The Effect of Changing Technology on Modern Accounting, and the Implications for the Future of Accounting & the Accountant By Abi John Balogun

The Effect of Changing Technology on Modern Accounting, and
the

Implications for the Future of Accounting & the Accountant

A Paper By Abiodun John Balogun Part Qualified Chartered
Accountant ACCA UK

Chief Analyst Dotifi Digital

Originally Written june 2012

Introduction

This paper presents a need to report on the effect of improving
technology on today’s Accounting profession and the impacts such
technologies have had for the Modern and future Accountant.

Summary concepts are presented under the headings below and
definitions provided thereafter.

See glossary and references for more complex definitions .A
questionnaire addressed to Accountants with respect to Technology
is attached in the Appendix.

Define Accounting

.Define Technology

Define Early Accounting Technologies

Define Modern Accounting

Define the Modern Accounting Technologies

Typical Accounting packages, Technologies ,Structure and
offerings.

The effect of changing technology on Modern Accounting

Implications for the Future of Accounting

Implications for the Future Accountant

Conclusion

Summarized Definitions

What is Accounting?

Accounting is the process of recording, analyzing, summarizing
the transactions of a result oriented business (Profit & Non
Profit) entity to provide day to day information for business
management and other interested parties.

What is Technology?

The practical application of science to commerce or industry or
the discipline dealing with the art or science of applying
scientific knowledge to practical problems. Word Web Dictionary
database .Available from: http://wordweb.info/
[Accessed 10th March 2005].

What is Modern Accounting?

Modern Accounting deals with original definitions of Accounting
as an ancient science but extends the usage from the United States
from the 1960’s the FASB (the Federal Accounting Standards Board
and the ASB (Accounting Standards Board) its Uk counterpart in its
FRS 18 Accounting Policies (Financial Reporting Standards
documents) Modern Accounting as Accounting evolution based on the
following concepts:

Relevance

Reliability

Comparability

Understandability

What is Accounting Technology?

Accounting Technology is the use of technology usually
Computers, printers, scanners ,storage Devices & networks etc .
Within an accounting firm or department, It can also be seen as
Information Technology products and services that are sold to
clients of Accounting Firms or purchased separately by corporate
bodies for their internal use..

The Effect of Changing Technology on Modern Accounting

Having defined the basic terms and concepts for this paper let
us gently build up a case of how Changing Technology has affected
Modern Accounting.

Within the fundamental definitions of Modern Accounting and the
burgeoning Technological changes we shall extrapolate early
emergence so that the more modern cases can be adequately
represented.

We shall take a brief look at Accounting Technology in its early
stages

Accounting and Early Technology.

The usage of Accounting during the birthing of 20th Century
Technological advances have impacted the Business and Commercial
world from its inception .As Technology in itself is a tool for
carrying basic day to day tasks within World Economies , It has
also impacted major Accounting concepts and ideas from this early
stage.

Simplistically, the abacus can be referred as the first real
technological innovation in Early Accounting practices. Other
variations on the same theme that incorporated the early principles
of Accounting like Collecting, Recording ,Analysis and
summarization of data were introduced by the Italian Luca Pacioli
in the 14th century .

So tools like the double entry system and ledger bookkeeping
were accredited to this Accounting Icon. Not to banish the fact
that Accounting had existed since the dawn of civilization as in
Mesopotamia ,the Chaldeans and the Sumerians who had gotten a grasp
of writing and inculcated it within early Commercial transactions
as far back as 3500BC.

This Technological Advancement was a giant leap ahead as
Recordings could be made on papyrus of Business transactions
between Ancient Civilized cultures.

This new trends enabled collection and recording of transactions
but calculating Engines like the Abacus introduced mechanical
methods of Analysis and Summary.

The Electronic Calculator and Babbages’s Analytical Engine
extended the usage of Technological devices seen in those days as
fancy tools into a working practical means of doing calculations
regarding Accounting Transactions.

By and by Modern Calculators and Early Mini Computers and
Mainframe Systems contributed to Accounting methods as “clumsy”
programs were written in various languages like COBOL (common
business oriented languages) that improved the interaction between
Accounting and the advent of Technology.

