JOURNAL OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN ACCOUNTING American Accounting Association

Vol. 13, No. 1 DOI: 10.2308/jeta-51396

Spring 2016
pp. 161–169

A Model to Update Accounting Curricula for Emerging

Technologies
Joshua G. Coyne
The University of Memphis

Emily M. Coyne
San Jose State University

Kenton B. Walker
The University of Memphis
ABSTRACT: The prevailing model for accounting information systems (AIS) courses is decades old and needs to be
modernized for cutting-edge technologies and demands for information services. New graduates in accounting
require new perspectives and training to enter what is becoming an important subdiscipline in accounting that
prepares accountants to serve effectively as data analysts, IT auditors, and participants in systems development.
One hurdle preventing the adoption of these roles is a disconnect between AIS education and AIS practice. This
article identifies relevant professional competencies and proposes some corresponding actions by the academy to
combine accounting, management information systems, and computer technology.
Keywords: accounting information systems; information life cycle; technology; accounting education.

JEL Classifications: M4; L8.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

I
n this paper, we contrast the prevailing AIS education model—in place for at least two decades—with a model
that addresses changes in the technological landscape, and we make recommendations to modernize AIS
curricula. We propose a broader view of information systems as applied to accountants, overlapping into the
traditional domain of management information systems and to a lesser extent into computer science. We focus on
information creation and maintenance, data analysis, and IT infrastructure. These curriculum revisions respond to a
call by employers for accountants to increase their understanding of current technologies and data analytics (Deloitte
2013; AACSB 2014; PwC 2015). Accountants with IT and data analytics expertise occupy a unique position to guide
corporate strategy by creating a link between business activities and the IT functions that support those activities.
Revisions to the existing curriculum to address these skills can prepare accountants to work as systems designers, data
analysts, and IT auditors.
The accounting information systems landscape has changed dramatically over the past several decades. Since the advent
of computerized information systems in the 1960s, up until about 1990 was an era of stand-alone, functional systems where
many companies hired their own programmers to write applications (Management Accounting 1998). The period of 1990 to
2010 was a time of commercialized, functionally integrated, standardized systems relying on relational database technology
(Shah 2014). Most recently, systems are increasingly cloud-based and some organizations are once again developing their

We thank Mike Drake, Pete McMickle, Andrew Pierce, Marcos Prieto, David Spiceland, Kay Stice, Lorien Stice-Lawrence, David Wood, three
anonymous reviewers, and especially Hui Du (associate editor) and Miklos A. Vasarhelyi (editor). We also appreciate comments and suggestions from
participants at the 2015 BYU Accounting Research Symposium.
Editor’s note: Accepted by Miklos A. Vasarhelyi.
Submitted: September 2015
Accepted: January 2016
Published Online: January 2016
161
162 Coyne, Coyne, and Walker

