Accounting and Management Information Systems: A Semantic Integration

Abstract

Accounting information systems fulfil the purpose of recording the business transactions over time according to the legal accounting requirements. Management information systems provide the information and mechanisms that are needed to manage the enterprise in different management domains. The primary research objective of this article is the specification of the relevant concepts underlying both information systems and their integration in a comprehensive framework. The resulting framework shows the economic and managerial requirements for integrated accounting-based management information systems and it can be used for a semantic design of such systems. For this purpose the probabilistic REA management ontology is developed by integrating the management concepts of the cybernetic management framework into the REA business ontology. Consequently the derived REA management ontology rests upon the well-established REA business ontology and it allows the semantic design and implementation of accounting-based management information systems.