect accounting? It has a positive effect because it simplifies the process but adds new requirements...
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...leads to data exchange difficulty. Moreover, the limited capital and scarce resource restrained front end service capability. Based on the analysis, we recommend Empire to address the B2B, B2C to facilitate the back-end system and front end service. Furthermore, the systems of Empire are not integrated. The use of multiple systems and manual intervention lead to inefficiency in Accounting and Customer Services teams. We recommend Empire to implement ERP to improve the efficiency and growing potential. (Table 1: Strategic Alignment) From the case and our study, there are different projects that could be launched to increase fund, revenue and promote the efficiency. By using scoring we found out that going public is our “must do” project(Table 2: Project Portfolio). AGC’s Recommended Portfolio As we mentioned above that we used scoring to pick a “must do” project, which is going public. To assist IPO implementation, having an ERP system is the most crucial project for Empire. Highlighted Projects to Be Taken Forward to Gate B The highlighted projects to take forward to Gate B are Accounting Systems, Sarbanes Oxley Software, Fraud, Identity and...
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...Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession University of Phoenix ACC/340 Accounting Information Systems Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession Businesses have become more competitive, consumers are more informed, and technology has changed the way the world communicates. Information technology (IT) and the resulting ‘information age’ are continuously impacting every facet of accounting. (Bagranoff, Simkin, & Strand-Norman, 2006) This paper will examine how accounting information systems (AIS) are bringing about changes within the accounting profession. Additionally, a variety of technologies and how they affect accounting practices at Exclusively Yours Salon will be discussed. Accounting Information Systems and the Accounting Profession Today’s business environment is marked by increased competition and the need for better and faster information for decision making. According to Bagranoff, Simkin, and Strand-Norman, 2006: Because IT now captures transactions, AISs can produce financial statements almost in real time. Of course, some of the adjustments that accountants must make to the records are not done minute-by-minute, but a business can certainly track sales and many of its expenses continually. (p. 15) Additionally, large amounts of accounting records are increasingly presented only in an electronic fashion. Companies are reporting their financial outcome quarterly and an increasing number of companies are transferring their financial...
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...The Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession Eliot Sherman ACC/340 June 11, 2015 Michael Raponi According to Accounting Web, the next decade will see industries transition to a Cloud-enabled world where work can be accomplished anywhere, anytime. This will especially be true of the accounting profession, according to Intuit, as such tools as Cloud-connected smartphones and tablets will enable firms to provide clients with an "accountant in their pocket" at all times. In the modern age, technology is constantly evolving and this has an effect on every profession, especially accounting. Processes and procedures are becoming less manual and more automated. Accounting begun being all written and having hard copies as the only backup. Systems are becoming more advanced and powerful which allows them to aggregate large amounts of data. As time went on, new software and hardware allow calculations to occur more quickly and allow backup to be more readily accessible. As well, with accounting constantly changing, the standards and regulation overseeing the profession were as well. As well, a lot of companies in the early 2000s when the technology bubble was building, companies such as Enron and WorldCom tried to take advantage of lax audit rules and committed extensive fraud. This constantly requires technology to change to allow for it to be in line with what is required, specifically in relation to audits and GAAP. In this digital age, technology adapts and improves...
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...Information Technology and Accounting Fraud History has shown the accounting network has come a long way from the days which included manual general ledgers to the present where electronic general ledgers are a necessity. In the electronic world we now live in, the accounting information system requires us to utilize computer systems and intranets, which transfer vital information at a much more rapid speed. Information systems used for accounting purposes is a function used by businesses internally. These highly sophisticated systems report financial data for users from entry-level staff, key decision makers, stakeholders, and investors. These systems provide owners of all businesses and management the supporting data required for making critical decisions, although these systems may encounter threats which can obstruct their overall effectiveness. Account information systems can become so complex for businesses they prove to be ineffective and inefficient for the everyday use in business operations. These high complexities may take place when business owners or management make efforts to construct an information system which gathers far more information that is needed, or use the system for reasons outside the scope of their original purpose. Businesses who lack the adequate technology or employees familiar with accounting systems may find this technology difficult to use. Management must ensure the accounting systems implemented within...
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