The Effects of Technology on the Accounting Profession Technology has taken the world by a storm by providing the people with fast, easy, and innovative new ways to accomplish tasks. The accounting profession is no exception to this transition to a technological dependent world. New and improved information systems have made it easier than ever to take care of all your accounting needs using one system. “Because of the repetitive nature of many tasks in accounting, it is not surprising that these tasks have been automated.” (Simkin, Rose, and Norman, 2012, p. 482) Because of this reliance on new technologies, the accounting profession now has a new skill set in demand that includes the knowledge of computers and information systems. New information systems allow accountants to collect and analyze financial and nonfinancial information, which aids in better business processes. A few key advancements that have impacted the accounting profession are cloud computing, ERP systems, and real-time reporting. Cloud computing is the use of business applications through the Internet. Cloud computing has its benefits and risks when it comes to the accounting industry. A few benefits are being able to only pay for what you use, the reduction of upfront costs for new hardware and software, and it is device and location independent. However, few risks are involved such as security of information and the reliability of the Internet. In the accounting profession, it is important to provide clients with the most reliable and speediest data and information. With the help of cloud computing, accountants are able to send and receive data and information in an instant. Accountants are offered a variety of applications to aid in their daily tasks through the cloud. “These include, but are not limited to, bill management, enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, payroll, sales tax, tax preparation and workflow.” (Defelice, 2010) Inuit provides multiple applications that aid in accounting processes. With software like Quickbooks, Payroll, and Inuit Proline Tax Online, accountants are able to complete their tasks and manage the financial and nonfinancial aspects of companies through the Internet. A second technological advancement is ERP systems. In the past, separate information systems were used to collect and organize data for each department within a company. Enterprise resource planning systems allow for integration of businesses major processes such as accounting, human resources, manufacturing, and marketing. Previously, each department in a business used separate software and had to manually share information throughout the other departments, but now with the help of ERP systems, all business data is held in one place making it easy for each department to obtain the data they need. Through this system, the accounting processes are made easier and have fewer margin of error. When an accountant is asked to help in a business decision, it is beneficial for the accountant to have all the necessary information, which is sometimes held by a different department. ERP systems make it easy to retrieve the information needed to make those decisions. “An example of such a software product is SAP ERP, which combines accounting, manufacturing, and human resource subsystems into an enterprise-wide information system—that is, a system that focuses on the business processes of the organization as a whole.” (Simkin, Rose, Norman, 2012, p. 7) Real-time reporting is another impact of IT in the accounting profession. Accountants are now able to retrieve reports instantly with the help of the AIS. “With advances in IT that allow transactions to be captured immediately, accountants and even the AIS itself can produce financial statements almost in real-time.” (Simkin, Rose, Norman, 2012, p. 16) For example, the software Booker tracks financial transactions and generates a report as well as provides a dashboard. This allows for the organization to see how well or poorly it is doing in real-time. Accountant benefit from real-time reporting by being able to reduce the amount of time spent on reports. The majority of AIS automatically generate financial reports that the accountant can use. In the organization that I work for, these three new technologies have impacted the way we handle our accounting needs. We use cloud computing and the applications in the cloud to complete our accounting needs such as payroll and our taxes. Our information is stored in the cloud rather than stored in a file box like in the past. We also use an ERP system to track all of our data and share it amongst the necessary departments in the company. This saves a lot of time rather than waiting on a certain department to prepare its reports and send them over to you. Last, but not least, we utilize real-time reporting to keep an eye on transactions and to provide decision-making information to the necessary managers/owners. As the manager/bookkeeper of the company I work for, I pull real-time reports from our AIS to send over to the owner when she needs to know how well the company is doing at that particular moment. IT and new technological advancements have transformed the accounting profession and its processes. With the help of IT and new technologies accountants are able to retrieve, report, and remit data and information with efficiency and with little to no error. Cloud computing, ERP systems, and real-time reports are just a few of the new features that accountants have adapted to and utilized. Accounting is an ever-changing profession and with the help of new technologies accountants are able to complete their processes with ease.