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In September 2001, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Education Committee issued Exposure Draft IEG-1, which states, "Information technology is pervasive in the world of business. Competence with this technology is an imperative for the professional accountant." This view was seconded by a leading visionary in the assurance profession, who recently stated that "every aspect of the accounting profession is being pervasively affected by advances in information technology" [Audit. J. Pract. Theory 21 (1) 2002]. Clearly, accounting/auditing education needs to incorporate these technology changes to stay relevant. Despite the apparent need for change, leading academicians have recently talked about the possible demise of accounting/auditing education due to a failure keep up with changes in the business world. Accounting/auditing education has been described as outdated, broken, and in need of significant modification (Albrecht WS, Sack RJ. Accounting education: charting the course through a perilous future. Accounting education series. Sarasota, FL: American Accounting Association, vol. 16, 2000). This study focuses on identifying appropriate information technologies (ITs) for auditing professors and audit practitioners and measuring their self-perceptions of knowledge about these technologies. We conducted a literature search that resulted in the identification of 36 critical information technologies. We then surveyed 1000 accounting information systems (AIS) and auditing professors and 1000 audit practitioners to determine their self-reported IT knowledge levels and perceptions about the best places to learn IT skills. The survey also solicited their views about the best place in the educational process for initially learning these technologies, as well as views about educational methodology. Response rates of 31.2% for professors and 24.7% for practitioners were obtained for the survey. After conducting factor analysis, we found a relatively low level of knowledge for e-commerce and advanced technologies and audit automation constructs by both educators and practitioners, but we found a relatively high level of knowledge for office automation and accounting firm office automation constructs. Results also indicate that the educators with more teaching experience, but lower reported IT knowledge levels, tend to teach auditing. Furthermore, we found a potential "learning gap" between educators and practitioners that may occur for 5 of the 36 technologies examined. The results of this research are important for auditing and AIS education because they strongly suggest that more attention needs to be paid to issues such as assigning courses based on knowledge level rather than seniority, technology training and awareness programs for educators and practitioners, and coverage of IT in the university curriculum.

This study investigates the relationship between three visual representations (two-dimensional, three-dimensional fixed, and three-dimensional rotatable) of multidimensional data, and the subjects' ability to make predictions based on the data. Output of a momentum accounting system was simulated and graphics were rendered based on that information. An interactive computer program was developed and used to administer the laboratory experiment and collect the results. Subjects made prediction decisions based on the graphics produced for four companies. The companies were stratified based on size (high or low) and growth patterns (high or low). Each subject made predictions for one type representation for each of the four companies. Because of inconsistencies of the sample distributions for the different representations, nonparametric analyses were used to examine the data. The subjects using the three-dimensional data that could be rotated were found to provide the most accurate predictions. No differences between the treatments were found based on the subject's visual acuity, as measured by the Visual Vividness Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). The subjects using the two-dimensional representations were found to take the least amount of time for their predictions. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the use and sophistication of accounting information systems (AISs) and the success of small businesses in South Carolina. Additionally, this study explored the variables that influence South Carolinian small business owners/managers in the extent of adoption (sophistication) of AISs. This study applied the contingency theory of management accounting information systems as the theoretical foundation of the study. The study sought to fill the gap in the literature related to the use of accounting information systems in small businesses. Previous empirical studies of owner/manager behavior have resulted in conflicting findings with respect to accounting and business processes and systems utilized in small businesses. The research question central to this study was whether or not the sophistication of accounting information systems improved the success of South Carolina small businesses. The researcher expected to find that businesses owned by individuals with business-related education and previous business experience would be using more sophisticated AISs, and therefore be more successful. The results of the study did show a positive relationship between the sophistication of the AIS and higher levels of sales in small businesses. Also, the study found a significant positive relationship between the importance the owner/manager placed on AISs and the sophistication of the AIS. The findings indicated no positive significantly related differences in the sophistication of accounting information systems and owner/manager education, experience, ethnicity, or gender.

