Q.Explain why People and Procedure are just as important as Hardware and Software in a Computerised Accounting System.

Software and hardware alone cannot make a computerised accounting system reliable — how it is used matters just as much as what it runs on.

Even the best accounting software will produce unreliable figures if the person entering data does not understand accounting, or if there is no documented procedure for authorising and checking entries — so people and procedure are treated as components in their own right, not as afterthoughts to …

Hardware and software are often what people think of first when they hear the term computerised accounting system, but the other two components — people and procedure — are just as essential to the system actually working correctly.

People. However capable the software, it is operated by human beings — a data-entry operator who keys in vouchers, an accountant who reviews the resulting reports, an auditor who checks them, and an administrator who controls who is allowed to do what. If the person entering data does not understand basic accounting (which account to debit, which to credit), the software will faithfully record and report a wrong entry with complete arithmetic accuracy — accurate calculation of a wrong figure is still a wrong figure. The competence and integrity of the people using the system therefore directly determines the reliability of its output. …

Students often treat components as a checklist to name and forget, without explaining why the human and procedural components matter as much as the technical ones — a strong answer should draw …