Accounting, Information Technology,
and Business Solutions, 2nd Edition
By Hollander, Denna, Cherrington
The Traditional Accounting Information System
Chapter 3
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Objectives
Describe the nature of the traditional accounting
cycle and its relationship to business events
Describe the impact
of IT on the
traditional
accounting system
Describe the
limitations of the
traditional
accounting system
architecture
Describe how the traditional
accounting system architecture limits
accounting’s ability to enhance value
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Pacioli: The Father of Traditional
Accounting



Pacioli was not really the inventor, but was “the first accountant
to combine his knowledge with the technology that enabled
authors to print books using a movable type and a printing press
to instruct the world on the subject in print”.
Pacioli documented the double entry, chart of account
classification scheme used to record and store accounting data.
To keep the accounts in balance, Pacioli proposed a rigorous
process for recording, maintaining, and reporting accounting
data. Pacioli suggested the use of three books:



the memorandum book, The memorandum book should include notations
the journal and The journal
of every
large
small,
in whatever
was transaction,
the source for
theand
ledger,
where
the
currency
was beingwas
used
and in as much detail as
the ledger. It was
double
bookkeeping
done.
in theentry
ledger
that the businessman
could learn before
time and circumstance allowed.
anyone else whether he was a success or a failure
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Rules for Accounting

Chart of Accounts See Exhibit 3-1



classify and summarize financial measurements
nominal accounts vs real accounts
One compendium of sample charts of accounts and accounting
procedures for different industries is The Encyclopedia of
Accounting Systems

Assets
+
Equities
Charles
Sprague= “Any Liabilities
occurrence [accounting transaction]

opposite sides of the above list.”
Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
must be either an increase or a decrease of values, and there are
(Left)
(Right)
(Left)
(Right)
(Left)
(Right)
three classes of values [assets, liabilities, and equity] ... in every
Increase Decrease
Decrease Increase
Decrease Increase
transaction at least two of the occurrences must appear ... on
+
+
+
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Exhibit 2-1 Sample Chart of Accounts
Account Title

Current Assets












110
130
140
160
180
190
200
Land
210
Building
220
Accumulate Depreciation Building 230
Equipment
240
Accumulated Deprec. Equipment 250
Current Liabilities:


Cash
Accounts Receivable
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Inventory
Prepaid Insurance
Notes Receivable
Account Title




Accounts Payable
Bonds Payable
Irwin/McGraw-Hill

410
510
520
550
590
Revenue
Interest Revenue
Rent Revenue
610
620
630
Expenses:





Long-Term Debt:



310
Common Stock
Capital in Excess
Retained Earnings
Revenue and Expense Summary
Revenue:


Account
Stockholder’s Equity:

Property, Plant, and Equipment:


Account

Purchases
Freight on Purchases
Purchase Returns
Selling Expenses
General and Admin. Expenses
Interest Expense
Extraordinary Loss (pretax)
710
720
730
740
750
760
770
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Exhibit 3-2: Steps in the Accounting Cycle and
Their Objectives
Step
Description
Objective
1 Identify Transaction or To gather information, generally in the form of source
Event to be Recorded documents, about transactions or events
2
Journalize Transaction
and Events
To identify, assess and record the economic impact of
transactions on the firm in a chronological record ( a journal),
in a form that facilitiates transfer to the accounts
3
Posting from Journals to To transfer the information from the journal to the ledger, the
Ledgers
device that stores the accounts
During the accounting period
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Exhibit 3-2: Steps in the Accounting Cycle and
Their Objectives
Step
Description
4 Prepare Unadjusted
Trial Balance
Objective
To provide a convenient listing to check for debit-credit
equality, and a starting point for adjusting entries
5
Journalize and Post
Adjusting Journal
Entries
6
Prepare Adjusted Trial To check for debit-credit equality and to simplify preparation
Balance
of the financial statements
7
Prepare Financial
Statements
To communicate summarized financial information to external
decision makers
8
Journalize and Post
Closing Entries
To close
transfer the netperiod
income
Attemporary
the endaccounts
of theand
accounting
amount to retained earnings
9
Prepare Post-Closing
Trial Balance
To check for debit-credit equality after the closing entries
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
To record accruals, expiration of deferrals, estimations, and
other events often not signaled by a new source document
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Exhibit 3-2: Steps in the Accounting Cycle and
Their Objectives
Step
Description
10 Journalize and Post
Reversing Entries
Objective
To simplify certain subsequent journal entries and reduce
accounting costs.
At the beginning of the
next accounting period
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Nonfinancial
systems
Business
event
Information
customers
Financial
statements
and notes
Audit
statements
and notes
Accounting Cycle Process
Record
transaction
data
Analyze
business
event data
Ignore
event
data
Journals
Financial
statement
notes
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Post journal
data to the
ledger
Ledgers
Prepare and
adjust the
trial balance
Prepare
statements
and notes
Trial
balance
Financial
statements
and notes
Correct and
adjust
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step : Identify Accounting
Transactions to be Recorded

