Accounting Information Systems (1,2,3,5)

An list of important vocabulary terms recorded during Dr. Baker's class and textbook.

System / 1

A set of interdependent elements that together accomplish specific objectives.

Subsystem / 1

A part of a system; these parts are interrelated or integrated as a single system.

Information System (IS) / 1

A man-made system that generally consists of an integrated set of computer based components and manual components established to collect, store, and manage data and to provide output information to users.

Management information system (MIS) / 1

A man-made system that generally consists of an integrated set of computer-based components and manual components established to collect, store, and manage data and to provide output information to users. Also known as an information system (IS).

Accounting Information System (AIS) / 1

A specialized subsystem of the IS that collects, processes, and reports information related to the financial aspects of business events.

Operations Process / 1

A system consisting of the people, equipment, organization, policies, and procedures whose objective is to accomplish the work of the organization.

Management Process / 1

A system consisting of the people, authority, organization, policies, and procedures whose objective is to plan and control the operations of the organization.

Information / 1

Data presented in a form that is useful in a decision-making activity.

Data / 1

Facts or figures in raw form. Data represent the measurements or observations of objects and events.

Effectiveness / 1

Deals with the information being relevant and pertinent to the business process as well as being timely, correct, consistent, and usable manner.

Efficiency / 1

Concerns the obtaining and use of information through the optimal (most productive and economical) use of resources.

Confidentiality / 1

Concerns the protection of sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure.

Integrity / 1

Relates to the accuracy and completeness of information as well as to its validity in accordance with business values and expectations.

Availability / 1

Relates to information being available when required by the business process now and in the future. It also concerns the safeguarding of necessary resources and associated capabilities.

Compliance / 1

Deals with complying with the laws, regulations, and contractual arrangements to which the business process is subject, that is, externally imposed business criteria, as well as internal policies.

Reliability / 1

Relates to the provision of appropriate information for management to operate the entity and exercise its fiduciary and governance responsibilities.

Understandability / 1

The information quality that enables users to perceive the information’s significance.

Relevance / 1

A quality indicating if information is capable of making a difference in a decision-making situation by reducing uncertainty or increasing knowledge for that particular decision.

Timeliness / 1

Information available to a decision maker before it loses its capacity to influence a decision.

Predictive Value / 1

An information quality that improves a decision maker’s capacity to predict, confirm, or correct earlier expectations.

Feedback Value / 1

An information quality that improves a decision maker’s capacity to predict, confirm, or correct earlier expectations.

Verifiability / 1

The ability of information to be confirmed by independent measurers using the same same measurement methods.

Neutrality / 1

The quality of being unbiased, or representing both sides of an issue, object, or event equally. Also called freedom from bias.

Comparabilty / 1

The information quality that enables users to identify similarities and differences in two pieces of information.

Consistent / 1

Information that is the same, when compared from the same object or event collected at two points in time.

Validity / 1

An information quality concerning the inclusion of actual authorized events and actual objects.

Accuracy / 1

The correspondence or agreement between the information and the actual events or objects that the information represents.

Completeness / 1

The degree to which information necessary to make a decision includes data about every relevant object or event and includes that information only once.

Matrix / 1

A tool designed to help analyze a situation and relate processes to desired results.

Decision Making / 1

The process of making choices; the central activity of management.

Structured Decisions / 1

Decisions for which all three decision phases (intelligence, design, and choice) are relatively routine or repetitive.

Unstructured Decision / 1

A decision for which none of the decision phases (intelligence, design, or choice) are routine or repetitive.

Enterprise Database / 1

The central repository for all the data related to an organization’s business activities and resources.

Enterprise Systems / 2

Information systems that integrate the business process and information from all of an organization’s functional areas, such as marketing and sales, cash receipts, purchasing, cash disbursements, human resources, production and logistics, and business reporting (including financial reporting). Also called Enterprise Information Systems or Enterprise-Wide Information Systems

Business Event / 2

A meaningful change in the state of the enterprise such as creating a new employee record, submitting a purchase order to a vendor, receiving a payment from a customer, picking goods from the warehouse and delivering them to the shipping department, and revaluing inventory

Big Data / 2

Extremely large data sets that are analyzed by specialized computer applications to produce information that can be used in the decision-making process.

