Expert Systems in Accountancy: A Review of Some Recent Applications

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Abstract
This paper assesses the current and likely impact of expert systems on the accounting community. The paper begins by briefly reviewing about twenty financially-oriented systems, including those which model expertise in the sub-domains of auditing, taxation advice, financial planning and business risk assessment. The predominantly narrow view taken by some authors in the literature is noted. An attempt is made to broaden this view by ascertaining why particular classes of application might have been chosen in preference to others, and to comment on the significance of this choice. The number and scope of applications are analysed, and some observations are made on their current state of development. Some conclusions are drawn on the suitability of expert systems for traditional accountancy tasks, and an assessment of their current level of success is made. Their likely future impact is considered and the conclusion is drawn that there are still many stumbling blocks in the way of successful implementations of large scale systems but that a useful niche may exist for smaller systems.