The purposes of this first step are to identify the business events
that can be considered accounting transactions and to collect
relevant economic data about those transactions. Accounting
transactions are the business events that cause a change in the
organization’s assets, liabilities, or owner’s equity. These
events include




Exchanges of resources and obligations between the reporting firm and
outside parties (reciprocal transfers or non-reciprocal transfers)
Internal Events within the firm that affect its resources or obligations but
that do not involve outside parties
Economic and environmental events beyond the control of the company
(changes in values)
Accounting transactions are typically accompanied by a source
document prepared by someone other than the accountant
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 2 - Journalize Accounting
Transaction Data
Measure and record the economic impact of
transactions
 Transactions are recorded in a journal - Debit, Credit,
date, account number, amounts ,and descriptions
 General
journal and Special Journals
General Journal
 Historical Cost Principle Page J-16
Date Accounts and Explanation Post.
Amount
Debit
Credit
1998
Posting References andRef.page
numbers

2-Jan Equipment
Cash
Notes Payable
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
150 15,000
101
5,000
215
10,000
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 3: Post Journal Data to Ledgers





The process of transferring
transaction data from the journals to
General Ledger
the ledger accounts is called posting
Cash
Acct. 100
General
Ledger and Subsidiary
Ledgers
1998
1998
Jan. 1
balance
$18,700 Jan. 2
$5,000
Totals
of Special
Journal
ColumnsJ-16are posted
An audit trail should provide the capability to trace an individual
transaction from its initial
recording all the
way
Equipment
Acct.
150 through the
1998
1998
accounting
process
to
the
final
figures in the financial statements
Jan. 1
balance
$62,000
Jan. 2
J-16 is the
$15,000
Reconciliation
process of summing the subsidiary ledgers
and comparing the total with the balance in the general ledger
Notes Payable
Acct. 216
control account
1998
Jan. 2
J-16
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
$10,000
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 4: Prepare Unadjusted Trial Balance



The unadjusted trial balance is a list of general ledger
accounts and their account balances
Convenient method of determining that
the sum of the Debit account balances
equals the sum of the Credit account
balances
If the trail balance does not balance
the source of the error must be
investigated
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Exhibit 3-5 Unadjusted Trail Balance
Illustrated
Sonora, Inc.
Unadjusted Trial Balance
31-Dec-98
Assets:
Liabilities
Owner's Equity
Revenues
Expenses
Account
Debit
Credit
Cash
$67,300
Accounts Receivable
45,000
Allowance for Doubful Accounts
Notes Receivable
8,000
Inventory (Jan. 1 balance, periodic system)
75,000
Prepaid Insurance
600
Land
8,000
Building
160,000
Accumulated depreciation, building
90,000
Equipment
91,000
Accumulated depreciation, equipment
27,000
Accounts Payable
29,000
Bonds Payable
50,000
Common Stock
150,000
Contributed Capital in exces of par
20,000
Retained Earnings
31,500
Sales Revenue
325,200
Interest Revenue
500
Rent Revenue
1,800
Purchases
130,000
Freight on purchases
4,000
Purchase Returns
2,000
Selling expenses
104,000
General and Administration
23,600
Interest expense
2,500
Extraordinary loss (pretax)
9000
$ 728,000.00
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Click
to Open
$ 728,000.00
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 5: Journalize and Post Adjusting Entries

Adjusting entries are required when their is no source
document to trigger a transaction







Passage of time ( interest or
depreciation)
Correct Errors
Record Changes in Estimates
Recording Deferrals
Recording Accruals
Reclassifying balances
Recognizing inventory losses
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Source documents
from earlier
transactions are the
primary information
sources for adjusting
entries.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 6: Prepare Adjusted Trial Balance



The adjusted trial balance lists all the account balances
that will appear in the financial statements (with the
exception of retained earnings, which does not yet
reflect the current year’s net income and dividends).
The purpose of the adjusted trial
balance is to confirm debit-credit
equality, taking all Adjusting
journal entries into consideration.
Confirm Debit Credit Balance
Source for preparation of the
Financial Statements
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 7 Prepare Financial Statements