applications in house but relying on the availability of open source products to provide solutions tailored to their specific
needs (Eidam 2015).1
During the previous 30 years, limited attention was paid in the academic literature to how AIS curricula paralleled practice.
Wu (1983) attempted to review relevant accounting literature and conducted a survey to evaluate teaching accounting
information systems (AIS). Five years later, Heagy and McMickle (1988) identified and quantified differences between the
views of academics and practitioners concerning what was/should be covered in AIS. These studies are nearly 30 years old, and
the drastically changed landscape of information technology results in the need to update their findings (Spraakman, O’Grady,
Askarany, and Akroyd 2015). We rely on statements from the business press and accounting employers to form our
recommendations for redesigning the existing model of AIS content and coursework.
Some of these recommendations are not new. Dillon and Kruck (2008) use a 2005 survey that asks employers to rank 56
desired accounting and IT competencies. The most desired skills are financial accounting and auditing, but of the IT skills,
among the most desired are knowledge of network security, database design and implementation, transaction analysis and
controls, and e-commerce. Even in a survey that ranks accounting knowledge relative to IT skills, knowledge of Unix-based
operating systems is in the top ten. This paper is an addition to the findings in that survey for three reasons. First, in the last ten
years changes in technology have been so extreme as to necessitate a reinvestigation of relevant competencies. Second, their
survey asked employers to rank prescribed competencies, whereas we look to business professionals to identify their own
preferences. Third, as Spraakman et al. (2015) observe in their review of employer surveys since 1975, a lag exists between the
profession and the AIS curriculum and, as a result, the curriculum has not yet changed to reflect the demands identified ten
years ago. This paper not only aims to provide new insights, but also to reinforce the skills identified in the past that continue to
be important.
Business executives have begun to call for added collaboration between IT staff and their ‘‘business partners’’ (Zetlin
2015a). Without an understanding of the components of an information system, accountants cannot communicate with IT staff,
and without communication, they cannot collaborate. Because of specialized and extensive business knowledge, accountants
with increased IT knowledge will be valuable collaborative business partners.
This paper proceeds as follows. In the next section, we discuss the existing AIS model and its implementation in current
curricula. In the third section, we highlight relevant competencies. In the fourth section, we suggest curriculum modifications.
Conclusions appear in the fifth section.

MODEL DISCUSSION
Figure 1 displays a symbolic AIS instruction model prevalent in current AIS textbooks.2 This model includes three
processes—data collection, data processing, and information reporting—and one object—data storage.3 Data collection is the
receipt of external sources of data. Data processing updates data storage with newly collected data and uses the data in storage
to calculate statistics. Information reporting presents statistics in a format that is accessible to decision makers. Data storage
represents accounting journals and ledgers.
Current curricula use the existing AIS model to teach the process by which business cycles generate general ledger
information. These cycles, the revenue cycle, expenditure cycle, and conversion cycle, are the main focus of AIS textbooks. A
primary reason for teaching cycles is that wide-spread ERP adoption encouraged adoption of uniform business processes across
firms (Scheer and Habermann 2000; Jacobs and Weston 2007). In their explanation of business cycles, textbooks also introduce
process diagrams, fraud, and internal controls. Internal controls such as segregation of duties, authorization, independent
verification, and access control safeguard business cycles primarily to prevent asset misappropriation, collusion, and fraudulent

1
Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM’s mainframe division, stated, ‘‘It is clear that in IT infrastructure, the era of one-size fits all companies or solutions
is over’’ (Clark 2015). Steven Hazel, co-founder of Sauce Labs, observed, ‘‘[E]very business to some extent is becoming a software company. Financial
institutions, brick and mortar retail companies, all of these and those in between kinds of companies are developing’’ (Zetlin 2015b). This statement is in
response to an observation by Marc Andreessen (2011), one of the fathers of the World Wide Web, that in every industry, companies that had begun to
develop software outperformed their peers that were unwilling to adapt to the need for in-house development. These statements are consistent with
private communication from employees at Fidelity Investments. The popularity of open source software in firms’ IT systems is also evidence of this
trend. Seventy-six percent of systems administrators prefer to use open source software (Vaughan-Nichols 2015). A primary reason for this preference is
the ability for in-house customization (Asay 2014; Wallen 2015).
2
Our observations regarding the state of the AIS curriculum rely on the assumption that AIS courses generally teach the content in two popular AIS
textbooks: Hall (2015) and Romney and Steinbart (2015).
3
Hall (2015, 9, Figure 1-4) includes this graphic. He uses ‘‘information generation’’ instead of ‘‘information reporting’’ and ‘‘database management’’
instead of ‘‘data storage.’’ Romney and Steinbart (2015, 26, Figure 2-1) include this graphic. They use ‘‘data input’’ instead of ‘‘data collection’’ and
‘‘information output’’ instead of ‘‘information reporting.’’ Additionally, Richardson, Chang, and Smith (2014, 5, Figure 1.1) include this graphic. They
use simple labels throughout: input, processing, output, and storage.

