Pages: 5

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines accounting information is used both within and outside organisations, before describing the role occupied by information systems. Rapid advances in IT have led to the development of a suite of accounting-based IS, collectively known as AIS. Particular attention is paid to providing students and academics a balanced view of both the technical underpinnings and organisational consequences of AIS, with emphasis on the latter. The technological development of AIS is also discussed in relation to how the role of accountants has changed over time. The chapter describes the use of AIS and how systems development and methods play a key role to inform their design and development as well as the impact of systems development within the accounting profession and the growing demands for accountants with skills in data analytics.

Pages: 68

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 12

This chapter provides an introduction to accounting information systems (AIS). It begins by examining how accounting information is used both within and outside organisations, before describing the role occupied by information systems (IS). Rapid advances in information technology (IT) have led to the development of a suite of accounting-based information systems, collectively known as AIS. These systems are then critiqued before considering the future role for both accounting and accountants in the digital economy and beyond.

Pages: 12

In recent years, the increasing adoption of digital technologies has dramatically accelerated the speed of change in the accounting information systems (AIS) domain. However, AIS go back centuries. This chapter provides a brief summary on the evolution of AIS, from when the first rudimentary versions of AIS were adopted to the Information Age with the adoption of mainframes and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the present with the increasing adoption of business intelligence and data analytics capabilities. The technological development of AIS is also discussed in relation to how the role of accountants has changed over time.

Pages: 17

For accounting information systems (AIS) to become the enabling and empowering tools they are expected to be, they require the technological infrastructure or ‘underpinnings’ that facilitate their smooth operation. Inadequate technologies underpinning AIS can burden the company with extra maintenance and data recovery costs and issues with data reliability, security and privacy. Thus, inadequate technology can potentially corrupt the very outcomes of an AIS, namely reports and decision-relevant information, leading to incorrect, unreliable decisions. In this chapter, the general relationship between AIS and technology is detailed. Networks are revealed as a necessary technological feature of AIS, and components that are aligned to build and run an AIS are discussed, namely hardware and software. Networks, hardware and software have to work together to provide a reliable basis for any AIS to perform and provide reports and decision-relevant information. Finally, the focus is moved to the emerging technologies of blockchain, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence that have started to heavily impact AIS in recent years.

Pages: 13

This chapter presents key considerations on developing information systems (IS) for the contemporary accounting profession. The profession has evolved over the past number of decades and has brought about growing demands due to advances in technology and availability of big data. This chapter outlines the growing capabilities of IS and the growing expectations this sets across industry. The chapter also describes the use of accounting information systems (AIS) and how systems development and methods play a key role to inform their design and development. The chapter explores the impact of systems development within the accounting profession and the growing demands for accountants with skills in data analytics. The chapter concludes with some key challenges and recommendations to consider for AIS and data analytics implementation and development on the accounting profession.

Pages: 12

Modern accounting information systems (AIS) can work as a catalyst for change if it is first understood how AIS have changed over time and which new challenges managers are facing when trying to benefit from the more advanced systems and what kind of change this may bring. Many of the opportunities that AIS offer are not fully learned until they change the way work is done in a permanent way. As such, organisational learning and organisational change are intertwined. A change in, e.g., how the management accounting function works can be facilitated by implementing a new AIS, especially if they free time for more advanced analyses. Analyses, decisions and actions are all possible through advanced digital initiatives in general, and a complex analysis of financial data in particular may contribute to a more productive business. More than ever, AIS constitute a system that can create the basis for an efficient business, drives renewal and makes a company profitable in the long run. In a way, advanced AIS have come to play a catalyst role, forcing the organisation to think through how operations are done and in what ways it could be improved to stay competitive.

Pages: 164

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 16

Digitalisation has become central for all non-profit and for-profit institutions. Recent developments in digital initiatives have heightened the need to investigate holistic digitalisation. This chapter contributes to the information systems field by examining the significance of holistic view to digitalisation by presenting the fundamental levels for strategically oriented digitalisation and relevant concepts to advance the field. The first major contribution of this chapter is to present the fundamental levels that include digital strategy, digital transformation, and digital implementation. The second significant contribution is to provide procedure models for each fundamental level and additional insights (e.g. generic option for digital strategy). Scholars and senior executives benefit from the findings by acquiring a contemporary holistic view of digitalisation covering all noteworthy levels.

Pages: 14

In this chapter, we outline how modern accounting information systems (AIS) can support managerial decision making in contemporary organisations. We also outline some future trends regarding this topic. We start by describing the factors constituting different decision-making environments and what we call data environments. This lays a foundation for describing what kind of information is needed in different contexts and how AIS can support managers in making informed decisions. We analyse the topic with four examples: pricing decisions, product mix decisions, equipment replacement investments, and outsourcing decisions. In order to be able to make justified decisions, managers need something to build their decisions on. During the last decade, the idea of fact-based decision making has gained more momentum. This means that decisions could and should be based more on ‘cold facts’ instead of intuition, beliefs, and feelings. This development is supported by recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT), such as big data and business analytics. The need for more and better information derives from the complexity and dynamics of the global markets and its implications for ‘success recipes’. In brief, the whole existence of modern ICT and AIS therein is based on information needs.

Pages: 14

This chapter presents a mini case documenting the role of accounting information systems (AIS) in promoting the continuous improvement (CI) culture of one real-world company. It describes the bespoke AIS of the case company before discussing how organisation-wide and vernacular AIS support CI culture and motivate CI initiatives. The evidence from the mini case reveals that mutual interdependence between CI culture and AIS creates a reinforcing cycle of learning and improvement. It also shows that different components of the AIS can operate on different levels of aggregation and temporal cycles yet provide a consistent view of performance. Moreover, it demonstrates that carefully designed AIS can provide timely, relevant and easy-to-understand information to drive CI.

Pages: 19

Within this research endeavour, we explore the inherent dynamics of Artificial Intelligence in Accounting (AIA) through a large-scale Delphi study based on 138 participants over three rounds. To understand both the structures and the resulting systems in AIA, we borrow from Giddens’ structuration theory toolkit. This also allows us to critically analyse structures of signification, legitimisation and domination and more closely examine how powerful, highly knowledgeable actors of human and robotic natures influence the actual “enactment” of practices in AIA systems. While existing research on the larger digital transformation has thus far tried to answer the question of “What do we know?” – thus cementing the status quo – our understanding of AIA rather lends itself to the question of “What should we know?”. In this, we identify three maturity levels of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in accounting, elaborate on the role of time and geographical distance in future accounting teams and furthermore find new powerful actors, such as the chief financial and information officer (CFIO). Consequently, and to add to Giddens’ abstract ontology, we conclude by providing an epistemological discussion and outlook on future research from a critical perspective.

Pages: 16

The outsourcing of accounting information systems activities continues to grow. Organisations regularly use a combination of employees, local vendors and offshore providers to manage their accounting activities. Outsourcing can be used to develop and implement new accounting information systems or to operate them once they are implemented. This chapter takes stock of the body of knowledge that has accumulated about the outsourcing of accounting information systems. It begins by defining outsourcing, clarifying the difference with offshoring and providing examples of the numerous ways outsourcing can be used for accounting information systems and situating this managerial trend in its historical context. After discussing the drivers of outsourcing decisions, it presents the most critical considerations in design and management of the outsourcing of accounting information systems. The chapter ends by discussing the challenges posed by developments in cloud computing and platform ecosystems with regard to data accessibility, ownership, integrity and regulatory compliance.

Pages: 15

This chapter discusses influences of recent digital technologies and data sciences upon the Accounting and Finance (A&F) area. It discusses Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. For each of three major A&F functions – financial accounting, management accounting, and control and treasury – the influences of these technologies are analysed. The present day seems decisive for the A&F profession, concerning how it may evolve, expand or lose relevance to other competing professions. Variations of accounting hybridisation and the ‘business partner’ role emerge. A new hybridisation is unfolding between the A&F and information technology (IT)/data science, and the ‘business partner’ role may be taken by professionals coming from the latter area. In fact, A&F professionals lack increasingly required IT and data science skills, and companies are turning to hire IT and data science professionals to deliver these high value-added contributions. Therefore, A&F professionals should upskill to at least a basic level, increasingly required for core activities of A&F and to interact within multidisciplinary teams.

