Improving Transactional Processing in AIS with Internal Controls - Essay Example

Technology enhances the ability to capture, analyze, and simulate financial data with ease. This translates to accruement of benefits, such as saving costs, elimination of redundancies, and streamlining of activities. The chief objective of IAS in all cycles includes capturing and processing of data concerning business activities, storing and organizing data to aid in decision making, and providing controls, which maintain reliability of data and safeguarding of resources (Sajady, Dastgir & Nejad, 2008).

The advancement of information technology has enabled companies to transform their accounting information systems into automated processes via use of computers, servers, and accounting software. Revenue cycle refers to recurring set of business activities and related information processing operations connected to the provision of goods and services to clients and collection of cash payments. The core AIS functions carried out in the revenue cycle include capturing and processing of data, storing and organization of the data for decision making, and provision of controls to safeguard resources (Hall, 2011).

The four basic business activities prominent in the revenue cycle include sales order entry, shipping, billing, and cash collection. IT can improve efficiency and effectiveness by routing online orders expressly to the warehouses for picking and shipping. In addition, technological changes can be achieved via electronic data interchange (EDI), which links the company directly to clients and as well manage the customer’s inventory (Gelinas, Dull & Wheeler, 2012). A firm may also use email and instant messaging to notify sales staff of any price changes.

Transaction technology such as point of sales systems (POS) can link customer master files to enable automatic updates to accounts receivable. In cash collections, the firm may adopt electronic funds