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A Model to Update Accounting Curricula for Emerging Technologies 163

FIGURE 1
Model of the Components of an Information System According to Existing AIS Curricula

and erroneous financial reporting. Additionally, to explain digital data storage, textbooks discuss Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP), Entity-Relationship (E-R), and Resource-Entity-Agent (REA) diagrams, and the relational database model.
The steps in the model in Figure 1 differ from those in the information life cycle (i.e., the process by which data become
usable information) as understood by information scientists. Because of the complexities of managing digital materials in their
many forms, information scientists perceive a more extensive life cycle comprising needs assessment, data acquisition,
classification, conversion, data entry, storage, organization, indexing, rights management, refreshing, interpretation,
disposition, searching, data analytics, and reporting (Dederer and Dmytrenko 2015). Despite the inclusion of some steps of
the information life cycle in the current model, most AIS courses do not teach principles of the information life cycle, but rather
focus on the general ledger system that comprises business cycles and accounting records.
Additionally, despite information technology being an integral part of an accounting information system, AIS curricula
include little to no exposure to technologies.4 Despite this lack of content on information technology, AIS textbooks include
multiple chapters on systems development. Just as other accounting courses combine principles with practice, AIS curricula
cannot prepare students to work with or develop information systems without providing these students with the knowledge
of practical tools. Accounting employers have recognized this point and begun to demand additional ‘‘technical foundations
in data analytics and related skills’’ (PwC 2015). This demand is consistent with the AACSB (2014) International
Accounting Accreditation Standard A7, which directs accounting programs to ‘‘develop skills and knowledge relating to the
integration of information technology in accounting and business. Included in these learning experiences is the development
of skills and knowledge related to data creation, data sharing, data analytics, data mining, data reporting, and storage within
and across organizations.’’ Technology skills are necessary to cope with the recent upsurge in data creation (i.e., Big Data)
and the high-frequency transactions endemic to the Internet era (Vasarhelyi, Kogan, and Tuttle 2015). However, AIS
textbooks have yet to recognize the Big Data phenomenon and the attendant necessity to teach a variety of data- and
technology-related skills.
System controls are also paramount. Although the current AIS model includes no reference to controls, treatment of
internal controls with respect to business cycles in the curriculum is extensive. However, a recent survey indicates that
information security and data integrity are the primary focus of firms’ controls, whereas fraud, asset misappropriation, and
business processes are only of secondary or tertiary significance (E&Y 2013). That being said, AIS textbooks and courses also
focus heavily on information security in multiple forms: access controls, processing controls, redundancy, etc.
To summarize our view of the current state of AIS education, AIS courses explain business processes to give students an
applied setting to see a general ledger in action, and internal controls to help students understand the importance of protecting
these processes. The curriculum does not teach the information life cycle so that students can learn what an information system
should do, nor does it teach information technology sufficient for students to learn how an information system works.
Additionally, without an understanding of information technology, students cannot fully understand how to implement,
evaluate, and monitor vital system controls. Table 1 provides a synopsis of the current curriculum using the topics from two
AIS textbooks: Hall (2015) and Romney and Steinbart (2015).

4
Accounting research is also lacking in its discussion of information technologies. For example, Muehlman, Chiu, and Liu (2015) state that data storage
‘‘is at the heart of information systems but rarely an accounting-oriented research topic.’’

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TABLE 1
Synopsis of Current AIS Curriculum
Romney and Steinbart
Hall (2015) 9th Edition (2015) 13th Edition
Business cycles Chapters 2, 4–8 Chapters 12–16
E-R diagrams Chapter 9 —
ERP Chapter 11 Chapter 2
IT controls Chapters 3, 15–17 Chapters 5–6, 8–10
Process diagrams Chapter 2 Chapter 3
REA diagrams Chapter 10 Chapters 17–19
Relational database model Chapter 9 Chapter 4
Systems development Chapters 13–14 Chapters 20–22