Modern Accounting and Technology (Overview)

Modern Accounting concerns itself to Standards and innovations
within the Technology Industry and has greatly induced the way in
which Accountants operate today.

We shall look at trends between the late 1980’s till date and
see how changing Technology has greatly affected Accounting as we
know it today.

As Accounting evolved into what we know it as today , It became
clearer for a need for Standards ,these Standards were introduced
by varying geographical bodies and they offered the International
Accountant a fundamental guideline in the methods in which they
would practice Accounting.

As individual States and Countries had their own Accounting laws
like Taxation and Trading issues with respect to Regulatory bodies
within each Region. Compliance across borders will affect tools
that effect these rules so Technology must be able to meet the ever
increasing demand of International bodies that govern such rules of
engagement .e.g. the Sarbanes Oxley Act (see glossary) and a
plethora of organizations and bodies concerned in harmonizing
financial practices across international Commerce of the entire
planet.

It became pertinent that Technological advancement would or
might have to toe the line in offering Systems that could meet this
amalgamation of diverse bookkeeping practices and cultures .

Language has long been an issue within Commerce and likewise
Technology must also have the ability to cut across the variants
that exist when differing platforms of Computing Systems require
seamless integration .A need for adaptable Technology in the case
of Operating Systems and Programming constructs in terms of
Hardware and Software can not be overemphasized.

Emerging Technologies for example Sun’s Java programming
language, XML ,UML (Universal modeling language) and BPMN (Business
process modeling notation) which are becoming fast technological
innovations within the business and Financial world.

Be it as it may it is a certainty that these technologies are
themselves influenced by Accountants as being primary users, their
expertise would be of immense importance to reasonable and
marketable Software Applications from Prototype to finished
products .

Within the early stages of Software Engineering in those days,
suitable allowance was not usually given to the end user of such
products and development distinctions within the Software life
cycle like System analysis, design and coding were usually done by
the Software programmer who cared little for the Average
accountants desire to account for everything the way Osama Bin
laden cares for George W. Bush.

So clear lapses in development, implementation and deployment
have existed along the way with Firms like Microsoft’s Excel
Spreadsheet and Borland’s paradox churning out early Accounting
packages that can be now best compared to the early Mainframes of
Ancient Computing as true museum pieces.

The emergence of Storage repositories and Database banks and
their methods and interactions within the Modern Accounting
framework as aided the different players in the market and lessened
development constraints in the Fast changing world of Information
Technology .

Major manual Accounting processes have been affected by a lot of
these Technological improvements, enhanced in the sense that the
present day Accountant calls “The Paper less office” an Utopia of
Business paradise achievable by new emergent Technologies in the
wake of the search for the Holy Grail of the perfect Accounting
computing tools.

Not to leave out the effects of the Information Superhighway the
Internet and its inherent advantages and disadvantages as it
affects the Accounting world today from its transition as a mere
University Science project in the mid and late 80s to the behemoth
it is now.

From the inception of the terms Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI) and Management Information Systems (MIS) the desire to
satisfy the needs of Business and Accounting Software that have
invaded the Software Market for Accounting packages has been
enhanced by the competition for the acceptance of the practicing
Accounting Firms and their Clients to Corporations requiring
customizable products that can be tailored to their in house
accounting needs.

This market, long recognized as very buoyant and profitable has
made its goal to present the Accounting profession with Technology
that will change the way they do business with each other. As
Information technology as a tool has become a key determinant
within every facet of endeavor these days , it became increasingly
difficult for Accountants and other business professionals long
regarded as pariahs of the Computing world to recognize the
importance ,benefits both direct and indirect impacts of Technology
as a serious tool to enhance Accounting performance and
objectives.

These direct influences of Technology became rampant as
Technological advancement went into overdrive from the early 90s
.

Before then, Technology within Accounting systems was based on
the collection and recording of data .The analyzing and Summarizing
aspects of Accounting were implemented in rudimentary computer
logic .The theories had existed for ages but the Tools needed in
terms of Computing power and flexibility were actually non
existent.

Technology as we know it was at its “infancy”. Complete
crossover adaptations were usually long term projects engaged in by
Governments and large Corporates or Multinationals who could afford
the wherewithal of developing such Accounting packages.

