Accounting systems and control

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to consider the role of accounting systems in organisational control. Every organisation, be it small or large, business or family unit, has some type of accounting system. Accounting systems provide a fundamental way of handling high levels of complexity by the imposition of a set of standard operating procedures; this provides a major strength of accounting as a control system. However weaknesses also stem from the imposition of standard systems in complex situations because inventive human minds find ways of reporting desired results through the manipulation of the system rather than by behaving in expected ways.