CORE COMPETENCIES
A revision and upgrade of current AIS curricula is needed to provide accountants with knowledge concerning key elements
of an information system (versus the general ledger) and their relationships, and deliver the skills to meet employers’ current
expectations. The AIS curriculum should prepare students to guide and collaborate with IT staff on systems design,
maintenance, and audit.
Table 2 presents a model of an accounting information system that highlights necessary competencies to manage such a
system today. Some of these competencies are already part of AIS curricula. However, those not present are essential additions
and, as evidenced by Dillon and Kruck (2008), their adoption in some cases is long overdue.
The four categories in Table 2 comprise the four main components of any information system: the driver of (or reason for)
the system, what the system does (function), what the system is (in a ‘‘physical’’ sense), and how the system is protected.
Current AIS curricula and accounting curricula, in general, tend to already address two of these four categories: the drivers of
the system and how the system is protected.
The drivers of an accounting information system create the foundation of an information system by identifying the
system’s objectives: to measure and report on economic activities. The business model determines which activities to
measure and report on. This goes beyond the general ledger to include any data that internal and external decision makers
can use to evaluate business strategy. Business cycles have been a primary focus of AIS curricula. However, instead of
using business cycles as examples to demonstrate an information system in an applied setting, AIS courses concentrate on
teaching uniformity in business processes and process controls. Managers should view business processes as a system (ISO
9001), but that is not an assertion that the business processes are the information system (International Standards
Organization 2015). The information system supports, measures, and reports on the business processes. On the other hand,
because AIS courses teach business processes, they also teach process diagramming. Because diagrams are a useful tool for
communicating processes and understanding the informational needs of these processes, this remains an important skill for
AIS.
The other category already covered in AIS courses is how the system is protected. Because of the strong connection
between audit and AIS curricula, especially since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, AIS courses place considerable importance
on internal controls. The AICPA (2014) Trust Services Framework is evidence that accountants understand the importance of
system controls. However, modifications to the current AIS treatment of controls are necessary for two reasons. First, a recent
survey identifies information security and data integrity as primary goals of controls, but the current curriculum seems to focus
primarily on asset misappropriation, which according to this same survey is of lesser importance (E&Y 2013). Second, because
of a surge in high-profile attacks on corporate information systems, the AICPA has resolved to create new standards relating to
the Trust Services Framework and cybersecurity (AICPA 2015). Just as technological innovation has necessitated changes in
accounting education, changes in threats to technology require an up-to-date perspective of security protocols to prevent, detect,
and correct unauthorized access, data loss and corruption, and system downtime.
The remaining two categories from Table 2 are not currently part of AIS curricula. The first addresses what an information
system does. This is the field of information systems or information science and comprises the steps of the information life
cycle. The information life cycle is the process by which data become information (Forrester Consulting 2011). An increased
focus on data, specifically Big Data, is one of the motivators for the demand for new IT skills among accountants (PwC 2015).

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TABLE 2
Properties of an Accounting Information System
Drivers:
Compliance Adherence to regulations and private contracts: Dictates which data can and should be collected, which
information to generate, and the minimum level of controls.
Business model Conformity with business activities and rules: Stipulates the economic events that the information system
should report on and the informational needs of internal decision makers.
Function:
Information life cycle Conversion of data into information: Addresses the creation and classification of data, the storage and
organization of data, and the conversion of data into information.
Physical Features:
Hardware Physical components of the information system: Involves the selection of server building blocks, network
equipment, and end-user clients.
Software Operationalization of the information system: Includes operating systems, end-user applications, and in-house-
developed customizations.
Storage Data stores: Comprises relational and non-relational databases and physical and logical file systems.
Services Cloud computing: Encompasses hosted services (e.g., mail, web) and private and public clouds with
centralized data stores.
Protections:
Access controls Prevention of unauthorized use: Incorporates role-based permissions, authentication, hardening, and encryption
to satisfy licensing and confidentiality agreements.
Error prevention Checks to prevent errors in data entry and processing: Controls end-user tools to avoid user error and data
stores to ensure accurate data analysis.
Loss prevention Redundancies to prevent system downtime and data loss: Avoids single point of failure with storage backups,
server clusters, and secondary data sites.
Detection Tracking exceptions that escape prevention: Relies heavily on logs to identify unauthorized access, system
errors, and downtime.
Correction Repairing exceptions: Uses established procedures to address detected issues by restoring backups, patching
software, replacing hardware, and updating access controls.

