1. E-ACCOUNTING & REPORTING: AN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) PERSPECTIVE OF CORPORATE REPORTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE By
Adejola Adebayo Paul, PhD., FCSA(USA), CNA, ACA, ACTI
Lecturer, Department of Accounting, Nasarawa State University, Keffi
Tel:

2. Outline Introduction E- Accounting & Accounting Soft wares
Peachtree Accounting
Web Based Accounting
Audit Soft wares
System Audit and Investigation
Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
We are in a world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), where virtually most activities are no longer done manually, instead electronically.
The enormous advantages ICT has accrued to the delivery of information and communication around the world, as well as the central role of ICT in the new global economy, means that ICT will shape the dynamics of the new millennium.
The role of and potential for ICTs in private and public sector accounting, auditing, investigation and reporting is enormous and cannot be over emphasized.
This is year As at date, over 7 billion people exist on earth; Nigeria coming 6th with an estimated population of 169million.

4. The information technology (computer) is a fast developing one that keeps changing every now and then. It has touched every profession; thus changing our way of doing things in an organization and society as a whole.
Of particular importance is the electronic accounting aspect which has brought about speedy, timely and efficient information processing which is very significant for day to day accounting and reporting as well as decision making.
With the ongoing waves in digital and information revolution, it is not a fallacy to assert that “becoming an accountant on a technology platform is a sure way for accountants to secure their careers in the Digital age”.

5. E- ACCOUNTING & ACCOUNTING SOFT WARES
E-accounting simply means using electronic processing computer based systems to:
Acquire financial data
Processing
Storage
Planning and forecasting
Coordination and cost control
Dissemination of vocal, textual, pictorial and numerical information for timely decision making.

6. Presently, the following accounting soft-wares are
available in Nigeria to solve accounting and financial
problems:
Peachtree Accounting
Quick books
Dac Easy for window
Ms-Money (Financial management Software)
Spec – pay (personnel mgt software)
Eagle tracks for inventory management
MYOB Accounting
Sages accounting software
Budgetmatic software for budgeting and budgetary control
Sun system software
Tally accounting

7. Benefits of Using E-accounting in an Organization
The following are the benefits of appropriate usage and
application of electronic accounting in an organization. You
are able to:
Get quicker information on financial position of the organization by just pressing/touching a button.
Ascertain with accuracy the revenue generated in an organization on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc within a second.
Provide detailed expenditure information to aid the management in cost control and facilitate decision-making.
Budget and forecast e.g. annual budget etc.
Reduce clerical and administrative overheads.
Project monitoring and variance analysis.
Prevent frauds.
Get timely report and financial statement after every transaction.

8. PEACHTREE ACCOUNTING
This software comes in different flavors depending on the number of users. Peachtree Pro, Peachtree Complete, Peachtree Premium and Peachtree Quantum.
Most organization prefers Peachtree accounting to any
Other accounting Package(s) as a result of its:
Cost Effectiveness
Comprehensiveness
Reliability
Flexibility
Portability
Storage capability
Timing
Peripherals
Documentation

9. Basic Steps in Using Peachtree Accounting
1. SET UP A NEW COMPANY
TIPS/PROCEDURES:
Click Start button
Click on program, select and click Peachtree Accounting
Note: Peachtree Window dialog box will display
Click on set up a new company
Peachtree new company set up wizard/dialog appears. Click next
Type the Company information e.g. Company Names, Addresses, City, State etc. Click Next
Select a chart of Account e.g. set up a new company on using Samples, Copy Chart from existing Peachtree Accounting Company, etc.

10. Click next and select chart of accounts as related to your business line
Select accounting method e.g. Accrual or cash and Click next
Select posting method e.g. Real Time or Batch and Click Next
Select Accounting period and click next
Select the monthly accounting periods e.g. Jan- Dec The first month of Data entry e.g. Jan. 2011, first year of entering payroll select and click next.
Click finish.

