Assignment One: Information Needs for the AIS
Lindsay Bostick
ACC 564 Accounting Information Systems

Note: This assignment is submitted on April 15, 2016 to Dr. Ahmad Abudiab in fulfillment of a requirement for successful course completion.

Introduction of Accounting Information Systems
“Accounting is a data identification, collection, and storage process as well as an information development, measurement, and communication process. By definition, accounting is an information system, since an AIS collects, records, stores, and processes accounting and other data to produce information for decision makers (Romney, p. 10).” The accounting process controls what happens in other groups such as marketing, services, human resources, sales, IT, staff, customer service, organizational, and inventory. Decisions are only made if the accounting team allows them to. Funding needs to be budgeted and accounted for before any money is spent within those other teams.
“An AIS can be a paper-and-pencil manual system, a complex system using the latest in IT, or something in between. Regardless of the approach taken, the process is the same. The AIS must collect, enter, process, store, and report data and information (Romney, p. 10).” It doesn’t matter if the accounting team uses software such as QuickBooks, an internal accounting system, or just an EXCEL spreadsheet to collect the information as long as it is timely and accurate. The company that I work for uses EXCEL as well as an internet based software for accounting work called Investran. It also uses Investier for the allocation reports. This makes it easy to make sure the entries are booked and it has a second or third check of accuracy.
There are 6 components that need to be considered when referring to an AIS. “AIS can and should be the organization’s primary information