Question

Some individuals argue that accountants should focus on producing financial statements and leave the design and production of managerial reports to information systems specialists. What are the advantages and disadvantages of following this advice? To what extent should accountants be involved in producing reports that include more than just financial measures of performance? Why?

Post

I believe that the more diverse your education, the more successful you will be in life. Some disagree, however the more knowledge and education the one is, I definitely believe that they are easier to work with in the workplace. Obviously, communication skills, common sense and respect all plays a factor as well. In a larger corporation I would definitely agree that accountants should definitely stay focused on producing the finical statements and leave the design and production of managerial reports to the information systems specialists. However, it is still a great idea to be knowledgeable in both areas. The advantages to accountants sticking to one task is that there is less leeway for error. If they are solely focused on producing financial statements, the changes of mistakes will be rare. Other than that, I believe that it is mainly a disadvantage in more ways. The combination of knowledge in the statements as well as the programs design and production can be extremely powerful. If both departments do not know about each other, it can make getting the right system for the department difficult. Also, the labor in a company can be reduced by having less employees, but more powerful and knowledgeable employees. Even just them providing insight to these areas in itself is a big advantage to the company. “As accountants gets more involved in the overall decision making in the business angle, a lot of accountants are now being classified as users of accounting information system. They use the AIS to process and produce accounting information such as financial statement. Also, accountants rely on their knowledge of AIS to make quality fundamental analysis of financial information, this they do while acting as financial planner or investment accountants” (N.A. 2014).

Required:

Agree with the above post by building upon their points or challenge their opinion and provide reasoning for the disagreement.

Answer 1

As an expert, I would say that Accountants should be involved to some extent in producing reports that include more than just financial measures of performance.

In accountancy course, the education field is quite diverse. Topics relating to Information systems, ethics are also considered a crucial part of these courses. Apart form that, IT training is also mandatory to pursue the degree of a chartered accountant Due to this, such person is not just an expert of financial details, he/she also has a good understanding of the Information System.

In a large organisation, these work can be allocated to Information System specialist. But consider a small or medium sized business, hiring a single person who can handle the work of both financial and information system as well. It will definitely result in cost savings and promote the growth of that organisation.

Also, the level of accountancy courses has risen over the years and only those who are knowledgeable and hard-working are able to qualify such courses. So we can say that only the personnel who have proved their worth and talent by qualifying in such courses are being handed over the job of financial details along with designing and production managerial reports