11. 2. WORKING WITH CHART OF ACCOUNTS
TIPS/PROCEDURES:
Set Up a New Chart of Accounts
Click on "MAINTAIN MENU"
Click on Chart of Accounts
A dialog box will appear:
Type Account ID Number
Type the Accounts description
Select account type e.g. Cash, Income, and Expenses etc.
Click save

12. WEB-BASED ACCOUNTING
A web-based accounting package is a complete accounting system that resides on a web server. Anybody in the world can access that accounting system with a simple browser to set up and run their own company. Instead of paying large sums of money up front for hardware and software, the user pays a smaller monthly rental fee.
Web based accounting is the next evolution accounting. It is an attempt to take accounting to the next level- level of paperless processing of financial transactions and presentation of financial statements; level of generating financial reports online without buying or owning hardware and software .

13. Benefits of Web-Based Accounting
You Only Need a Browser
Lower Up-Front Costs for Software
Lower Up-Front Costs for Hardware
Lower Administration Costs
Shorter Implementation Time Frame
Lower Costs for Multiple Locations
Work from Home
High-End Databases
No More Backup Worries
Up-to-date Application Code

14. Categories of Web-based Accounting
Web based accounting is of two major categories:
1. Entry level for small business
This software addresses the accounting functions of small business organizations. Examples of these soft-wares include:
Merchant mirror accounting
Xero online accounting
Liberty accounting
Cashbus accounting
Saasu accounting
Crunch accounting
Nolapro accounting
Arithmo accounting

15. 2. Enterprise Resource Planning Soft- wares (ERPS)
This software is also referred to as Cloud computing. It addresses the accounting functions, human resources management functions, warehousing functions and reporting functions of small and big business organizations. It simplifies accounting functions and has global coverage.
Examples of these soft-wares include:
Net suite
Acumatical
Navision

16. Key Requirements in Using Web- Based
Accounting
Connectivity to the internet.
Awareness of the website address you are accessing.
Payment of subscription.
Existence of a valid account.
Registration online.

17. AUDIT SOFTWARES
In today’s modern and computerized world, even small companies have huge numbers of financial transactions going through the books. It is the responsibility of an (external) auditor, to analyze these transactions and ultimately form an opinion as to whether the accounts show a true and fair view of the company’s position. But with this huge number of transactions, it’s impossible to analyze everything manually, so what is the alternative? The answer is what is known as “generalized audit software”.
Generalized audit software packages are tools designed
specifically for auditors and have two main functions:
1) To facilitate and automate the testing of 100% of a population.
2) To focus the auditors attention on specific areas or transactions which are of higher risk.

18. Types of Audit soft-wares
Specialized CAAT (Computer Aided Audit Techniques) tools such as ACL (Audit Control Language) and IDEA (Interactive Data Extraction and Analysis) include libraries of prewritten queries to ask typically meaningful questions on data sets. 
Other utilities such as Wiz Rule help explore complex data sets and applications. Excel 2007 allows analysis of over 1,000,000 records. ACL and IDEA are also faster at analyzing data than Excel, Active Data or Top CAATs, although none of the products were particularly slow.
CAATs are wonderful for asking bizarre audit questions that ordinary system users, managers, analysts and developers have probably never even considered, some of which can lead to the identification of frauds or (conversely) confirmation that control weaknesses have not been exploited.

19. Application Areas and Features of Audit soft-wares
Aging
Produces aged summaries of data based on established cutoff dates.
Append/Merge
They are used in combining two files with identical fields into a single file. An example would be to merge two years worth of accounts payable history into one file.
Calculated Field/Functions
Audit soft-wares are applied in creating calculated fields by using data within the file. For example, the net payroll pay to an employee could be recalculated using the gross pay field and deducting any withholding/taxes.

20. Digital Analysis
Audit technology designed to find abnormal duplications of specific digits, digit combinations, specific numbers, and round numbers in corporate data.
Duplicates
Audit software identifies duplicate items within a specified field in a file.
Extract/Filter
Extracts specified items from one file and copies them to another file, normally using an “if” or “where” statement.
Gaps
Audit software identifies gaps within a specified field in a file. For example, identify any gaps in cheque sequence.