Business Analytics / 2

Use of state-of-the-art information technologies to analyze data stores too large or too unstructured to be contained in the traditional data warehouses used in business intelligence.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System / 1

Software packages used for the core systems necessary to support enterprise systems.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software/ 2

A software application used to build and maintain an organization’s customer related database.

Customer Self-Service (CSS) Software / 2

Software that allows an organization’s customer to complete an inquiry, perform a task (including sales), or troubleshoot problems without the aid of an organization’s employees; often an extension of CRM software.

Sales Force Automation (SFA) Software / 2

Software that automates sales tasks such as order processing, contact management, inventory monitoring, order tracking, and employee performance evaluation.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Software / 2

The combination of processes and procedures used to ensure the delivery of goods and services to customers at the lowest cost while providing the highest value to the customers.

Product Life-Cycle Management (PLM) Software / 2

Software that manages product data during a product’s life, beginning with the design of the product, continuing through manufacture, and culminating in the disposal of the product at the end of its life.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Software / 2

Software that manages the interactions with the organizations that supply the goods and services to an enterprise just as CRM software streamlines the processes between the enterprise and its customers.

Best-of-Breed Approach / 2

The best-of-breed approach combines modules from various vendors to create an information system that better meets an organization’s needs than a standard ERP system.

Middleware / 2

A software product that connects two or more separate applications or software modules.

Application Program Interface (API) / 2

A means for connecting to a system or application provided by the developer of that system or application.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) / 2

Combines processes, software, standards, and hardware to link together two or more systems and allow them to operate as one.

Business Process Management (BPM) / 2

Modeling, automating, managing, and optimizing business processes; often used interchangeably with business process management systems.

Value Chain / 2

A chain of activities performed by the organization to transform inputs into outputs valued by the customer.

Order-to-Cash Process / 2

A process that includes the events surrounding the sale of goods to a customer, the recognition of the revenue, and the collection of the customer payment.

Purchase-to-Pay Process / 2

A process that includes the events surrounding the purchase of goods from a vendor, the recognition of the cost of those goods, and the payment to the vendor.

E-Business / 3

The application of electronic networks (including the internet) to undertake business processes between individuals and organizations. Also known as electronic business or e-commerce.

Journalize / 3

The process of recording a business event (i.e., accounting transaction) in a book of original entry (i.e., a special or general journal).

Post / 3

Moving business event from a journal to a subsidiary ledger.

Summarize / 3

Prepare a trial balance to show the total impact on each general ledger account of a set of business events.

Business Event Data Store / 3

A book of original entry used for recording business events; also known as a transaction file.

Master Data / 3

Repositories of relatively permanent data maintained over an extended period of time.

Information Processing / 3

One type of master data update that includes recording information from events such as accounting, manufacturing, and adjusting entries.

Data Maintenance / 3

A type of master data update that includes activities related to adding, deleting, or replacing the standing data portions of master data.

Standing Data / 3

Relatively permanent portions of master data, such as the credit limit on customer master data and the selling price and warehouse location on inventory master data.

Batch Processing / 3

The aggregation of several business events over some period of time with the subsequent processing of these data as a group by the information system.

Periodic Mode / 3

The processing mode in which a delay exists between any two data processing steps.

Immediate Mode / 3

The data processing mode in which little or no delay occurs between any two data processing steps.

Offline / 3

A device that is not directly connected to a central computer or network.

Online Transaction Entry (OLTE) / 3

The use of data entry devices allows business event data to be entered directly into the information system at the time and place that the business event occurs.

Online / 3

A computer configuration in which certain equipment is directly connected to the computer.

Online Real-Time (OLRT) Systems / 3

These systems gather business event data at the time of occurrence, update the master data almost instantaneously, and provide the results from arising from the business event within a very short amount of time.

Electronic Mail (e-mail) / 3

The electronic transmission of nonstandardized messages between two individuals who are linked via a communications network (usually an intranet or the internet).

Client/Server Technology / 3

The physical and logical division between user-orientated application programs that are run at the client level (i.e., user level) and the shared data that must be available through the server (i.e., a separate computer that handles centrally shared activities - such as databases and printing queues - between multiple users).

Local Area Networks (LANs) / 3

Communication networks that link several different local usar machines with printers, databases, and other shared devices.

Wide Area Networks (WANs) / 3

Communication networks that link distributed users and local networks into an integrated communications network.

