The Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession

The Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession

The effects that technology has on the accounting

profession are huge. Information technology has to be

similar and support the components of the accounting

system. System analysis is a very important step of the

process in the accounting system. The questions to ask

are "What do you want the system to do?" "What software

packages will work to accomplish this task?"

A company is normally not alone is deciding which

accounting system would be appropriate, for the

information, you want the system to generate.

Accountants normally have an idea of which system would

work and they play a big role in the decision-making

process. A company will normally follow the advice of their

accountant.

Accounting information systems knowledge have

become critical in the accounting field. Auditors now use

computers to audit. In the past the computer was just

the box that held the information. Accountants would be

the first person to recognize whether the accounting

system was working for the company. The information the

accountant receives and how the information is input or

gathered will be an indication on how well the system

is performing. Accounting professionals should also

be aware of the accounting systems available and how

well they may work with the company structure.

In business, one of my favorite sayings is: Time is

money and money is time. If the company is taking weeks

to gather information and submit to the appropriate

department, then they should be looking for ways to

get the information in faster and therefore processing

it in a timely manner. As technology advances the way

we work, must keep up with these advances or we will

be left behind. Amazingly there are still companies out

there that do their books on paper. Using old general

ledger books to reconcile accounts and posting entries.

Imagine if we all were doing this but ten other companies

had moved forward and found better technology to serve

their customers. The customers will see the changes and

may prefer to do business with the companies that

seemed to have moved into the future. That's how it all

started.

Email is another movement in technology. Faxing

documents and correspondence has become a thing of

the past. We can now electronically transmit documents

and create an audit trail without all the paper. These files

stored on the computer instead of in a file cabinet. The

internet has allowed research technologies that were

not available all in one area. Research