Q.What is meant by 'garbage-in, garbage-out' as a limitation of computerised accounting?

This is a focused short-answer question on one specific, frequently examined limitation of computerised accounting rather than the full list.

'Garbage-in, garbage-out' is one of the limitations of computerised accounting and refers to the simple fact that a computer's output can never be more correct than the data that is fed into it. A Computerised Accounting System is extremely good at performing the mechanical work of posting, totalling and reporting quickly and consistently, but it has no independent way of knowing whether the figures a person has typed into a voucher are themselves correct — it simply processes whatever it is given.

If an operator enters a wrong amount, selects the wrong account, or makes an error of omission while keying in a voucher, the software will process that incorrect entry with exactly the same speed and apparent confidence as it would process a correct one, and the resulting error will then be carried through automatically into the ledger, the trial balance, and every other report the system generates from that data — often multiplying the effect of a single mistake across several linked reports rather than confining it to one place. This is precisely why the 'people' component of a Computerised Accounting System (the trained staff who prepare and enter …

Students sometimes think the phrase refers to a technical software fault; it actually refers to human data-entry error, which is exactly why trained, careful operators (the 'peo …