The Effects of Technology on the Accounting Field

1074 Words3 Pages

Technology in the accounting field has come very far, from the abacus to modern day accounting software. E-Business, work being done through networks, is taking the accounting field to a more future computerized world, leaving the pen and paper behind. With all the new technologies, the profession of accounting is growing and expanding and proving that information and skills provided by accountants using modern technologies can spill over and help other parts of a business. Even with all the down falls that accounts have taken, from the stock market crash of 1929, and the fall of companies such and Enron, World Com, and Tyco. New technologies have brought new legislature and new forensic accounting titles, helping to keep the accounting and business world spinning.
An abacus is the ancient form of accounting technology. It used different color beads, ten on each slide that were moved up and down to represent numbers, this is how an account did his job in the ancient days. Than as time moved forward people started using ledgers with pencil and paper and the human brain to calculate the numbers. Than time moved forward more and more, things like the calculator, adding machine and pre-printed ledger books come to be, making the accountant’s job less tedious and easier. Even though these items are not the technology that we are quite looking at, they are still were considered the latest accounting technology of its time.
Technology in the accounting field really took off toward the end of the twentieth century. Computers where becoming more and more used in business and things like the Microsoft office suites were making pen and paper a thing of the past. The software product that really hit the accounting department the hardest ...

... middle of paper ...

...The information means a lot to me personally, it means that I have chosen a great field to study and that there is a great possibility for me to gain a job after graduation and be able to contribute to a growing field with the technology skills that I am gaining.

In the past there was very little ways of knowing and checking if someone was “cooking the books” or committing fraud. Business trusted their employees to be honest and that their work was for the good of the company and not just for personal gain. With the devastating consequences of corporate fraud with companies such as Enron, and Tyco, a new field in accounting opened up, forensic accounting. Forensic accounting does not just have to deal with fraud, it also helps to find embezzling, financial statement fraud, Bankruptcies, money laundering, and contract disputes, security fraud and insurance claims.

Open Document