21. Cross Tabulate
Allows you to analyze character fields; by setting them in rows and columns. By cross‐tabulating character fields, you can produce various summaries, explore areas of interest, and accumulate numeric fields.
Index/Sort
Audit software sorts files in ascending or descending order. An example would be sorting a file by codes to see if any blank or “strange” codes exist.
Samples
Audit software creates random or monetary unit samples from a specified population.
Test grouping
These are groups of tests all designed to be run simultaneously on a specific report or area of the accounts, e.g. Journals, listings, trade receivables, fixed assets, etc.
Highlight differences
These audit software highlights the differences between two different versions of a report.

22. SYSTEM AUDIT AND INVESTIGATION
System auditing is a branch of general auditing concerned with governance (control) of information and communications technologies (computers). System audit is also referred to as IT audit or Computer audit. IT auditors primarily study computer systems and networks from the point of view of examining the effectiveness of their technical and procedural controls to minimize risks. 
Auditors spend the bulk of their time dealing with the people who specify, develop, test, manage, administer, use and abuse the computer systems but it’s being able competently to audit the information technology that makes an outstanding and versatile auditor.

23. What do system auditors actually do?
IT auditors review risks relating to IT systems and
processes including:
Inadequate information security (e.g. missing or out of date antivirus controls)
Inefficient use of corporate resources, or poor governance (e.g. spending large on unnecessary IT projects)
Ineffective IT strategies, policies and practices (including a lack of policies etc.)
IT-related frauds

24. How is a system Audit Performed?
The main stages of a ‘typical’ IT audit assignment have been
extensively analyzed as follows:
Scoping and pre-audit survey
The auditors determine the main area/s of focus and any areas that are explicitly out-of-scope, based normally on some form of risk-based assessment.
Planning and preparation
The scope is broken down into greater levels of detail, usually involving the generation of an audit work-plan or risk-control- matrix.
Fieldwork
Gathering evidence by interviewing staff and managers, reviewing documents, printouts and data, observing processes in action etc.

25. Analysis
Involves desperately sorting out, reviewing and trying to make sense of all that evidence gathered earlier.  SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Treats) or PEST (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological) techniques may come in handy.
Reporting
Involves desperately reviewing and trying to make sense of the evidence and the analysis, figuring out how to relate what was actually examined and found back to the original audit objectives, then gradually writing it all up, re-writing it, re-re-writing it ... circulating it within the department for peer review, modifying it again, then circulating or presenting it to clients and client managers to have their say, making final corrections, and finally issuing it.
Closure
In addition to sorting out the mess somewhat mistakenly called ‘indexing and cross-referencing’ and literally shutting the audit files, closure involves preparing notes for future audits, chasing-up management to complete the actions they promised months earlier.

26. System Investigation
Investigation is enquiries made, by a professional, into the financial and non financial affairs of an organization on behalf of his client, for specifically agreed purpose other than to report on the truth and fairness of the organization's financial information.
System investigation is the examination of the system(s) of an organization for a specified purpose.

27. CONCLUSION / FINAL CHARGE
The world is undergoing revolution in information and communication technology (ICT), which is righty referred to as the digital revolution….
The ongoing revolution in the area of information and communication technology will continuously present huge opportunities to internationally recognized scholars and professionals. The losers will be nations, professional and scholars who fails to meet the challenges of ICT.
By privilege, a member of this Association (ANAN) is the only Nigerian that made it into the Council of Association of Chartered System Accountants in the United States of America. This is by virtue of his standing with this Association and research in Accounting Information Technology

28. In 1998, I passed through the Nigerian College of Accountancy in Jos and eventually became a Certified National Accountant. When I accepted the offer to lecture at Nasarawa State University, the Acting HOD then was a member of ICAN……
Readers are Leaders. It is your ability to know ahead, see ahead and go ahead that make you the Head (a Leader with a difference). Get copies of the materials on Electronic Accounting & Reporting, IFRS and IPSAS , go through them and what “other Professionals” are following after will follow after you.

29. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING