Accountant’s Function With

Respect to IT
- Felipe Jayvee M.
- March, 19, 2018
– Information technology (IT) is pervasive in business, requiring the
professional accountant to be competent in this technology. IT
encompasses hardware and software products, information systems
operations and management processes, IT controls frameworks, and the
human resources and skills required to develop, use and control these
products and processes to generate the required information.
– Competence is being able to perform a work role to a defined standard,
with reference to real working environments. Individuals are expected
to develop the appropriate IT competences required to qualify as
professional accountants, and then to maintain these and develop International Education Practice
further appropriate IT competences throughout their careers. This IEPS Statements (IEPSs) assist in the
helps member bodies determine appropriate competences for their implementation of generally
trainees and members. accepted “good practice” in the
education and development of
– This IEPS does not prescribe the specific IT knowledge that specialists professional accountants by
require to work in the IT environment. It sets out the knowledge and providing advice or guidance on how
skills professional accountants require (a) to formulate the precise to achieve “good practice” or
questions to be answered by specialists such as the IT auditor, and (b) to current “best practice.”
understand the outcome of the activities of such specialists.
– Changes in IT technologies are pervasive; they increasingly influence
businesses as a whole, and business processes in particular. For
example, the professional accountant needs to understand the
procedures of both the IT and manual systems by which transactions
are initiated, recorded, processed and reported, and how they
interact and evolve.
End User

– End users falls into two general groups

– EXTERNAL users include creditors, stockholders, potential investors, regulatory
agencies, tax authorities, suppliers, and customers.
– INTERNAL users include management at every level of the organizations, as well as
operations personnel.
End User

– End-user applications can be classified broadly as commercially, institutionally

or custom developed.
End User Software

– FreshBooks – A fully-featured and simple client invoicing and time-tracking

system used by more than 5 million businesses around the world. Ideal for
freelancers and small businesses looking to fast track their sales cycle, and keep
their processes in line with standards and regulations. Well integrated and
mobile friendly.
End User Software

– Xero – A handy asset for managing different accounting operations, preferred

by sole accountants and small business teams. A competent accounting
management system that works in line with businesses’ rules and priorities, and
manages money in and out of their budgets in a way that will coincide with
their goals and long-term missions.
End User Software

– QuickBooks – Available in several different editions, QuickBooks caters to the

accounting needs of any company. Being a worthwhile Xero alternative it offers
a vast array of insights and organizational capabilities which will help companies
keep accounting data organized, including their overdue items, payable bills,
accounting notes, and contacts’ data, and standard accounting operations. Also
popular for great Profit&Loss reporting.
End User Software

– Wave – It’s the definition of what a free accounting system for small and
developing businesses should be. A solid QuickBooks alternative that combines
accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning into one compact and
straightforward package, and you can integrate it with many third-party
applications for seamless data migration. Wave is likewise fully-optimized for
mobile usage.
End User Software

– Zoho Books – The accounting app of a reputed software family, designed to

help small businesses handle their finances and stay on top of their financial
operations. It offers an array of unique accounting features, including cash flow
statements, P&L, Balance sheets, and many more.
End User Software

– Adra Acccounts – A powerful reconciliation management software that

provides businesses with the platform to match their transactions in a blazingly
fast manner without compromising accuracy. This transaction matching tool
improves efficiency while bringing down costs and saving you and your business
precious time that you can channel on other matters.
End User Software

– Envoice – An automated invoicing software that simplifies your invoicing

processes, making it easy and quick for you to generate and deliver invoices to
your clients and get paid faster than ever.
End User Software

– CashManager – An on-premise/cloud-based accounting software designed to

streamline your accounting processes, from computation, automated quotation
and invoicing, and reconciliation of banking statements and faster than ever
without sacrificing accuracy.
End User Software

– Declaree – a cloud-hosted expense management solution that has a mobile app

which can be utilized by company employees in digitizing their expenses. With
the assistance of this software, staff can instantly capture receipts instead of
manually filling out end-of-month expense forms. This functionality affords
companies full control over their workers’ expenditures.
Application Software

– Consist of programs that support day-to-day business functions and provide

users the the information they require. Application software can serve one
users or thousands of people throughout an organization. Examples of
company-wide applications, called enterprise applications, include order
processing systems, payroll systems, and company communications networks.
On a smaller scale, individual users increase their productivity with tools such as
spreadsheets, word processors, and database management.
Application Software