<p>The accounting information system comprises budgeting, accounting, and costing. The accounting information system has, traditionally, constituted an integrated system where the different elements collaborate. If ABC is introduced this order is disturbed, since ABC is based on another logic which cannot easily be integrated with budget and accounting. ABC, therefore, is usually used parallely to the conventional costing method. There are, however, companies that have taken its ABC one step further by letting it replace the old costing model and integrate it with the accounting information system. Our purpose is to describe how a well-integrated ABC has been designed and analyse its general possibilities to create an integrated ABC and accounting information system. In order to fulfil this purpose we have based our empirics on interviews and internal documents from our case company; a subsidiary to Volvo. In the case we have studied, a high degree of integration has been achieved through a partial adaptation of ABC as well as the remaining components of the accounting information system. The account of overhead revenues has changed from focusing on hours to register based on articles produced. The budget, at a whole, continues unchanged, but some rationalisations in the budget process have been a positive consequence of the adoption of ABC. ABC has been adapted by letting the accounts plan and the cost pool structure remain unchanged and no division based on activities has been realised. The procedure of the studied case can be applicable to other constructing enterprises facing the decision to adopt or integrate ABC to its accounting information system.</p>

The accounting information system comprises budgeting, accounting, and costing. The accounting information system has, traditionally, constituted an integrated system where the different elements collaborate. If ABC is introduced this order is disturbed, since ABC is based on another logic which cannot easily be integrated with budget and accounting. ABC, therefore, is usually used parallely to the conventional costing method. There are, however, companies that have taken its ABC one step further by letting it replace the old costing model and integrate it with the accounting information system. Our purpose is to describe how a well-integrated ABC has been designed and analyse its general possibilities to create an integrated ABC and accounting information system. In order to fulfil this purpose we have based our empirics on interviews and internal documents from our case company; a subsidiary to Volvo. In the case we have studied, a high degree of integration has been achieved through a partial adaptation of ABC as well as the remaining components of the accounting information system. The account of overhead revenues has changed from focusing on hours to register based on articles produced. The budget, at a whole, continues unchanged, but some rationalisations in the budget process have been a positive consequence of the adoption of ABC. ABC has been adapted by letting the accounts plan and the cost pool structure remain unchanged and no division based on activities has been realised. The procedure of the studied case can be applicable to other constructing enterprises facing the decision to adopt or integrate ABC to its accounting information system.

Managerial work has been described as fragmented, action-oriented, and highly interpersonal, leaving limited room for formal planning and analysis. Even so, managers are expected to engage with accounting information for planning and analysing their area of responsibility. Accounting information has, however, been found to be tardy, aggregated, and incomplete, leading managers to rely on a wide set of additional informational resources. Still, managers’ doings and concerns tend to remain largely in the background in much management accounting research, which leaves us with limited knowledge of how accounting information comes into play in managers’ work. Moreover, technologies aimed at accommodating managers’ information needs are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and allow for timelier and more precise accounting information. This gradual transformation of technologies has led to questions concerning how management accounting is practised, and how it is related to accounting information systems. The aim of this dissertation is to identify roles of accounting information in managerial work in order to better understand the link between managerial work and management accounting systems. The dissertation consists of two volumes, each with three papers and a summary appraisal. The empirical material consists of interviews with a cross-sectional sample of mainly first-line managers, and a study of a construction firm including interviews with higher- and lower-level managers, observations of workshops where higher-level managers and staff discuss the management accounting systems, and internal documents. Overall, this dissertation suggests four roles of accounting information, based on its capacity to serve as representation, translation, key and perspective. Essentially, these roles reflect the ability of accounting information to both aggregate and disaggregate “reality”. The potential of each of these roles is shaped by managerial, organisational and technological issues, and is not always easily realised. The potential of these roles is particularly challenged in an environment with many local contexts. By accentuating what makes accounting information more and less valuable vis-à-vis other informational resources, this dissertation adds clarity to the emerging body of literature on managers’ situated use of accounting information, and to the debate on information technologies and management accounting.