Big Data is the enormous mass of structured and unstructured data that the world generates at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes per
day (Wall 2014). Because correct analysis of these data gives insights into customer behavior and requisite changes to
corporate strategy, data analytics is a current topic (AACSB 2014; PwC 2015). Big Data is not the only driver of the demand
for data analytics. Accounting firms have already begun to replace sampling procedures with the evaluation of population data
when performing internal and external audits, and the same skills for analyzing Big Data apply to these and other settings as
well (Singleton 2013).
This desire for data analytics makes an understanding of the information life cycle valuable for two reasons. First, good
data analysts understand data (Morris 2012). Providing analytical tools will not magically create a data analyst. Analysts must
understand what the data mean in order to find answers. Second, analysts cannot evaluate data that no one has collected. An
understanding of data helps to identify important data to collect. Although the constantly decreasing cost of storage seems to
imply that the best choice would be to collect as much as possible, optimal data analytics relies on the collection of only
important data (Ransbotham 2014).
The final category covers what an information system is. This category comprises the technologies of the information
system. The information life cycle explains how data become information, and technologies are used to accomplish this
activity. Table 2 divides this category into four groups: hardware, software, storage, and services. These are not discrete
topics—storage has both hardware and software components and services is the implementation of the first three categories in a
cloud environment—but each represents a necessary component of an information system. Current AIS curricula teach few
technologies, and this is not sufficient for an accountant to understand systems design, maintenance, and audit. An information
system may have server and client elements, operating systems, networking, databases, hosted software, hardware

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virtualization, etc. Any accountant who wishes to participate in the administration of an information system must be familiar
with these tools.

