• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a sweeping piece of financial legislation with implications for
auditors as it requires management to develop and assess internal control systems.
• The U.S. Patriot Act contains a number of provisions that directly affect AISs, including sections
that focus on money laundering, auditing, and conducting business with correspondent banks
abroad.
• Information technology affects virtually every aspect of accounting, including financial and
managerial accounting, auditing, and taxation.
• Financial accounting information is becoming increasingly relevant and important as advances in
IT allow for creation of new reporting systems.
• Managerial accounting is impacted by IT, specifically with development of activity-based costing
systems and corporate performance measures (CPM) based on the balanced scorecard.
• Auditors perform many types of assurance services, in addition to financial statement attestation.
• The availability of tax software and extensive tax databases influences both tax preparation and
tax planning.
• There are many reasons to study accounting information systems, and one of the most important is
the availability of many exciting career opportunities. These include traditional accounting careers
as well as jobs in consulting and information systems auditing and security.