Suppose accountants focus on producing financial statements and leave the design and production of
managerial reports to information systems specialists. In that case, the only benefit coming to my mind is
more spare time for accountants to concentrate on accounting tasks. However, the disadvantages outweigh
the advantages if we leave the accountants out of the design and production of managerial reports to
information systems. Accountants must be part of this process; otherwise, how will the information systems
specialists know what information is needed to be collected and how their design and production will
benefit its users while complying with any required regulations? For example, Romney et al. (2020)
established that:
Accountants and other system users play a significant role in the data processing cycle. For
example, they interact with systems analysts to help answer questions such as these: What data
should be entered and stored by the organization, and who should have access to them? How
should data be organized, updated, stored, accessed, and retrieved? How can scheduled and
unanticipated information needs be met? (p.32)
Therefore, accountants must be included in all their capacities in designing and producing reports more
than just for financial performance measures. As we discussed in the previous discussion, without the
integration of both professions, this could create a communication gap that could create numerous issues
and inefficiencies. In addition, I could lead to the use of multiple systems creating various reports between
departments making executive decisions harder. Thus, to assemble an effective enterprise resource planning
(ERP) system, it is essential to incorporate not only information systems specialists and accountants but also
other personnel departments. According to Romney et al. (2020), doing so helps to facilitate the information
flow among the company's various business operations and provides management with the information
necessary to prepare, manage, and assess the organization's business processes more effectively. Therefore,
it will give financial performance measures more accurate and managerial reports that meet all users'
needs, enabling them to provide accessible and valuable information to inside and outside stakeholders for
their decision-making.
Reference:
Romney, M. B., Steinbart, P. J., Summers, S. L., & Wood, D. A. (2020). Accounting Information Systems (15th
ed.). Pearson Education (US).