– Spreadsheets. Quite a small business can be run just using an electronic

spreadsheet for its accounting software. The spreadsheet software is
inexpensive and the system can be configured in any way at all. However,
spreadsheets are prone to error, since information may be entered in the wrong
place, incorrectly, or not entered at all, resulting in inaccurate financial
statements. Consequently, spreadsheets are typically only used by organizations
that have very low transaction volumes.
Application Software

– Commercially-available software. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software is

the predominant accounting software used throughout the world. It is
moderately configurable to the needs of a business, contains multiple layers of
error detection to prevent the entry of incorrect information, and produces
standard reports that can usually be configured to the needs of the user. There
are COTS packages that are specific to certain industries, with extra features to
address the needs of their target markets. COTS software may require the
services of consultants to install, and can require a lengthy installation process,
as well as on-site staff to maintain the software. A variation on this concept is
accounting software that is available as an on-line service, which requires users
to log into the vendor's site to access the software.
Application Software

– Enterprise resource planning software (ERP). ERP software integrates

information from all parts of a business into a single database. This approach
eliminates the problems associated with having independent department-
specific software that does not share information. However, it is also painfully
expensive and may require more than a year to install. This software is usually
only needed by the largest and most complex organizations.
Application Software

– Custom accounting software. This software is custom developed for an

organization. This approach is usually only taken when an entity's needs are so
specific that they cannot be met by a COTS or ERP package. However, this
approach is rarely taken, since custom software tends to be buggy and requires
more maintenance than commercially-available packages.
Telecommunication Software

– An innovation in the reporting process is XBRL ( eXtensible Business Reporting

Language), which greatly enhances the usefulness of data . XBRL is becoming
the primary format for delivering business content over the internet and has
been mandates for SEC and FDIC filings.
Telecommunication Software

– XBRL is a markup language that was derived from XML and is used for the
electronic communication of specifically business and financial data. It uses
features of XML but adds more to make XBRL a fully automated business
reporting language. XBRL is being developed by an international non-profit
consortium of approximately 450 major companies, government agencies, and
organizations, one of which is the AICPA. *P147
Definition of Accounting by aicpa

– The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

defines accounting as: the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a
significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in
part at least of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof.
WHAT INFORMATION DO
USERS NEEDS?
TOP MANAGERS

TOP MANAGERS develop long-range plans, called strategic plans, which define the
company’s overall mission and goals. To plot a future course, top managers ask a
question such as “How much should the company invest in Information Technology?” or
“How much will internet sales grow in the next five years ?” or “Should the company
build new factories or contract out the production functions?”
MIDDLE MANAGERS AND
KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
– Just below the top management level, most companies have a layer of middle
managers and knowledge workers. Middle managers provide direction,
necessary resources, and performance feedback to supervisors and team
leaders. Because they focus on a somewhat shorter time frame, middle
managers need more detailed information than top managers, but somewhat
less than supervisors who oversee day-to-day operations. For example, a middle
manager might review a weekly sales summary for a three-state area, whereas
a local sales team leader would need a daily report on customer sales at single
operation.
MIDDLE MANAGERS AND
KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
– In addition to middle managers, every companies has people called knowledge
workers. Knowledge workers include professional staff members such as system
analyst, programmers, accountants researchers, trainers, and human resource
specialist. Knowledge workers also use business support systems, provide
support for the organization’s basic functions. Just as a military unit requires
logistics support, a successful company needs knowledge workers to carry out
its missions.
Supervisors and Team leaders

– Supervisors, often called team leader, oversee operational employees and

carry out day-today functions. They coordinate operation task and people, make
necessary decisions, and ensure that the right tools, materials, and training are
available. Like other managers, supervisors and team leaders need decision
support information, knowledge management systems, and user productivity
systems to carry out their responsibilities.
OPERATIONAL EMPLOYEES

– Operational employees include users who rely on TP systems to enter and

receive data they need to perform their jobs. In many companies, operational
users also need information to handle task and make decisions that were
assigned previously to supervisors. This trend, called empowerment, gives
employees more responsibility and accountability. Many companies find that
empowerment improves employee motivation and increase customer
satisfaction.
REFERENCE:

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=definition+of+accounting+by+aicpa&oq=de
finition+of+accounting+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.8662j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=
UTF-8
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=softwares+that+are+used+by+accountants
+to+commuicate&oq=softwares+that+are+used+by+accountants+to+commuicate
&aqs=chrome..69i57.17416j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8\
https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/types-of-accounting-software.html
BOOK: AIS 2012