Impacts of ERPS on the role of management accountants

Management accountants have come to realise that ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems are their friend and not foe as initially thought.  An ERP is designed to integrate all facets of applications into a single system thereby making it possible for information that would other be scattered be accessible from a single point. This is to say that business intelligence information can be gathered from just a single click of the mouse.

Modern management accountants appreciates the impacts of ERPS by seeing ERP systems as not just another piece of accounting software but as a strategic tool for reporting high level information to management and those responsible for corporate governance in a format that is easily accessible and ready to use.

In this article are listed some benefits of ERP system to the management accountant.

• Efficiency in process relevant information
• Releases the management accountant’s time for other analytical functions
• Allows single point access to data
• Managers can run managerial reports themselves from MIS without waiting for the management accountant to generate such report

The benefits listed above will not be achieved if management accountants don’t play their part in making this a success. Some of the roles of management accountants in ensuring that a company fully realise the potential of ERPS within the MIS are

• Assisting in configuring the ERP
• Sanitising the information that goes in as input
• Evaluating the financial and non financial viability of proposed investment in IT especially one that relates to management information control system.

In conclusion, the advent of ERP as a business enhancement tool did not take away the job of accountants especially management accountants but rather broadened the role of managerial accountants and other finance professionals.

If you are among those who thought that IT infrastructures like enterprise resource planning will negatively impact on the role of accountants and other finance professionals, well now is time to have a rethink.