topic 1 section 1

  1. accounting information systems is a
    information system
  2. system
    group of two or more interrelated components or subsystems that serve a common purpose
  3. information system
    the set of formal procedures by which DATA are collected, processed into INFORMATION and distributed to users
  4. data
    raw facts that are collected and processed by an information system
  5. Information
    data that have been organized and processed so that it is useful and meaningful and causes the user to take some action
  6. accounting information system
    information system that collects and processes data about transactions
  7. transactions
    primarily financial transactions that affect the company's assets and equities and generate reports about those transactions for interested users
  8. internal end users in AIS
    employees at all levels within the company who need information, but especially employees with decisions making authority
  9. external end users in AIS
    stockholders (invest in your company) potential investors, creditors (suppliers), competitors, government agencies
  10. real-time systems
    involve inputting and processing transactions as they occur
  11. 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
  12. advantages of flat-file systems over manual
    increased speed of the accounting process and increased accuracy of the accounting process
  13. disadvantages (3)
    • -unauthorized person to come in change data, destroy it, repetitive errors
    • -data redundancy
    • -difficult to obtain data collected by different departments/subsystems
  14. data redundancy
    duplication- same data are stored in multiple different subsystems
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. flat-file info system
    each department in the company has its own information system in which data are entered and stored
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. information systems consists of (3)
    • input devices
    • process and data storage devices
    • output devices
  22. centra processing unit (CPU)
    the "brains" of a computer. Called a microprocessor
  23. AMD (competitor to Intel Corp) Processors
    similar in performance to Intel processors, but have historically been less expensive
  24. 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)
  25. hard drives (magnetic disk)
    unlike RAM and Cache memory, data is returned after power to the computers is turned off
  26. flash drives, CD-R, DVD
    removable, portable data storage devices

    80 GB up to 2 TB (1,000 GB)
  27. 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
  28. output devices
    printers (produce hard-copy output)

    computer screen (soft copy output)

    Universal serial bus (USB)
  29. dot matrix
    impact type printer used to print mulit-form documents like those used in the SUA slow output
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. USB
    used to connect your computer to devices (printers, scanners)
  33. system software
    operating system (controls the operations of the hardware CPU)

    utility programs (i.e anti-virus programs)
  34. Technology-software
    • systems software
    • application software
Author
abifulco
ID
54877
Card Set
topic 1 section 1
Description
topic 1 section 1accounting information
Updated