5. 21st Century Financial Computation

At a very early stage in human history, then, we have encountered the
fundamental currency of the capital markets: information.
William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty

The computer is a tool that the accountant can use to do accounting, but it is such a powerful tool that, to use it wisely, the accountant needs to step back from his profession and take a second look at how accounting solves its problems, why it solves them that way, and how the new tool may actually change the way that problems are solved.

The computer offers the accountant brand new ways of doing the things that he has been doing basically the same way for over five hundred years, and, if these new ways of doing things are accepted, it will not only be more efficient, but will also provide businesses with new kinds of information.

Currently, the prevailing paradigm of accounting is limited by the past and the techniques that were formed by the tools of the past, but the computer expands the horizons of the adventurous thinker, removing old limitations and providing new opportunities. Rather than use a new tool to do an old solution, the accountant can use the new tool for new solutions, and, in the process, discover new opportunities for creating business intelligence.