Q."A Computerised Accounting System automates the mechanics of accounting, but not the judgement." Explain this statement with a suitable example.

A computer will post and total perfectly, but it can only classify a transaction correctly if the person entering it has already correctly decided which account it belongs to.

Step 1 — What CAS genuinely automates. Once a voucher is entered with its amount and the account(s) it affects, the software will post it, total it, and roll it up into every report with perfect arithmetical accuracy, every time — this is the "mechanics" of accounting: the calculation and record-keeping steps.

Step 2 — What CAS cannot do on its own. The software has no way of independently deciding WHICH account a transaction genuinely belongs to. For example, if a business pays ₹50,000 to overhaul a second-hand machine, a correctly trained accountant knows (from the Capital and Revenue Transactions chapter) that this should be capitalised, added to the Machinery account — but if the person entering the voucher mistakenly selects "Repairs Account" instead, the software will post, total, and report that wrong classification with exactly the same perfect arithmetical accuracy as a correct one. The error is invisible to the system, because the system has no independent way of knowing the transaction was misclassified. …