Internet / 3

A massive interconnection of computer networks worldwide that enables communication between dissimilar technology platforms.

Web Browsers / 3

Software programs designed specifically to allow users to easily view various documents and data sources available on the Internet.

Intranet / 3

Mini-internal equivalents to the Internet that link an organization’s internal documents and databases into a system that is accessible only to members of the organization, through Web browsers or, increasingly, through internally developed software designed to maximize the benefits from utilization of organizational information resources.

Extranet / 3

A type of internal network (Intranet) that has been extended to limited external access to members of an organization’s value chain.

Electronic Document Management (EDM) / 3

The capturing, storage, management, and control of electronic document images for the purpose of supporting management decision making and facilitating business event data processing.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) / 3

The computer-to-computer exchange of business data (i.e., documents) in structured formats that allow direct processing of those electronic documents by the receiving computer system.

Value-Added Network (VAN) / 3

A service that acts as an EDI “post office.” An organization can connect to the VAN when it wants, leave its outgoing messages, and, at the same time, pick up incoming messages from its “mailbox.”

Internet EDI (IEDI) / 3

The use of secure, structured messages over the Internet to execute business transactions.

Web Services / 3

A software application that supports direct interactions with software objects over an intranet or the Internet.

Service-Orientated Architecture (SOA) / 3

Well-defined, independent functions (or applications) that can be distributed over a network via Web Services.

Internet Commerce / 3

The computer-to-computer exchange of business event data in structured or semi-structured formats via Internet communication that allows the initiation and consummation of business events.

Network Providers / 3

Companies that provide a link to the Internet by making their directly connected networks available for access by fee-paying customers

Internet Assurance / 3

A service provided for a fee to vendors to provide limited assurance to users of the vendor’s Web site that the site is in fact reliable, and event data security is reasonable.

Cloud Computing / 3

Use of the Internet to provide scalable services, such as software, and resources such as data storage to users.

Internet Auction Markets / 3

Provide an Internet base for companies to place products up for bid or for buyers to put proposed purchases up for bid.

Electronic Storefronts / 3

Internet-located resources for displaying goods and services for sale and for conducting related sales events.

Internet Market Exchanges / 3

These exchanges bring together a variety of suppliers in a given industry with one or more buyers in the same industry to provide Internet commerce through organized markets.

Decision Aids / 5

Information tools that can help decision makers to make better decisions.

Decision Support Systems (DSSs) / 5

Computer-based systems that support collaborative intellectual work such as idea generation, elaboration, analysis, synthesis, information sharing, and decision making. GSS/GDSS use technology to solve the time and space dimension problems associated with group work.

Artificial Intelligence / 5

Decision support systems can imitate human decision making when confronting situations that are complex and ambiguous.

Executive Information Systems (EISs) / 5

A subset of DSS, these systems combine information from the organization and the environment, organize and analyze the information, and present the information to the manager in a form that assists in decision making; also called executive support systems or ESS.

Group Support Systems (GSSs) / 5

Computer-based systems that support collaborative intellectual work such as idea generation, elaboration, analysis, synthesis, information sharing, and decision making. GSS use technology to solve the time and space dimension problems associated with group work. Also called Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS).

Brainstorming / 5

A method for freely and creatively generating as many ideas as possible without undue regard for their practically or realism.

Expert Systems (ES) / 5

Rule-based systems that emulate the problem-solving techniques of human experts. Appropriate when decisions are extremely complex, consistency of decision making is desirable, and the decision maker wants to minimize time spent making the decision while maximizing the quality of the decision.

Neural Networks (NNs) / 5

Computer hardware and software systems that mimic the human brain’s capability to recognize patterns or predict outcomes using less-than-complete information.

Intelligent Agent / 5

A software program that may be integrated into a DSS or other software tool (such as word processing, spreadsheet, or database packages) that provide automated assistance, advice, and/or information for decision making.

Data Warehousing / 5

The use of information systems facilities to focus on the collection, organization, integration, and long-term storage of entity-wide data. Data warehousing provides users with easy access to large quantities of varied data from across an organization to improve decision-making capabilities.

Data Mining / 5

The exploration, aggregation, and analysis of large quantities of varied data from across the organization. Used to better understand business processes, trends, and opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness, as well as to discover anomalies.