ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the technological underpinnings of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) that are predominantly the same as for general corporate information systems. It also discusses the technological perspective on networks, hardware and software that enable an AIS to record, process and display accounting information for reporting and decision-making. AIS have grown into complex decision-support systems whilst increasing the speed and accuracy of more traditional accounting tasks. It impacts the quality of the AIS, which in turn impacts the quality of accounting information. Accounting has experienced many improvements due to the computerisation of accounting processes. Traditional paper-based ledgers and bookkeeping processes have been automated and mirrored in AIS, which eventually morphed into full decision-making systems. In an integrated AIS, corporate accounting data is typically stored on a central database to ensure that all relevant applications access the same kind of information when processing data.