This was the age of the early spreadsheet programs like Dbase,
paradox Microsoft excel and the emergence of Database driven
Applications like Oracle, Sybase ,Informix etc.

If we see the emergence of technology within modern day
Accounting from the late 80s till date we can analyze the trends
that have affected Accounting in the window of time when Technology
was seen as an expensive business tool to possess until now when
such technologies have not only shrunk in size and cost but their
performance has increased in manifold ways.

What we can ask ourselves are relevant questions like

What affected what? Did Technology bring about today’s Modern
day accounting methods or vice versa?

Did Modern Accounting contribute to the need for fast hardware
and High Tech programming languages & operating Systems used to
design Accounting Software that we have today?

Is their evolution into the careening complex systems of this
present age a function of independent growth and development?

The marriage of Accounting and technology has been more profound
within the following concepts.

Accounting processes are the necessary end products so
Technology as a tool is required to satisfy the needs and desires
of this end product.

The General Accounting package Structure

Accounting Packages generally exist in modules and a broad
structure is given below.

General Ledger Entries:

X Character Account codes (Standardized Identification codes for
Accounting Transactions)

Multiple Budgeting

Recurring Entries

Spreadsheet & General Data import from disparate systems

Accounts Receivable:

Invoicing

Open Items/Balance brought forwards

Aging & Depreciation

Automatic Invoicing &Receipts

Reconciliation

Accounts payable:

Vendor Tracking

Vendor Sales analysis

Vendor Receivables

Aging &Depreciation

Automatic Payments

Online Banking (Direct Debit/Credit)

Reconciliation

MIS (Management Information system):

Manual & Customized Reporting (P &L,balance sheets)

Batching

Data import

International Trade

Client tracking/Charting (CRM)

Reconciliation

Revenue/Profit tracking

Training

Platform Design:

Operating/system

Programming Query Languages/Database

Hardware/Redundancy Contingency

Disaster Recovery Site & Enterprise Specific

Telecommunications Collaboration &Messaging (Enterprise
systems)

External System integration (Paperless document management)

Security (User level ,Functional Level,/Data Access levels,
Authentication & Encryption)

Technical Support (CRM integration)

Storage &Networking

These are inexhaustible as Technology changes continue.

Today’s Accounting Package Leaders

Navision, Sage, Quickbooks, SAP Business One ,Oracle, Microsoft
Small Business Accounting ,Accpac Advantage 5.3 etc are
amongstthehundreds of Accounting packages out there today.

Moving on , from our definition of the various Accounting
processes

Collecting of Data

Recording of Data

Analysis of Data

Summarizing of Data

Technology represents an ideal tool to carry out these
procedures within the information Technology concepts from right
when the First desires of Technical minds to manipulate data within
the confines of each process of the Accounting definition.

For each Accounting process we can come up with a relevant &
corresponding Technological tool that has faced the test of time to
be what it is today.

Collecting of Data:

Computers collect data very well but from inception they have
not done that very nicely .In short collecting data for the early
computers was an uphill task that required extremely cumbersome
processes As only recently has accounting moved away from the age
old Bookkeeping practices of Manual Ledgers, Invoices, Cash books
,Trial balances, Tax preparation forms etc become prone to such
factors as integrity, Consistency & Relevance .

Recording of such Data was also a gargantuan operation as the
era of human Data entry operators posed a threat to the fluidity of
systems processing. This was based on factors such as Human
Efficiency and man’s ability to be prone to errors.

Today these are issues of the past.

Effective Data Collection has been proved to not only be
achievable but can be done in an assembly line mode where entries
like Tax forms and pay slips , etc can be generated electronically
from the internet and via email etc. Electronic Ordering and
invoicing is the norm with the overwhelming usage of Credit/debit
Cards and other forms of Electronic payments thereby reducing the
clutter and cost of paper commercial transactions.

This transition although capital intensive, allows for correct
Accounting procedures like Auditing via electronic trails made
possible because of the Electronic nature of such transactions.
Data Access although largely a chief issue with respect to security
and integrity of today’s Networked world has created mitigants and
also improved and designated Accountants into specialists within
such fields that act as kind of Electronic financial police within
the Accounting industry.

Even documents long seen as impossible to do away with can now
be fed into Optical Character recognition devices like Scanners
which carry out he Job of preserving and verifying originals of
Document long seen as essentially physical .

