Accounting information system

An accounting information system (AIS) is a system of collecting, storing and processing financial and accounting data that are used by decision makers. An accounting information system is generally a computer-based method for tracking accounting activity in conjunction with information technology resources. The resulting financial reports can be used internally by management or externally by other interested parties including investors, creditors and tax authorities. Accounting information systems are designed to support all accounting functions and activities including auditing, financial accounting porting, -managerial/ management accounting and tax. The most widely adopted accounting information systems are auditing and financial reporting modules. Traditionally, accounting is purely based on a manual approach. The experience and skillfulness of an individual accountant are critical in accounting processes. Even using the manual approach can be ineffective and inefficient. Accounting information systems resolve many of the above issues. AISs can support the automation of processing a large amounts of data and produce timely and accurate information. Early accounting information systems were designed for payroll functions in 1970s. Initially, accounting information systems were developed "in-house" as no packaged solutions were available. Such solutions were expensive to develop and difficult to maintain. Therefore, many accounting practitioners preferred the manual approach rather than computer-based. Today, accounting information systems are more commonly sold as prebuilt software packages from large vendors such as Microsoft, Sage Group, SAP and Oracle where it is configured and customized to match the organization's business processes. Small businesses often use accounting lower costs software packages such as Tally.ERP 9, MYOB and Quickbooks. Large organisations would often choose ERP systems. As the need for connectivity and consolidation between other business systems increased, accounting information systems were merged with larger, more centralized systems enterprise resource planning (ERP).