Technologies underpinning accounting information systems

Abstract

For accounting information systems (AIS) to become the enabling and empowering tools they are expected to be, they require the technological infrastructure or ‘underpinnings’ that facilitate their smooth operation. Inadequate technologies underpinning AIS can burden the company with extra maintenance and data recovery costs and issues with data reliability, security and privacy. Thus, inadequate technology can potentially corrupt the very outcomes of an AIS, namely reports and decision-relevant information, leading to incorrect, unreliable decisions. In this chapter, the general relationship between AIS and technology is detailed. Networks are revealed as a necessary technological feature of AIS, and components that are aligned to build and run an AIS are discussed, namely hardware and software. Networks, hardware and software have to work together to provide a reliable basis for any AIS to perform and provide reports and decision-relevant information. Finally, the focus is moved to the emerging technologies of blockchain, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence that have started to heavily impact AIS in recent years.