This documents were prone to wear and tear due to the modes in
which they were stored.

Data retrieval was largely an Herculean task and involved
clerks, filing assistants and large Rooms to store such Documents
and files etc.

Today’s hi tech. Accounting offices look less like mini library
shelves as they sport gleaming table boxes with Star Trek veneers
and are labeled such names as Desktops PCs ,Laptops, LCD monitors
,Space age printers with Photocopiers and Scanners all in one plus
fax machine .

Pocket Desktop Assistants (PDAs) now considered the primary tool
of most mobile Accountants even putting laptops into a secondary
sidekick role as these tiny contraptions can efficiently compete as
mobile offices with their traditional counterparts. They combine
mobile phones, answering services with Office Applications like
spreadsheets ,databases, Email, Internet browsers etc all within
the palm of your hand.

The Treo 600 and the Hp Ipaq Pocket PC5500 which are product
leaders are amongst the numerous brands available in the market
today.

All this within an Accountants office !

The ubiquitous Computer server room with a vast array of Servers
either locally resident or centralized depending on the firms
Enterprise status contain Databases that store Data and are powered
by Hardware wizardry that increases yearly at a breakneck
speed.

These Servers are faster, smaller, cheaper and run such
technological marvels as Object Oriented Database e.g. Oracle 10G
the latest in Grid Technology plus Enterprise Ebusiness suites
featuring the latest in CRM’s (Customer Relationship Management
techniques).

All these run on Operating systems like Unix, Windows, and Linux
a recent innovation in Operating System Technology largely regarded
as the Open Source community’s reply to dominating costs within
Operating Sytems Application development and have largely reduced
the prices of applications available on the market today. These
systems are guaranteed of never going down and maintain the always
on Demand computing parlance of “What you want is what you get .
“

These days adverts like this below are rampant within most
Accounting Technology publications for Faster innovations within
the Paperless office .

“Get paperwork out of the way fast .

Free up your space and time with the new Scan Snap paper manager
.It is fast it is simple and automatic .In seconds it turns a
double sided document into an easy to manage pdf (Adobe’s portable
document format ).It will reads business cards into your contact
manager , It will scan documents into your email for faster
delivery than faxing etc .etc It might even get you some coffee if
you configure it right ! “

The Scan Snap Paper manager is a system developed by Fujitsu and
available at a fraction of the cost they should be mostly because
of the heavy competition.

In essence Collecting and recording Data has never been better
for the accountant as the transition from raw data to Stored and
recorded data takes minimum effort with virtually no Human
intervention.

Analysis & summarizing

Within this Accounting process earlier defined, we are looking
at the collation and rearrangement of data in preparation for
Summary and Presentation to end users. Balance Sheets and Profit &
Loss Account Statements are the key result areas here. These
provide not only Business stakeholders with indicators towards
Company’s profitability and performance but also other interested
groups that require and request such information.

The relevance of Computer Science logic towards creating
Accounting Software and thereby reducing myriads of mundane
bookkeeping processes is vastly possible because Accounting in
itself is basically a Science .Therefore logical applications can
be drawn from its procedures that can be represented analogically
within Flowcharts, pseudocode and Modern day business Modeling
Languages like UML,XML,BPMN .

Due to the Standardization of Computing languages via Object
oriented programming and Software Engineering ,vestibules of these
models can be easily transmuted into Computer Applications that
“all bugs equal” can be generated these days on the fly by ad hoc
Applic ations in a matter of minutes as compared to before .

This speed is characterized by the emergence of Technology that
thinks for itself with access to vast amounts of Data Storage
running on Supercomputers with processor Speeds doing millions of
calculations per nanosecond virtually unimaginable a few years
ago.

The effects on Accounting on a larger scale presents the
Accountant with an array of methods to assess Data. On the fly, On
the go (mobile Computing) and with the certainty of Secure seamless
transacting from Data Collection to Summary and Presentation.

Professional Impacts Today.

According to Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers testifying at his trial
for fraud that he had no knowledge of illegal accounting practices
at the company

“I know what I don’t know. To this day, I don’t know technology,
and I don’t know finance or accounting.” 2005 , Time Magazine,14
March p.15.

