CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The emerging global economic scenario characterized by advancement in information technology, rapid changes in production processes, increased sophistry of the consumer, fierce market competition and unethical skimming activities of producers in the drive to survive the unpredictable and complex business dynamics, has brought to the fore the crucial role of accounting information in economic and business discourse especially in relation to administrative effectiveness (Curtis, 1995). As we all know, accounting speaks the language of business as it records all transactions of an individual firm or other bodies that can be expressed in monetary terms. Predicated on the going concept, accounting is the scheme and art of collecting, classifying, summarizing and communicating data of financial nature required to make economic decisions. Over several numbers of years the performance of accounting has increased right from the single entry system to double entry system. The main aim of the accounting system is to provide financial data like purchase, sales, expenses and income of the organization but in today’s modern world accounts maintenance is helpful in many ways. Previously accounts are maintain to know profit or loss of the organization but now a days it is also useful for increasing profitability of the organization by way of accounting information system. Businesses include transactions which produce information for better analysis of business performance and accounting information system is a delivery system for accounting. Accounting Information Systems (AIS) are a tool which, when incorporated into the field of Information and Technology systems (IT), were designed to help in the management and control of topics related to firms’ economic-financial area. But the stunning advance in technology has opened up the possibility of generating and using accounting information from a strategic viewpoint.
Accounting information systems (AIS) as a part of company’s information systems (IS) are seen as facilitating decision making within organizations and should be tailored to an organization’s environment, requirements of task, and structure. An accounting information system is a structure that a business uses to collect, store, manage, process, retrieve and report its financial data so that it can be used by accountants, consultants, business analysts, managers, chief financial officers (CFOs), auditors and regulatory and tax agencies. In addition, specially trained accountants work with AIS to ensure the highest level of accuracy in a company’s financial transactions and recordkeeping and to make financial data easily available to those who legitimately need access to it, all while keeping data intact and secure, this indirectly boost the productivity and performance of the organisation. Furthermore, Management of various organizations in Nigeria relies heavily on information generated from the AIS employed by the company. Moreover, quality reports are keys to arrive at an ideal investment, and a traditional way of recording, summarizing and reporting company financial reports led to less optimal decisions. Investment in good and reliable accounting systems has become a major concern for all managers as it leads to better management and analysis of firm’s performance. Accounting information system is an ingredient in most, if not all, financial managerial decisions for various organisation. In developed economies, these decisions are worth billions of dollars each year. In some cases, the decisions are lacking in quality. Consequently, if researches can improve decision making through improved information, society will benefit.
