Preface

This book’s key goal is to provide students with a basic understanding of AIS terminology and topics in an approachable way. As a result, the writing style is intentionally crafted to be easy to understand for students who are new to accounting information and related decision-making responsibilities. Further, there is a strong focus throughout on emerging accounting technologies such as distributive ledgers including blockchain, smart contracts, robotic process automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). Including these topics in more meaningful ways exposes students to new technologies’ impacts on accounting. Further, such coverage encourages them to develop an inquisitive and flexible mindset based on the premise that an AIS is not static. As a result, students learn an AIS must be continuously assessed and re-evaluated in order to keep pace with constant organizational change, the introduction of new technologies, and an ever-evolving regulatory environment. Finally, the narrative is consistently organized around three key perspectives: the user, design, and control. These three organizing themes support and guide the learner’s journey through understanding how accountants use information to make decisions, how an AIS works, and how to recognize and minimize the threats to an AIS.

The three organizing themes of the user, design, and control are based on the authors’ common experiences teaching AIS to thousands of students, as well as one author’s (Raschke’s) many years spent using and developing AIS installations in business environments. The organizing themes were extensively class-tested by the authors, and they were finely honed to best convey foundational knowledge in AIS terminology and core topics. Seasoned instructors will likely recognize and certainly appreciate that organizing the book around these three key themes provides a natural progression of learning AIS topics as well.

The below themes provide a logical structure to the narrative. However, because this book is intended to be a basic introduction to AIS, the authors also included specific learning features to further enhance learning and encourage retention.

Each chapter contains the following learning features to help students get the most out of the content presented and remember it long after the course has ended.

Teaching AIS can be daunting—especially keeping up with new topics and terminology. Robyn Raschke, the author who primarily prepared the supplements, kept this thought firmly in mind as she wrote them.  

The authors wrote Accounting Information Systems: Thinking, Development, and Evaluation v1.0 because AIS textbooks that once captured well the crucial role AIS plays in the business firm have become increasingly outdated. Faculty members who want their students to learn from an AIS textbook that not only covers traditional AIS topics but also exposes their students to many emerging accounting technologies in detail will be interested to assign this book.

I would like to express a special word of thanks to John Schatzel and his family. While I never met John, I was honored to restructure, revise, and expand the initial draft of this manuscript for publication following John’s passing. Many of John’s most important ideas and teaching strategies are reflected in this published version and will positively influence students’ learning for many years to come.

Please contact me if you’d like more information or additional perspectives on teaching with this book. In particular, I am always trying to improve the material it contains and keep it up to date. I can be reached at robyn.raschke@unlv.edu. I welcome all feedback from faculty and students.