The Internal Control of Computerized Accounting in Information Era

The Internal Control of Computerized Accounting in Information Era Tang Xiaoqin, Yan Chunlan, Kang Yanyu Chongqing Three Gorges University Wanzhou,Chongqing,China 404000 Abstract—In the present, computer and modern information technology were widely used in accounting. Therefore, a good surrounding of university's financial management was created by computerized accounting. Since 1980s, computerized accounting was developing so fast, It was used in over 90% of firm's financial management. This essay analysed the risks and problems appeared in Computerized Accounting, some advices were developed based on working experience, expect to offer little promotion to computerized accounting of China in information era. Keywords-Information Era; Computerized Accounting,; Internal Control As computer and modern information technology were widely used in accounting, accounting's working mode was gradual developing from manual mode to computerization. The changes what computerized accounting made were not only changed the dealing and storage ways of accounting information, but also impact the theory and application of it. Today, computerized accounting are applied successfully in various professions. 1. Features of Computerized Accounting Computerized accounting is defined as accounting work which used electronic digital computer and modern data processing technology. In computerized accounting, computer process substituted manual work in book-keeping, account, reimbursement and also the analysis, forecast and decision about accounting information, this kind of substitution aimed to promot the financial management and economical benefit and modernize the accounting work. After study, there are four major features comes out: 1)Data processing substitute the traditional manual work, meanwhile, computer is as a major working tool; 2) Magnetic media is the major storage of accounting data; 3)The centralized and automatized data processing way, it makes form making easier, data analysis more accurate and faster the inquiry; 4) Fast computing, massive storage, highly information sharing. The follow advantages were taken by the computerized accounting: a.The accounting software released accountants from manual accounting work, promoted working efficiency, also the quality of accounting information is improved. b.The functions (tranfer,check et c.) of accounting software reduced error rate as opposed to accuracy rising. c.A multitude of inter-disciplinary talents who master both computer and accounting were trained up, it made domestic computerized accounting work towards standardization, commercialization, generalization and specialization. d.Provided information construction experience to the firms, promoted the development of enterprise management software market. 2. The Risks Computerized Accounting Faces Computer and accounting software are the most important material basis of computerized accounting. But everything is not perfect, the defect of computer design takes some risks to the computerized accounting at the same time. The computer hardware ensures the processing of software and data, all the data store in the storage equipment which can access from computer. Any error of hardware system can impact the accounting work negatively, such as data lost and no recovery of data. The major factor influence the safety of hardware: The quality of machine components, hardware damage caused by human or natural disaster etc. Accounting software is the fundamental of computerized accounting, the accounting software choosing is the major problem in computerized accounting.The compatibility of software is so important, bad compatibility will make data sharing not so easy, it cause hard communication in the firm, influence the whole work negatively. Meanwhile virus prevalence, hacker attack, software bugs threaten the running of computer devices. Computerized accounting is a connection between human and computer compare to traditional accounting. In computerized accounting, account, cash, data storage, file transfer are digital files, it makes data be deleted and changed without clue possible. The database of accounting data connecting to Internet, it's possible for those people who are not authorized access the database and view the data, further copy, forge and delete important accounting data. So compare to traditional accounting, it will be harder to find cheating and forgery in computerized accounting, so the computer cheating and forgery will cause more financial lost. Otherwise, because of potential physic damage of storage medium, the data will lost at that time, so automatic backup of accounting data is so important, it can avoid potential data lost. 3. Problems in Computerized Accounting's Internal Control In the present, most of accounting data are processed by computer with network support. As the most important component of accounting information system, in computerized accounting working environment, the contribution was enhanced. The diversification is the trend of internal control, the control will be much stricter than before. The accounting information system of computerized accounting developing in upper degree, this kind of change bring the enterprises both financial benefit and challenge of the control itself. 1) Paperless cuts traditional internal control system Computerized accounting system changes the form of accounting vouchers, business processing methods and procedures of accounting and financing undergone great changes in the Computerized accounting system. In traditional manual accounting system, accounting voucher, bookkeeping voucher, detail account, general ledger and so on are recorded and kept by different accountants.Responsibilities are divided according to the nature of economic businesses, different people in charge, and form a network with internal mutual restraints and less fraudulent. Once problem arises, ascertain where the responsibility, at the same time any unauthorized person can not browse all the accounting data. As for the use of computers to conduct online transaction, paperless trading, when every transaction occurs, transaction information was input to computer by accountants and recorded automatically. Original vouchers, documents which are essential in past and use for checking and auditing were partly canceled, and lots of works done by computer automatically. Therefore, internal control contents of a computerized accounting system become more extensive, and technical requirements are higher.