10
Referring
to
Romney
and
Steinbart
(2006,
p.
782),
an
information
system
is
an
organized way of collecting, processing, managing, and reporting information so
that
an
organization
can
achieve
its
objectives
and
goals.
It can
as
well
be
described
as
interrelated components
working together to collect, process, store,
and
disseminate
information to
support
decision-making,
coordination,
control,
analysis,
and visualization
in
an
organization
(Laudon
&
Laudon
2004,
p.
8).
These
descriptions
of
information
system
are
derived
from
the
combination
of
the
terms
information
and system,
which
possess
their
concepts
and
characteristics.
As a result of the preceding descriptions of accounting, information, and system,
an AIS can be defined as a unified structure within an entity, such as a business
firm,
that employs physical
resources
and other
components to
transform
economic
data into accounting
information,
with the purpose of
satisfying the
information
needs of a variety of
users
(Wilkinson et al. 2000, p. 7).
Moreover,
based on Romney and Steinbart (2006, p. 6), it is a system that collects, records,
stores, and processes data to produce information for decision makers. An AIS is
also
simply
known
as
a
system of
records
a
business
keeps
to
maintain
its
accounting system, which includes
the purchase, sales, and other
financial
processes
of
the business
(Wikipedia
n.d.).
Therefore,
the concepts
of AIS that
could be obtained from its definitions are that it is an integrated system within an
organization,
which
transform economic
data
into
accounting
information
and
maintain the accounting system in
order to
represent the
requisite
information to
a range of users.
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