Well, he has not been found guilty yet, but within the Business
world the ignorance of these professions especially accounting can
go a long way within your organization’s ability to forage way
ahead of the competition. CEOs without Accounting Technology
knowledge will definitely not reap the rewards they provide
immediately and on the long run.

A structured framework has to be developed to address the
educational needs of today’s practicing accountant

A broad understanding of Information Technology

Seeing Technology as a control mechanism within Business

Understanding the need for competence within these controls

Knowing the Accountant is a user of Technology

Using Accounting as an analyst tool for Accounting and other
professional Systems

Accounting as a manager and designer of these systems

Under these guidelines the awareness of Accountants would be
increased to the Impacts of Technology within business.

As Technology has graduated from child’s play to the juggernaut
of today, niches have been created within financial Professions
like Banking, Accounting, Trade and the Stock market. These
evolving Job descriptions have created a new kind of financial
profession.

In the Accounting world we know them as the Analysts.

They come in different forms as Credit, Risk, and Audit analysts
Accountants that have specialized within their Fields .Today these
analysts are gaining ground within the IT Financial Services
industry as Certified Information Systems Auditors (CISA),
Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) These are scions of
the Information Systems Audit & Control Association (ISACA)
Certifications.

These days we are finding Accountants drifting in large droves
towards such certifications, who better to obtain such
certifications but the accountant. Even though these certifications
contain Information Technology topics the demand for qualified
Accountants to obtain these qualifications is in high demand.

On the other end of the stick it has been observed that
professionals with Computing background are also drifting towards
not only such certifications but they are also realizing the need
to not just be the Utility workforce but are seeing the importance
of being known as Business Savvy Technologists hence the job
Descriptions of System Analyst and Technical Architects .

All in all, we are certain of this dynamic shift in roles and
attitudes towards the changing face of Technology .They are
nonetheless unavoidable in the evolutionary process.

Next, we shall look at the future of the Accounting
Profession/Professional and what sort of “Homo Sapiens” the effect
of time and Technology will result in their operation and
conduct.

Implications for the Future of Accounting

The Accountant of the future will be clearly distinct from those
of the past and even the present. Therefore, the curriculum offered
in our Schools of Technology and Accounting must clearly belie this
apparent fact .Electronic Commerce is no longer some fuzzy logic
theory postulated by grizzled professors in University Faculties
and Laboratories.

It is now a Multi Billion dollar industry where Millions and
Millions of transactions take place daily on a global scale within
the Trade & commerce Industry of Nations. Online Banking is fast
becoming the norm and this will drastically reduce the ratio of
Physical Accounting firms to the online Accountant.

In the future virtually all aspects of accounting will be done
online as Signatory Identification would have advanced to the point
where Today’s biometric encryption and Cryptographic Techniques
would have surpassed Security Intrusion Attempts by the ever
present Hackers.

We are talking of situations where Accounting would be done
based on an individual’s economic location status, as the certainty
that Embedded Identification Sensors would be widespread and
standard issue for citizens of the Earth then.

In much the same way Goods and Trade issues would bear on these
facts as the E-business and Enterprise Resource planner Technology
would allow a grid system of Interconnected transactions clearly
following the Accounting double Entry principles as millions of
transactions are carried out daily.

We are talking of people living in an age where cash would
become an extinct notion as all payments would henceforth be
embedded somehow within human entities from chip technologies which
are already present. This clearly would affect the accounting
profession in no small way.

Already the kind of analytical tools available to Accounting
Technologists are quite sophisticated e.g Profit Driver from CCH ,
Comprehensive financial organizer from ACCPAC (www.accpac.com)
and a host of other Accounting analytical tools.

It is also clear that as integration between systems increase,
there is likely to be spawned a global Accounting Network Database
system .

This system can be likened to a distributed Database with
thousands of Networked Computers, Peripherals, order and invoicing
objects , shipping and handling Tools and costs all vastly managed
as Objects within one Global Accounting System Network that sees
all Transactions and knows all Transactions.

This is largely been viewed as the epitome of object oriented
Networks .A situation where each entity within the Accounting
framework is classified as distinct in its creation , Recording or
storage , its analysis or application and its influence within the
global system of Economics and trade .

