The roles of an accountant are broad and will vary by position and
the organization for which they work (Miller, 2022). A few roles and
responsibilities of accountants are as follows: preparing and
maintaining financial reports, preparing tax returns, evaluating
financial operations, forecasting and risk analysis (Miller, 2022).
So, should accountants focus on producing financial statements and
leave the design and production of managerial reports to information
systems specialists? b From my knowledge in an accounting
environment and from research, I can’t find one advantage to having
an accountant focus only on financial information. b Accountants and
IS staff have a wide range of skills that are beneficial to their
organizations. It would clearly be beneficial to have both the
accountants and IS involved in this process.
Certainly, accountants have skills and knowledge that would ensure
the design and production of managerial reports to information
system specialists were top notch. b Having two system seems like it
would be an unnecessary expense to the company. Accountant
should be highly involved with producing reports that include more
than just financial measure of performance because they know how
to ensure the reliability and functionality of the information
generated is accurate and secure (Romney, Steinbart, Summers, &
Wood, 2020). However, having only accountants doing the non-
financial reports duties might cause some issues if it is beyond their
scope of work or expertise. Collaboration among accountants and IS
is key.
References:
Miller, K. (2022, April 5). What does an accountant do? roles,
responsibilities, & trends. Bachelor's Degree Completion. Retrieved
November 17, 2022, from https://www.northeastern.edu/bachelors-
completion/news/what-does-an-accountant-do/
Romney, M. B., Steinbart, P. J., Summers, S. L., & Wood, D. A. (2020).
Accounting Information Systems. Pearson.
