FIGURE 1-1 Accounting information systems exists at the intersection of two important disciplines:
(1) accounting and (2) information systems.
an AIS by its size; it is better to define it by what it does. This latter approach leads us to
the following definition that we will use as a model in this book:
Definition: An accounting information system is a collection of data and processing
procedures that creates needed information for its users.
Let us examine in greater detail what this definition really means. For our discussion,
we’ll examine each of the words in the term ‘‘accounting information systems’’ separately