Pages: 19

This chapter explores the transformative impact of predictive analytics – a technique that uses data to create mathematical models for making predictions – on the accounting profession. We clarify what predictive analytics is and how it differs from other techniques accountants use to support decision making. We explain how predictive analytics can be valuable to people within the organisation and outside of it. Considering the relevance of external auditing within the accounting profession, we discuss the increasing prevalence of predictive analytics for assurance purposes – its adoption, platforms developed, uses to which it is put, and personnel training. We discuss the Helix suite of analytics tools developed by EY as an example of how predictive analytics tools are being integrated into the assurance workflow. Finally, we address research possibilities raised by predictive analytics in the accounting domain, including the relationship between investments in analytics tools and their adoption, and the gaps that seem to exist between predictive analytics capabilities and their actual usage in critical work.

Pages: 20

Recent advancements in computer technology have brought both challenges and opportunities to accounting profession. Existing studies show that increased job automation and job polarisation could provide existential threat to many jobs within the accounting domain. Against this challenge, opportunities are also present that allow accountants to work with more efficiency and make better use of data that are being generated at a tremendous pace and volume. To benefit from these opportunities, accountants need to acquire additional skills. The ‘additional skills’ we focus on in this chapter are coding skills that will be more useful and necessary for accountants in the future. First, workflow automation is an area that would be beneficial to enhance efficiency. Second, the ability to analyse and extract meaningful information out of ever-increasing volume of Big Data would also be invaluable. This chapter further focuses on this second issue to provide readers a starting point to handle Big Data with illustrative examples. Though there are many programming languages that could be helpful, we recommend Python programming language as the tool for beginners mainly due to its ease of learning and capability of handling large datasets.

Pages: 29

The need to deal with an increasing amount of data and different data sources changes the way human beings process information. In this context, the visual transformation of data has tied up a considerable amount of resources in academia and practice. New ways of visualising high amounts of data have been proposed in recent years by visualisation researchers; however, their use is still scarce, particularly in managerial accounting. Thus, the aim of this contribution is to introduce important big data visualisations to the accounting community and lay out the benefits of big data visualisations as well as propose appropriate areas of applications. Visualisation types introduced a range of visualisations to display multiple hierarchies (sunburst, treemap, and Sankey visualisations), over the display of multiple attributes (box plot, heatmap, parallel coordinates plot, and scatterplot matrix) and datasets with multiple and large time-series data (interactive line chart, calendar visualisation, and horizon chart), to geographical visualisations (choropleth and map visualisation).

Pages: 62

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 13

Maintaining accurate, complete, and dependable financial data is fundamental to harnessing the value that accounting information systems can provide to an organisation. However, a growing range of internal and external risks threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of this data. From viruses to hacktivists and ransomware to denial-of-service attacks, managers are faced with a range of challenges to the security and quality of their data. This chapter outlines the objectives of data security and quality, considers the associated risks, discusses the controls that can be used as countermeasures, and then outlines the benefits of an effective security program.

Pages: 15

This chapter explores audit tools and approaches to enable continuous auditing, in the context of today’s connected and complex information systems. It discusses how the increasingly real-time nature of business and accounting data affects auditing and highlights the contributions of a continuous auditing approach. It characterises the technological framework of continuous auditing and presents the current state of the art. Finally, it identifies the persistent challenges of current efforts of improving auditing procedures in the context of new accounting information systems and proliferation of Big Data. Although the literature has explored the concept of continuous auditing in terms of its theory and framework, enabling technologies and some implementation experiences, actual changes in practices have been modest, particularly in external auditing.

