Accounting uses techniques to take raw data and convert it into information that is useful to managers and investors. But can we convert data into information without knowing what it relates to, where and how it was gathered and what its limitations are? This course will address these questions related to accounting information systems.
This course will first focus on how data for a typical sales process is captured and processed in a computerized accounting system. Then students will learn how to describe any organization’s sales process in a professionally rigorous way via documentation. The course will end by teaching students how to analyze sales and other accounting processes to find weaknesses in them that might allow them to generate unreliable data—data that shouldn’t be used by accountants, managers or investors.