Quality information is critical to organisations’ success in today’s highly competitive environment. Accounting information systems (AIS) as a discipline within information systems require high quality data. However, empirical evidence suggests that data quality is problematic in AIS. Therefore, knowledge of critical factors that are important in ensuring data quality in accounting information systems is desirable. A literature review evaluates previous research work in quality management, data quality, and accounting information systems. It was found that there was a gap in the literature about critical success factors for data quality in accounting information systems. Based on this gap in the literature and the findings of the exploratory stage of the research, a preliminary research model for factors influence data quality in AIS was developed. A framework for understanding relationships between stakeholder groups and data quality in accounting information systems was also developed. The major stakeholders are information producers, information custodians, information managers, information users, and internal auditors. Case study and survey methodology were adopted for this research. Case studies in seven Australian organisations were carried out, where four of them were large organisations and the other three are small to medium organisations (SMEs). Each case was examined as a whole to obtain an understanding of the opinions and perspectives of the respondents from each individual organisation as to what are considered to be the important factors in the case. Then, cross-case analysis was used to analyze the similarities and differences of the seven cases, which also include the variations between large organisations and small to medium organisations (SMEs). Furthermore, the variations between five different stakeholder groups were also examined. The results of the seven main case studies suggested 26 factors that may have impact on data quality in AIS. Survey instrument was developed based on the findings from case studies. Two large-scale surveys were sent to selected members of Australian CPA, and Australian Computer Society to further develop and test the research framework. The major findings from the survey are: 1. respondents rated the importance of the factors consistent higher than the actual performance of those factors. 2. There was only one factor, ‘audit and reviews’, that was found to be different between different sized organisations. 3. Four factors were found to be significantly different between different stakeholder groups: user focus, measurement and reporting, data supplier quality management and audit and reviews. 4. The top three critical factors for ensuring data quality in AIS were: top management commitment, education and training, and the nature of the accounting information systems. The key contribution of this thesis is the theoretical framework developed from the analysis of the findings of this research, which is the first such framework built upon empirical study that explored factors influencing data quality in AIS and their interrelationships with stakeholder groups and data quality outcomes. That is, it is now clear which factors impact on data quality in AIS, and which of those factors are critical success factors for ensuring high quality information outcomes. In addition, the performance level of factors was also incorporated into the research framework. Since the actual performance of factors has not been highlighted in other studies, this research adds new theoretical insights to the extant literature. In turn, this research confirms some of the factors mentioned in the literature and adds a few new factors. Moreover, stakeholder groups of data quality in AIS are important considerations and need more attention. The research framework of this research shows the relationship between stakeholder groups, important factors and data quality outcomes by highlighting stakeholder groups’ influence on identifying the important factors, as well as the evaluation of the importance and p erformance of the factors.

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Research object: information systems for accounting data processing. Research aim: to analyse the aspects, criteria and indices of the quality of integrated accounting data processing and to evaluate the quality of integrated data processing in four information systems of accounting data processing. Objectives: • To analyze the theoretical aspects of integrated accounting data. • To analyze the types of information systems used for accounting data processing. • To choose the methods for the quality analysis of information systems of integrated data processing and to form evaluation system of criteria. • To choose the matrices of information systems of integrated data processing indices and to identify their meaning. • To determine the meanings of indices of the four information systems of integrated accounting data processing and evaluate their ability to manage data. Research methods: monographic, comparing, logical analysis and generalization, data analysis and systemizing, graphical representation, observing, questionnaire, statistic managing of data, evaluation, generalizing and other scientific research methods. After the analysis of foreign and Lithuanian references, the conception of integrated accounting data processing was defined and the evaluation aspects were determined. The model of evaluation of integrated data processing quality has also been created. The system of criteria and indices was created and the methods of denoting the meaning were chosen. On the... [to full text]