Accounting Double entry Techniques would become invaluable in a
world where Accounting would be extended towards Human Beings and
their accountability for existence!

This therefore shows how Accounting would transform into a
system that intrudes into all aspects of Life as we see it today
thereby showing how control systems would not only survive but
proliferate into this gargantuan Accounting packages.

Just as a tsunami can be predicted from Earthquakes deep within
the ocean .Economic Trends within Accounting discrepancies for
example the failed energy group Enron can be predicted as anomalies
arise within this Global Accounting Network.

Moving from a Star Wars approach, let us look at the roles in
which Accountants would find themselves .

In as much as Information Technology practitioners are
considered the Tools that drive business .Accountants are largely
the Janitors of the whole Financial sector. This trend will reduce
as Computers take over the business of Double Entries and
Accountants ply their trade as more or less acting as Neuro
Surgeons of the Corporate world .

Data mining/Warehousing would influence most decision making
within organizations and these Accountants would largely be the
CIOs and CEO , within the managerial team of organizations , not as
Accountants but as Business Specialists and trend forecasters
whilst Technology remains as the Foreman and Deep Sea Exploration
Rigs of these Data Oil Wells .

Information Superhighway Impacts

The internet has long been able to spin off a kaleidoscope of
solutions that have addressed the way business has been done since
its proliferation .Some of these solutions have remained just that,
as Toys that became extinct playthings, the dot com bust era
affected Accounting professionals and speculations were rife that
as the Ebusiness savvy of Accountants and other financial
professionals was in its infancy at that time it was inevitable
that farfetched information produced by Accountants then were
tainted and unaware of such business risks.

These factors might have unknowingly contributed to the great
depression of Internet Companies in the mid 90s.

Also the introduction of ASPs (Application Service providers)
was a means of providing on demand software via the Internet so
that we do not need to ever see a Cdrom for installation of
applications .

The plan was for serving such applications over the internet was
seen within the Accounting world as a novelty because of the
anywhere anytime approaches of Application Service provision.

Sadly, this fizzled out in the mid to late 90s as Bandwidth
provision a key component of this approach was still in its early
stages of development, then 56kb or dial up connections were
completely unsuitable for such deployments.

Any smart person would look at ASPs then as a situation where
the idea was good but the demand was uneducated as to the benefits
.Accountants as it was then were definitely uninterested as they
were trying to come to terms with Computers anyway.

In the Technology world of today especially in Information
Technology this and any such assumptions are regarded as reachable
and in some cases surmountable beyond belief as breakthroughs are
achieved almost weekly within the numerous research labs around the
world.

Today and the future ASPS are back for good, Broadband is
gaining a strong grounding. It is common place to have 1mb per
second connections even in residential homes now at costs which
five years ago would have looked impossible.

NAS (network attached storage) and SANS (Storage area Networks)
are today powering Enterprise Accounting applications across the
globe. The future is here as ideas envisaged for future deployments
have actually been embraced by Accountants now hence the return of
ASPs.

Companies like RIA’s checkpoint (http://ria.thomson.com/oneplace) which is one United
States Industry leader in Online Tax and Accounting Research. Their
principal goal is to help Individuals and Accountants carry out
their Tax research so that different Tax laws across States within
the US can be instantaneously generated efficiently and
reliably.

Conclusion

Security Issues have been penciled down as the chief constraint
that will affect Modern Accounting .

Privacy:As e-commerce increases , new web technologies will come
on stream traditionally posing security threats from Hi Tech
Hackers which by then and even now awill become financial geniuses
.Internet Terrorism and cybercrime would escalate and privacy will
become a major issue for many Accounting clients and Customers.

The Accountant with sensitive data transfers must himself posses
adequate

technical expertise to face these threats.

Many Accounting Firms might go the way of Swiss & Cayman Island
Banking where closeted Banking is done within Geographical
Boundaries that restrict International Standards of Finance and
therefore the Networked Accounting Community.

The point to note here is that this will be restricted to
private limited firms that will not be enveloped within the Global
Stock Exchange of the future.

Nonetheless, however which way we look at it Accounting and
Technology are here to stay.

Appendix

Questionnaire:

If asked to rate a question kindly rate from 1 to Ten marks with
1 being the highest.

