Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession

Effects Of technology On the Accounting Profession

The accounting profession has experienced many different changes and as well as a tremendous amount of growth over the past century. (Schaefer, 1998) It's unfortunate that due to unethical accounting practices there has been an increased need for advanced technology of accounting systems in order to better monitor what is going on with organizations. The need for real time reports and financial information at the click of a button seems to be the trend these days. This paper will give examples of how technology has changed the accounting profession as well as some example of the changes within my organization.

Technology has greatly impacted the accounting profession in the sense that a task that normally would take several entry level accounting clerks to perform can be accomplished by one accountant. The current technology has literally changed the way an accountant does their job. There is no longer a need for the old fashioned T accounts or hand written journal entries or even hand written ledgers. For example, in the past accountants used to do everything written, then if they had a computer system the data was then entered into the system. The process was time consuming and lengthy. In my organization I know that the advancement of technology has helped in all aspects of accounting, from A/R , A/P to payroll the roles have changed thanks to technology.

One great example that comes to mind is the process of credit cards, working for a hotel credit cards are used over 70% of the time. In prior years we used to have to use the old credit card imprint machine and manually process each transaction. On the accounting side the batches were then sent for processing and then, the declined ones were sent back so that we could collect. Now the transactions are instantaneous. There is no longer a need for the manual processing which saves us time and money in many different areas.

Another example of new technology is the software that is used to keep the books, such as Peachtree, Quick Books and Oracle. They all play a hand in the advancement of technology, rather than an accountant figuring everything out manually, it's a matter of entering in the numbers in the necessary areas and waiting for the outcome. These systems have eliminated the potential for human error. Software such as the ones listed above has made an accountants life much easier to in the sense that the outcome of the entries is immediately available for critique.

In my organization we use Oracle, as they continue to improve it we continue to get upgraded and the more things change. For example when I first started