Information Systems and Managerial Accounting.

Abstract The article reports that product of any managerial accounting system, like that of all other information systems, is information. The nature of accounting is that of an information system. As an information system, accounting deals selectively with problems of the same order as more general information systems. Managerial accounting systems are comprised of eight functional elements: Perception, recordation, storage, retrieval, processing, transmission, presentation, and decision making. Like general purpose information systems, the output of accounting systems purport to educate the recipients of that output. One of the early effects of the information systems syndrome on managerial accounting was produced as a secondary result of computer-induced changes in the organizational structure of the enterprise. Many lower-level clerical and middle-management jobs have disappeared, and activities formerly performed at these levels have been "taken over" by the computer. In other organizations, middle-management positions have assumed even greater importance than before as planning and control functions have been moved to lower organizational levels.