-
accounting information systems is a
information system
-
system
group of two or more interrelated components or subsystems that serve a common purpose
-
information system
the set of formal procedures by which DATA are collected, processed into INFORMATION and distributed to users
-
data
raw facts that are collected and processed by an information system
-
Information
data that have been organized and processed so that it is useful and meaningful and causes the user to take some action
-
accounting information system
information system that collects and processes data about transactions
-
transactions
primarily financial transactions that affect the company's assets and equities and generate reports about those transactions for interested users
-
internal end users in AIS
employees at all levels within the company who need information, but especially employees with decisions making authority
-
external end users in AIS
stockholders (invest in your company) potential investors, creditors (suppliers), competitors, government agencies
-
real-time systems
involve inputting and processing transactions as they occur
-
batch systems
instead of inputting transactions one at a time as they occur (like you would do in a real-time system), you wait until you have a batch of several transactions and then input and process them as a group
use if you don't have a lot of transactions
-
advantages of flat-file systems over manual
increased speed of the accounting process and increased accuracy of the accounting process
-
disadvantages (3)
- -unauthorized person to come in change data, destroy it, repetitive errors
- -data redundancy
- -difficult to obtain data collected by different departments/subsystems
-
data redundancy
duplication- same data are stored in multiple different subsystems
-
limited data integration
this refers to the fact that data are collected an stored in multiple separate subsystems rather than a single centralized file shared by every department that needs the data
-
task data dependency
task that users can perform are dependent on the information that the users have access to this can be a problem when each department "owns" its own system data, and people in other departments don't have easy access to that data
-
flat-file info system
each department in the company has its own information system in which data are entered and stored
-
database info system
all of the company's data are entered and stored in one shared database.. all departments have access to the info they need in the system
-
desirable characteristics of database info systems (3)
- -Data shouldn't be limited to financial data
- -Data should be stored at the most detailed, unaggregated (unsummarized) level
- -All data should be stored in a single database
-
Advantages of database info sys (3)
- -eliminates data redundancy
- -improves access to information when needed
- -captures data about a greater variety of events tan just financial transactions
-
information systems consists of (3)
- input devices
- process and data storage devices
- output devices
-
centra processing unit (CPU)
the "brains" of a computer. Called a microprocessor
-
AMD (competitor to Intel Corp) Processors
similar in performance to Intel processors, but have historically been less expensive
-
types of computer memory storage
random access memory (RAM) temporary data storage- lost when power to computer is turned off
Permanent storage devices (hard drives, flash drives, magnetic tapes)
-
hard drives (magnetic disk)
unlike RAM and Cache memory, data is returned after power to the computers is turned off
-
flash drives, CD-R, DVD
removable, portable data storage devices
80 GB up to 2 TB (1,000 GB)
-
Magnetic tape
used as a low cost method of backing up data. access to data o the tape is slow, since data have to be accessed sequentially
-
output devices
printers (produce hard-copy output)
computer screen (soft copy output)
Universal serial bus (USB)
-
dot matrix
impact type printer used to print mulit-form documents like those used in the SUA slow output
-
ink jet
uses tiny droplets of ink to form characters on paper. print in black and while or in color. can't be used to print mulit-form documents, quality of output is a lot better than dot matrix
-
laser
highest quality of output. can't be used to print multi-form documents. faster output than dot matrix or ink jet. color is available but more expensive
-
USB
used to connect your computer to devices (printers, scanners)
-
system software
operating system (controls the operations of the hardware CPU)
utility programs (i.e anti-virus programs)
-
Technology-software
- systems software
- application software
|
|