CURRICULUM REVISIONS
The preceding section identified core competencies that would aid accountants in understanding information systems. In
this section, we propose revisions to the current curriculum to focus on these core competencies. The goal of these revisions is
not to train accountants to replace IT specialists, but rather to provide accountants with sufficient understanding of information
and technology to be able to actively participate in IT and IT audit roles. The primary goal of these recommendations is to
change the existing AIS course, but we include recommendations for other aspects of the accounting curriculum as well.
The AIS course should focus on the second, third, and fourth categories from Table 2: what an information system does,
what an information system is, and how an information system is protected. This is a fundamental change from the existing AIS
curricula. In teaching what an information system does, the AIS course should explain the steps of the information life cycle so
that accountants can gain an information specialist’s understanding of data. This section of the course would teach students the
principles of an information system so that they will understand the roles of technology in the second section.
With respect to what the information is, the course should introduce students to many technologies. Clearly, one course is
not sufficient to train the students in each tool, nor should the role of accountants be to become expert in all of these
technologies. Instead, the intent is to raise awareness and provide understanding of these tools. Also, practical experience is
superior to lecturing, and students will benefit from hands-on training with these technologies.
Of the groups of technologies listed in Table 2 (i.e., hardware, software, storage, and services), hardware requires the least
focus. Hardware tends to be similar across information systems, and hardware is only the vessel that facilitates the function of
the information system.
Software, on the other hand, is the bulk of the system, and the customizations that are unique to a particular information
system are manifest in the software. The basis of software is the operating system, and the revised curriculum should introduce
students to prominent enterprise-grade operating systems. Data analysis and reporting are goals of the information system and,
consistent with current employer demands, the curriculum should expose students to popular analytical and visualization tools
(PwC 2015). Finally, the majority of corporate information systems rely on open source software (Vaughan-Nichols 2015).
Because of the immense role that open source software plays, the curriculum should introduce students to open source and the
reasons why it has become popular.
Current AIS courses already discuss relational database storage models, but they provide little or no experience with relational
databases. With respect to database modeling, the curriculum should discontinue its use of the Resource-Entity-Agent (REA)
diagram for two reasons. First, the goal of a diagram is to promote communication, and information technology professionals are
much more familiar with Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagrams than REA diagrams. Second, the REA model is not a conceptual
view of a database and requires an E-R diagram as an intermediate step to transition from the REA model to database schema. The
REA model is a static representation of a business transaction similar to a flowchart or a data-flow diagram. As such, it may be a
useful tool for visualizing business transactions, but flowcharts and data-flow diagrams are more widely accepted alternatives for
this. Because the REA model cannot represent databases or transactions better than the accepted tools, the decision to redirect the
curriculum away from it toward alternative topics would be more pedagogically efficient.
With respect to database implementation, the curriculum should provide students experience with enterprise-grade
relational databases, as well as the recently popularized non-relational (i.e., NoSQL) database model. In connection with this
experience, AIS courses should also teach SQL. Although some newer storage solutions have moved away from this query
language, it continues to be valuable for all relational databases.
AIS courses should address other aspects of data storage as well. Database systems are pervasive, but operating systems
rely on file systems, and some knowledge of these is also useful.
Once students understand these first three categories, understanding services should be straightforward because it involves
using hardware, software, and storage in a cloud-computing environment. In order to teach cloud computing, AIS courses
should explain cloud service levels and data warehousing and provide students experience with virtualization. The current
reliance on cloud computing in the industry makes a discussion of this topic particularly important.5
With respect to how systems are protected, the curriculum should focus on data integrity and information security. The
AICPA Trust Services Framework is a good starting point, but cybersecurity is changing rapidly, and accountants should be
familiar with current threats and current best practices.

5
As the CEO of Salesforce observed, ‘‘There is no doubt, we are at a tipping point in cloud platforms. And companies who have been cloud deniers like
SAP and Oracle are paying a horrible price in single-digit and negative growth, because companies are not buying their products, because they are not
modern, and they are not built in this kind of modern architecture’’ (Davis 2015).