The primary objective of financial accounting is to provide
information that is useful to decision-makers. Financial
statements can be produced for a period of any duration.
However, monthly, quarterly, and annual statements are the
most common.
The income statement, retained earnings
statement, and balance sheet are prepared
directly from the adjusted trial balance.
The temporary account balances are
transferred to the income statement, and
the permanent account balances are
transferred to the balance sheet.
FS
Adjusted Trial Balance
Adjusting Entries
Income Statement
Balance Sheet
Account
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
Debit
Credit
Cash
$67,300
$67,300
$67,300
Accounts Receivable
45,000
45,000
45,000
Allowance for Doubful Accounts
Notes Receivable
8,000
(1) 2,000
8,000
8,000
Inventory (Jan. 1 balance, periodic system)
75,000
75,000
75,000
Prepaid Insurance
600
600
600
Land
8,000
8,000
8,000
Building
160,000
160,000
160,000
Accumulated depreciation, building
90,000
90,000
90,000
Equipment
91,000
91,000
91,000
Accumulated depreciation, equipment
27,000
27,000
27,000
Accounts Payable
29,000
29,000
29,000
Bonds Payable
50,000
50,000
50,000
Common Stock
150,000
150,000
150,000
Contributed Capital in exces of par
20,000
20,000
20,000
Retained Earnings
31,500
(1) 2,000
31,500
31,500
Sales Revenue
325,200
325,200
325,200
Interest Revenue
500
500
500
Rent Revenue
1,800
1,800
1,800
Purchases
130,000
130,000
130,000
Freight on purchases
4,000
4,000
4,000
Purchase Returns
2,000
2,000
2,000
Selling expenses
104,000
104,000
104,000
General and Administration
23,600
23,600
23,600
Interest expense
2,500
2,500
2,500
Extraordinary loss (pretax)
9000
9000
9000
$ 728,000.00 $ 728,000.00
$ 728,000.00 $ 728,000.00
Net Income
56400
56400
$ 329,500.00 $ 329,500.00 $454,900 $ 453,900.00

Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 8 Journalize and Post Closing
Entries




Closing entries reduce the temporary accounts (e.g., revenues,
expenses, and dividends) to a zero (closed) balance.
Closing entries are recorded in the general journal at the end of
the accounting period and are posted to the appropriate ledger
accounts.
Permanent accounts are not closed because they
carry asset, liability, and owner's equity balances
to the next accounting period.
The retained earnings account is the only
permanent account involved in the
closing process.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 9 Prepare Post-Closing Trial
Balance




A post-closing trial balance lists only the balances of the
permanent accounts after the closing process is finished. (The
temporary accounts have zero balances.)
This step is taken to check for debit-credit equality after the
closing entries are posted.
Firms with a large number of accounts find this a valuable
procedure because the chance of error increases with the number
of accounts and postings.
The retained earnings account is now stated at the ending
balance and is the only permanent account with a balance
different from the one shown in the adjusted trial balance.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Step 10 Journalize and Post
Reversing Entries



At the beginning of the next period, the accountant may prepare
and post reversing entries to compensate for the difference in
timing between the occurrence of an actual economic reality, and
the recording of the economic event in the accounting system.
Reversing entries use the same accounts and amounts as
adjusting entries but with the debits and credits reversed.
These entries reverse adjusting entries made at the end of one
period and prepare the accounting records for normal processing
of business events in the new period.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Applying Information Technology to
the Accounting Cycle

Human information processing challenges




Reasons why IT is not used:




Human Error
Human inefficiency
Paper based communication is costly
technology does not exist
technology is not cost effective
Using IT to replicate a manual
system is not efficient
The accounting architecture needs to be changed
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Criticisms Of The Traditional Accounting
System Architecture





One criticism of the traditional architectures is a lack of
integration across functional areas of the organization.
Example: an international computer manufacturer that
maintains a separate chart of accounts and ledgers for its
manufacturing and marketing divisions
Example:
because they have different criteria for
Two business events
• Shipping to customer
reporting financial information.
8 Journal entries
Manufacturing recognizes revenue
• Billing customer
when a product is shipped to a customer
8 Journal Entries
• Adjusting for Revenue
Marketing recognizes revenue when the
Recognition
customer is billed for the product.
8 Journal Entries
The entire accounting process is automated.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Criticisms of the Traditional Accounting
System Architecture




