Accounting goes way beyond debits and credits. Accounting and accounting information systems cannot be studied separate due to data inputs design, data capture, internal documentation, control procedures, feedback and feed forward.

While traditional accounting deals with aspects of stewardship, helping the enterprise to optimize processes (financial, administrative and operations) to achieve better performance, accountants nowadays act in a changing business environment.

Accountants have now the chance to identify problems with business processes, think of opportunities and promote specific technologies, driving change and create value. Hence, apart from core technical accounting aspects of financial reporting systems (FRS), manufacturing systems (MS) and supply chain systems (SCS), aspects like non- financial reporting and human resource management systems and customer relationship management (CRM) contributes not only with valuable information, but also reflects how value is created in a firm.

Data-driven insights and bigger picture, determining product pricing and optimizations, integrated projects options and integrated planning get a new perspective for risk alignment, financial risks and technological risk, leading to timely intervention for keeping a strategic direction, leading accountants to a decision support system (DSS) function.

Accordingly, numbers and narratives provide a broader view of information and information systems structure data and incorporate it for multiple purposes use.  Accounting information systems deals not only with ERP type of interactions: collection of resources, software solutions, AI, dynamic balance scoreboard, but also with human decision making designed to provide understanding and a holistic approach to multiple departments in a company, value chain processes describing a series of cause and effect relationship organization of firms and society.

Careerwise, accounting information systems make the difference between accountant as a steward of financial reporting and a CFO.

What will you study?

The module builds a gradual understanding going from the conceptual foundations of accounting information systems, to general overview of transaction processing and enterprise resource planning, documentation techniques, to more specific applications like the revenue cycle, expenditure cycle, relational processes and databases, to REA model and system development process.