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Because of the rapidly changing landscape of technology and information systems, a traditional textbook may not be the
best foundation for this course. Instead, news articles and trade publications can educate individuals regarding new
technologies, adoption trends, the principles of the information life cycle, and system controls.
Combined, these topics in their entirety are too much for one course.6 Furthermore, the level of knowledge and practical
experience necessary for all accounting students differs from the level necessary for those students who wish to specialize in the
data analytics and IT subdiscipline of the accounting profession. Familiarity with each core competency listed in the previous
section (i.e., breadth) is valuable to all accounting students. As a result, revisions to the existing AIS undergraduate course that
encompass the entire set of core competencies are desirable. Additional coverage of and practical experience with each topic
(i.e., depth) is the key to advanced training for a specialization in this field.
Some universities already offer master’s tracks or emphases in data analytics (e.g., Villanova University, The University of
Texas at Dallas, and The University of Memphis) or IT audit (e.g., Temple University and University of Colorado Denver).
Although these two emphases have different names, the majority of the curriculum can address both of these, as well as other
not yet implemented emphases in systems design and maintenance, simultaneously. Advanced courses in financial accounting,
management accounting, audit, and tax provide students with necessary accounting knowledge. Advanced data management,
business intelligence, data analytics, advanced system controls, and systems design methodologies and tools endow master’s
students with significant knowledge relevant to systems design, systems audit, and data analytics (PwC 2015).
Many systems-related topics would be valuable, but because of the 150-credit-hour requirement for CPA licensure in many
states, an upper bound exists to the number of courses an accounting degree can require. By removing lengthy discussions of
business cycles and REA diagrams and by postponing discussion of systems development until the master’s level, a revised
undergraduate AIS course would be able to introduce several of the topics listed in Table 2, but in order to provide sufficient
depth, subsequent courses are necessary. If each of the courses listed above—one graduate-level course in financial accounting,
management accounting, audit, and tax plus advanced data management, business intelligence, data analytics, advanced system
controls, and systems design—were three credit hours, then the total number of credit hours for such a master’s degree would
be 27 credit hours. That number is sufficiently small to accommodate all proposed changes. Students will not need to take more
courses; they will simply need to take different courses.
This proposal provides an overview of the courses relevant to prepare a student to become an accounting information
technology specialist. Table 3 displays a list of all current and proposed topics and highlights the curriculum changes. Because
of the dynamic nature of information technology, the list of relevant topics and skills will certainly change in the future, and the
curriculum should be flexible enough to accommodate future demands.
The preceding recommendations solely address upper-level and graduate courses. However, one additional possibility
would be to allow this new view of accounting information systems to change the entire accounting education. Currently,
introductory accounting courses teach financial accounting regulations and managerial accounting formulae without first
providing a perspective of the information system as a whole. If, prior to teaching any regulations, the curriculum introduced
the accounting information system as the initial accounting course, students might gain a new perspective of their roles as
information custodians. This could aid them in understanding the importance of accounting standards when these are
introduced in subsequent courses.
Another option would be to allow the AIS course to replace the MIS course often required of all business majors. Our
recommended revisions provide a view of business technology that does not require a functional background; International
Accounting Accreditation Standard A7 (AACSB 2014) applies to all business disciplines. This introduction would not include
the depth or the practical experience of the upper-level course presented earlier, but rather would briefly survey relevant
constructs, discuss sample business processes to demonstrate how the information system might work in practice, and present a
roadmap of accounting courses and their relation to the model. This course would give students a better understanding of the
accounting curriculum and may increase interest in the accounting profession.

CONCLUSION
Employers increasingly demand new skills in IT audit, systems design, and data analytics. The current AIS model and
most accounting curricula have focused on business processes since the inception of ERP, and a modification of the curriculum
is necessary to train accountants in these new areas. The revisions we propose direct attention away from business cycles and
toward the information life cycle, information technology, and information security. This new direction gives a unifying
perspective of accounting that can help students better understand information, the information system, and how accounting

6
International Accounting Accreditation Standard A7 (AACSB 2014) does not apply exclusively to AIS courses; other accounting courses should seek
opportunities to incorporate current technologies. For example, firm employees are a major consumer of information derived from data analytics, and
management accounting courses should begin to teach analytical tools and practices.

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TABLE 3
Comparison of Topics of Current and Proposed Curricula
Current Proposed
Business cycles [
Cloud computing [
Data analytics [
E-R diagrams [ [
ERP [ *
File systems [
Hardware [
Information life cycle [
IT controls [ [
NoSQL [
Open source software [
Operating systems [
Process diagrams [ [
REA diagrams [
Relational database model [ [
Relational databases [
SQL [
Systems development [ **
Virtualization [
* The proposed curriculum includes ERP as a component of the topic on cloud computing.
** The proposed curriculum defers a discussion of the concepts of systems development to the graduate level.

standards affect the informational needs of the firm. Moreover, the proposed curriculum does more than explain the general
ledger system; it prepares students for new, rapidly developing careers.
The fields of MIS and AIS already have considerable overlap. This overlap is the result of internal and external business
reports originating from the same information system, and these curriculum revisions will further train accountants in
responsibilities that MIS graduates have traditionally assumed. Boritz and Stoner (2014) note the uneasy existence between IT
and accounting. In a technology-based information system, provision of information is traditionally accomplished by IT units,
while accounting provides reporting and analysis services. Technology is making this separation more difficult to maintain.
Employers are asking accountants to assume more IT responsibilities and, as the custodians of business information,
accountants are the best candidates for managing the entire information system, not just the general ledger.

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