Pages: 16

In this chapter we discuss the current status of robotic process automation (RPA) technology, the various choices of automation technologies, the process of automation, challenges with RPA, and questions for future research. RPA technology automates data aggregation, transformation, and entry tasks normally performed by a human at a keyboard. Companies are attracted to RPA because of the potential to make processes more accurate and efficient as well as for the opportunity to move employees’ time to more value-added activities. The technology is relatively easy to learn and requires minimal programming skills. We present a recent framework for selecting tasks to automate and discuss opportunities for individuals to learn RPA development skills, including cases designed for educators to use in class. While RPA is growing quickly, there are still a number of issues that result when tasks are automated. We discuss several of the known RPA challenges so that the reader is aware that the technology is not without its problems. Since RPA is a relatively new technology, there are many interesting questions for researchers to investigate. We identify and motivate several important future lines of inquiry for potential research.

Pages: 16

Arguments to invest in accounting information systems (AIS) are multiple, but two key themes have emerged in the literature: the potential for cost saving from improved efficiency and the capacity to support business strategies. This chapter examines the latter of these two themes, taking as its starting point Porter’s two generic business strategies: cost leadership and differentiation. Two approaches to AIS acquisition are considered: bespoke development and off-the-shelf purchase. These two dimensions – generic business strategy and software acquisition mode – provide a framework for analysis of AIS support for firms, and the four quadrants of the framework provide the basis for this chapter. A key contribution of the chapter is the identification of the critical factors involved in the choice of AIS to support the business strategy. The chapter also considers the implications for AIS of new forms of business competition afforded by platforms, networks and ecosystems and new modes of transferring and recording value through cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Pages: 62

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 15

In this chapter, we explore four contemporary technologies – data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and blockchain – and their integration with accounting information systems (AIS). Common themes arising include greater efficiency within organisations, leading to better decision making; improved risk assessment, enabling new business growth; more effective processes and controls, resulting in better analysis; improved accuracy of task completion, facilitating more effective control and audit procedures. There is however a recognition that the integration of these technologies will require a change in the skillset of accountants, organisational changes as a result of becoming more data driven and logistical challenges including technical compatibility with other systems and cost. With the increased level of data involved in each technology, concerns over data security and compliance with regulation arise. These technologies have, and will continue to have, a significant impact on AIS. It is a fast-paced environment, and regulators, professional bodies, organisations and individual accountants would be well advised to engage critically with these developments for future success.

Pages: 11

While there is no doubt that technology is a key catalyst of societal change, the adoption of technological trends such as big data, cloud computing, mobile computing, social media, and the Internet of Things is changing our lives to the extent that in the next 10–15 years, we will be living in a totally different world than today. Whether the society we live in will be better off because of these technology trends is definitely a question worth discussing if not to just reflect on the way we adopt technologies but also analyse their impact on particular information system implementations. As a result, this chapter examines the role of technology and how it is shaping our futures in the form of trends such as open banking, online communities, and misinformation, while also linking the examination to relevant accounting information system aspects.

Pages: 20

The convergence of cloud computing, mobile technology and big data technologies is transforming information technology faster than ever before. While there is an established knowledge base of known implementation issues relating to project management, technology, user resistance, organisation/environment and outsourcing, digital technologies introduce new challenges. This chapter summarises traditional challenges in information system implementation and discusses some of the issues arising from the deployment of digital technologies including migration to the cloud, security, data protection and information and communication technologies governance, contractual issues in the cloud, big data and mobility.

Pages: 14

This chapter considers the advent of the age of digitisation and its impacts on the accounting and finance professions. It outlines the recent history of digitisation that has impacted organisational and professional practices and university curricula. Noting the claims made for the strategic advantages to be had from such digital technologies as Enterprise Resource Planning systems, so-called big data analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, algorithmic decision-making and the like, it nonetheless provides a more balanced perspective by providing a note of caution in addition. It does so by referring to the critical literature in accounting and information systems over recent years. In doing so, the chapter highlights the need for accounting and finance professionals in particular to be aware of the impacts, risks, challenges and opportunities arising from the use of digital technologies in organisations, and how they might address these. Importantly, the skills and capabilities necessary to harness and assess such technologies are also highlighted. The chapter provides a further call for action among accounting and finance professionals to adopt a more proactive and forward-looking stance in the way in which they engage with the kind of technologies explored in this chapter and how they may impact accounting practice.