Accounting information system (AIS) is a system that collects, records, stores and processes data into an accounting information that will be used for decision making in an organization (Romney, Steinbart, 2006). According to Gelinas, to meet the established goals, we can measure from the effectiveness of AIS (Gelinas, 1990). However, “AIS can be in a form of manual or computerized system. Regardless of the type, AIS is designed to collect, enter, process, store, and report data and information “(Salehi et al, 2010).
According to Wilkinson et al, accounting information system is a “ structure exist in entity that employs physical resources and other components to transform economic data into accounting information with a purpose of satisfying needs of variety users” (Wilkinson et al, 2000)
“ AIS is consist of three major subsystems: the transaction processing system, the financial reporting system, and management reporting system” (Hall, 2008). Each subsystem of AIS has a different purpose such as, the transaction processing system (TPS) mainly support daily business operation with numerous reports, documents, and messages for users throughout the organization. Financial reporting system is producing traditional financial statements that usually required by the law such as income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, tax returns, and other reports that may related. Lastly, management reporting system providing internal management with special purpose financial report and information needed for decision making such as budgets, variance reports, and responsibility reports (Hall, 2008).
Accounting Information System documentation
As discussed earlier, AIS processing data into information that will be used by users for decision-making. AIS is documented in several form, such as Data flow diagram (DFD), document flowchart, system flowchart, and program flowchart. AIS documentation tools will be discussed as follows (Romney, Steinbart, 2009):
1. Data flow diagram:
Data flow diagram (DFD) describe the flow of data within an organization, it shows the source and the destination of the data or, and also describe the entire process and data storage.
2. Document flowchart:
Document flowchart describes the flow of documents and information between departments within an organization.
3. System flowchart:
System flowchart describes the relationship between input, output and processing within information system
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