Activities are performed to
provide service to the customer
Many systems exist to record and
report on activities
Different managers want different
views of the data to make
decisions in their area of influence
Too many systems
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Multiple Views of the Same Business
Event
Marketing people wants to
Investors
and creditors want
Executive management
know about the order
to
to know about
all orders to wants to know about the
evaluate pricing, plan
SALE
assess
order to evaluate its
advertising campaigns,
andthe profitability of their
investments and the likelihood
impact on the
target selling efforts.
Personnel viewof a return on their investment
organization
Production view
Personnel people
want to know about
Production people
the order to pay sales
want to know about
commissions.
the order to plan
production processes
Marketing view
Executive view
Investors and creditors
view (GAAP)
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
The Proliferation of Accounting
Subsystems
Business
Event
System A
System B
System C
System D
Edit
Audit
Calculate
Summarize
Edit
Audit
Calculate
Summarize
Edit
Audit
Calculate
Summarize
Edit
Audit
Calculate
Summarize
Stored
Data
Stored
Data
Stored
Data
Stored
Data
Functional
Views
Functional
Views
Functional
Views
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Functional
Views
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Criticisms of Traditional Accounting
Systems and Processes






There is a proliferation of often conflicting, nonintegrated
systems and subsystems within a single organization.
The architecture captures data about a subset of an organization's
business events (the accounting transactions).
Data are not recorded and processed in real-time
The architecture stores and processes
only a limited number of characteristics
about accounting transactions.
The architecture captures and stores
duplicate data in a highly summarized form
The architecture stores financial data to
satisfy one primary view (perspective).
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Architecture
of
Traditional
Accounting
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
• Based primarily on financial
reporting:
– Income Statement & Balance
Sheet
• Build new/alternative systems
for alternative views of
business data.
• Confine recorded information
to “accounting transactions.”
• Store and summarize
information in ledgers.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Accounting Data: A Subset of
Business Data
(Limited view &
limited data)
Data that
describes
Business
Activities
Business
Activities
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Acct.
Data
Accountants
filter data
General
Ledger
Limited Output
Views / Formats
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
The Heart of the Problem
with Traditional Systems
Input:
Narrow set
of
transactions
Process:
Classifies
and
summarizes
transaction
data
Output:
Produces
narrow
functional
views
Narrow functional views drive the selection of
transactions, classification, and summarization
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Are These Criticisms Valid?



The criticisms we have presented simply highlight the
difficulties of adapting the traditional accounting system
architecture to a rapidly changing world.
Today's business world is fast paced, more information
intensive, and involves complex business transactions beyond
Pacioli's wildest dreams
Today’s information customers are very demanding. They desire
a larger variety of faster, customized information products
delivered in a variety of modes. For example, many people now
want their information system to produce a much broader array
of information products such as balanced scorecards.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Ways That Accounting Can Enhance
Its Value to the Organization
Helping
Management
Define
Providing
More
Useful
Helping to Embed Real-Time
Business
Process
Rules - To help
Information
Traditional
Information
Processes
into
management
define
business
process
accounting
measures
are
expressed
Business
Processes
- Accountants
rules presupposes
involvement
in an
almost exclusively in monetary
should
providebusiness
meaningful,
direct We
organization’s
processes.
terms: a practice that precludes
input
into
the design,
development,
and
should
develop
an
AIS
architecture
that
information on productivity,
implementation
of real-time
enables
accountants
to exercise
performance, reliability
and other
information
processes
that
execute
influence
over
the
development
andbe
multidimensional data that cannot
business
rules and gather
business data.
implementation
easily expressedof
inbusiness
monetaryprocesses
terms.
rules throughout the business process.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Role of the Office of the CFO
(Chief Financial Officer)




Insightful contributions into the
strategy and planning process
Measures that focus and motivate the
organization
We think objectives such as these
provide
justification
forprovides
changing
Information
and analysis
that
the architecture of any information
insight into
how value is being created
system that limits the potential of
and how progress
is providers
being matched
to
information
in adding
strategic initiatives.
value to an organization.
Leadership of major financial
initiatives.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Event-Driven IT Application Overview
Enterprise-wide
Information
Customers
Business
Events
Business
Event
Data
Business
Event
Processor
(business
and
information
processing
rules)
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
Business
Data
Repository
Reporting
Facility
(Information
processing
rules)
Useful
Information
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000
Characteristics
of Future
Architecture
Irwin/McGraw-Hill
• Based on business events
(business activities) rather
than information customer
views.
• Supports business process
simplification and change.
• Integrates all business data.
• Integrates information
processes and real-time
controls.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000