1 .If you had your way would you like Accounting to be so
closely linked with Technology

2. As an Accountant what area do you think technology has
improved your overall understanding of Accounting.

3. As an Accountant what area do you think technology can
improve on within the Accounting profession.

4. Are today’s Accounting packages as user friendly as they used
to be 10years ago. If they have improved please indicate.

5. How difficult was it for you to adapt to Accounting
Technology from former ways of doing things .

6. Has accounting become more readily accessible to
professionals without Accounting backgrounds more easily.

7. Do these professionals pose threats to Accounting Jobs
availability.

8. Would you like to see Accounting &Technology treated as a
single course of study more often within our University /Colleges
Structure.

9. Name and rate your ideal Accounting Technology tool

10.How do you rate Privacy and Security in Accounting as a
result of modern day technology, are there any evident risks if so
rate these risks

11. Has the tool in 6 been an adequate ROI (Return on
investment)

12. With the international Appeal of most Accounting Packages
today , how has it affected your abilities to be an international
Accountant.

13What are your views on Outsourcing Accounting as a result of
Technological Advancements.

14. Looking into the future what do you see for Accounting
Technology in say the next 10 years .

15.Do you have more respect and Understanding for Technology as
a whole Rate Technology Generally .

References

ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) 2004 Paper
1.1, 1.2,1.3 recommended Texts ,FTC Foulks Lynch, Berkshire.

Lombardo, C. 2005, ‘Cleaning out Paper’ Accounting Technology
Magazine, January 2005,p.56.

Kao, Y. (2002), ‘Impact of information technology on public
accounting firm productivity ‘Journal of Information Systems’
.Available from:

http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc3.asp?docid=1G1:94770461&ctr…
[Accessed 11th march 2005].

Glossary &Definitions

Abacus: Ancient calculating device

ASB: Accounting Standards Board Regulatory body of Accounting in
the UK

Babbage: Analytical Engine One of the first attempts by Charles
Babbage to create computers a mechanical marvel that inspired
today’s masterpieces

Balance Sheet: Accounting statement that shows the assets and
liabilities of a Business Entity

Bookkeeping: The process of recording business transactions into
the accounting records. The “books” are the documents in which the
records of transactions are kept. Available from:
www.powerhomebiz.com/Glossary/glossary-B.htm [Accessed
11th march 2005].

BPMN: defines a Business Process Diagram (BPD), which is based
on a flowcharting technique
tailored for creating graphical models of business process
operations. A Business Process Model,
then, is a network of graphical objects, which are activities
(i.e., work) and the flow controls that
define their order of performance. Stephen A. White, IBM
Corporation

Broadband: Internet deployment many times faster than
traditional dialup..

COBOL (common business oriented languages) Early Business
Computer programming language largely extinct now alongside its
programmers

CISA: Certified Information Systems Auditors

CISM: Certified Information Security Manager

CRM: Customer Relationship Management

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange

FRS: Financial Reporting Standards of the Accounting Standards
board of the UK

ISACA: Information Systems Audit & Control Association

Java: Object oriented Computer programming language developed by
Sun Micro Systems.

MIS: Management Information Systems

Mobile Computing: Usage of Computers outside the Office

NAS: Network attached storage

Pocket Desktop Assistants (PDAs) Hand held Computer

P & L: Profit & Loss Account Statements: Accounting Statement
that shows the Net profit and general performance of a Business
Entity.

SANS: Storage area Networks

Sarbanes Oxley Act :The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (often
shortened to SOX) is legislation enacted in response to the
high-profile Enron and WorldCom financial scandals to protect
shareholders and
the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices
in the enterprise. Available from: :http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci920030,00.html
[Accessed 11th march
2005].

XML: Short for Extensible Markup Language, a specification
developed by the W3C.
XML is a pared-down version of SGML, designed especially for Web
documents. It allows designers to create their own customized tags,
enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and
interpretation of data between applications and between
organizations. Available from: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/X/XML.html [Accessed
11th march 2005].

UML Short for Unified Modeling Language, a general-purpose
notational language for specifying and visualizing complex
software, especially large, object-oriented Available from: http://www.webopedia.com projects.[Accessed 11th
march
2005].

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