Accounting Information Systems

Design of the AIS

AIS – ICT enabled innovations
AIS related activities have been
revolutionised
by the availability of:
◦ increasingly sophisticated hardware
◦ increasingly powerful application specific software
◦ evermore advanced communication facilities
◦ increasingly complex networking technologies
Simple AIS design
Accounting/finance software
sales ledger management
sales order processing
purchases ledger management
purchase order processing
general ledger management
fixed asset management
cash book management
inventory management control
payroll and human resources management
Applications of accounting systems
Activity
What accounting and finance related
systems would be important to the
university and what are the most
important of these?
 Management activities
Budgets and
budgetary control

Customer
relationship
management

Process/product Manufacturing Resource planning

costing design management and management

Enterprise resource
planning
Accounting/finance software –
Management related activities
product/process costing
budgeting and budgetary control
resource planning/management (JIT) (MRP-I)
(MRP-II)
manufacturing and design management
(CAE) (CAD) (CAM) (CIM)
enterprise resource planning (ERP) (SAP)
Activity
Would the university find these
management related systems useful or
important?

What might be the most important factors

in a decision?
Related activities

Budgets and
budgetary
control

Customer
relationship
management

Manufacturing Resource
Process/product
design planning and
costing
management management

Enterprise
resource
planning
Tutorial activity
For a hospital, supermarket, manufacturer and large
law firm, identify the most important accounting
systems and explain why in each case.

What impact would the size of the organisation have

on the choice of system?

Would any other management related systems be

important to these organisations – say why in each
case.
See also additional exam style question.
We can follow up the questions in discussion in the
tutorial.
Reading
Boczko, T. (2007) Corporate Accounting
Information Systems FT Prentice Hall
(chapter 4) (or see any of the other key texts
referred to in the reading list (eg Vaassen)
F. Robert Jacobs, and Weston F. R. Jr. (2007)
“Enterprise resource planning (ERP)—A brief
history” Journal of Operations Management
Volume 25, Issue 2 pp 357-363