An Overview of Accounting as an Information System

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of accounting as an information system. By applying the system’s approach, I propose to view the situation from a broader perspective, from a holistic viewpoint. Accounting information is the life-blood of an organisation and without it there can be no integration, co-ordination or control of business activities. Accounting transactions form the basis from which the necessary reports are generated which, in turn, serve as useful communication tools between the organisation and its internal and external users. This is the language of business, and organisations use it to measure their economic performance AIS co-ordinates and integrates the various operational activities of the business, and the summarised results are then presented in the form of reports, statistics, etc. It can be argued that AIS is often the largest information subsystem in business organisations, and most members of the organisation take part in some way in the production of transaction data, and the financial information produced from such data is used by all levels of management.