Not only have sophisticated calculators replaced the old adding machines, but those calculators are just mini-versions of maxi-computers.
You've probably seen computers at work all around you. Your family's phone bill has probably been figured on a computer. Many schools' report cards are figured on computers (remember how you hope the machine has made a mistake, but it usually hasn't?). If there are mistakes, though, it's not the computer that is at fault; it's the person who has programmed the computer-told the computer what to do.
All this, back in the early 1960's, used to be called automation. Plays and movies were written by people who were afraid that machines were going to take over the jobs that people do, as in a frenzied George Orwell 1984 fantasy. But as the years (and the fears) have gone on, people have come to realize that the machines can't work without people operating them. Certainly, some jobs have become obsolete, but fortunately a whole new string of jobs has opened up, and those careers are in computer technology.
A little history: A French inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical loom for silk in 1741. A few years later Oliver Evans, an American inventor, built an automatic flour mill near Philadelphia. Another inventor, James Watt, used a feedback device called a flyball to govern the speed of his steam engine. In 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard, in France, built an automatic loom operated by punched paper cards, much like the ones that are used to operate some of today's electronic office machines.
In 1931 Vannevar Bush invented the differential analyzer, the first of the modern computers. World War II spurred the development of computers and rapid calculating machines. In 1944 International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) installed the first large-scale digital calculator, at Harvard University. Even in factories, in the 1940's and 1950's, the production boom resulted in electronic devices.
Now, back to accounting. Many businesses (in fact, these days, all businesses of any moderate size) are using computers to figure taxes, prepare payrolls, keep inventories, and do countless other counting jobs. Accounting is no exception; in fact, because of the nature of it, accounting has been a pioneer in the use of electronic machines.
Almost any bookkeeping office has an adding machine or at least a small calculator. A high-speed calculator is an indispensable aid for totaling long columns of figures and for figuring taxes, percentages, and other figures.
Machines will greatly speed your work as an accountant, and it's important that you at least somewhat understand them and have a certain amount of respect for them. An accountant recently said that about 98 percent of his work is with figures, and most of that is done on some sort of machine.
Machines, of course, make you more efficient. Working constantly with column after column of figures is tedious and monotonous and can tax your brain almost as much as the government can tax your income. But with an adding machine or calculator, it becomes much simpler.
Computers, as you can imagine, are quite expensive. Some cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, others, several million. Obviously, it isn't feasible today for every accounting office to go out and buy its own computer. So what has happened- in a genius stroke of electronic conservation-is that smaller companies are renting time with larger companies' computers. Perhaps the giant firm's computer isn't being used at night, so the smaller business leases time for night use.
It's important to remember, though, that accounting hasn't become more complicated because of the advent of these big machines. On the contrary, because accounting had been becoming more complicated, there was a need for the big machines. Computers filled a need, not created one.
In a sense, the whole computer craze has created several needs. One of them is that ye>u, as an accountant, should understand machines. It doesn't mean that you have to know how to punch a programming card (there are people who go to school just to learn how to do that), but you should at least know how it all works, and how it all relates to the job that you will do.
In college you will be able to take courses to help decipher the maze of the amazing computer world. At first it may seem very complicated, but remember that computers are meant to simplify your work. Although a computer may not dust your desk or refill your coffee cup, the machine will be your constant companion throughout your career as an accountant. Start by getting to know it now. As you will do with other aspects of business, try to find ways so that you can see computers work-perhaps in a friend's business; perhaps by taking a tour of a large corporation; perhaps by, once again, volunteering your time and energies to some company that has a computer. There are lots of people out there who are willing and anxious to help you learn. All you have to do is ask.Not only have sophisticated calculators replaced the old adding machines, but those calculators are just mini-versions of maxi-computers.
You've probably seen computers at work all around you. Your family's phone bill has probably been figured on a computer. Many schools' report cards are figured on computers (remember how you hope the machine has made a mistake, but it usually hasn't?). If there are mistakes, though, it's not the computer that is at fault; it's the person who has programmed the computer-told the computer what to do.
All this, back in the early 1960's, used to be called automation. Plays and movies were written by people who were afraid that machines were going to take over the jobs that people do, as in a frenzied George Orwell 1984 fantasy. But as the years (and the fears) have gone on, people have come to realize that the machines can't work without people operating them. Certainly, some jobs have become obsolete, but fortunately a whole new string of jobs has opened up, and those careers are in computer technology.
A little history: A French inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical loom for silk in 1741. A few years later Oliver Evans, an American inventor, built an automatic flour mill near Philadelphia. Another inventor, James Watt, used a feedback device called a flyball to govern the speed of his steam engine. In 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard, in France, built an automatic loom operated by punched paper cards, much like the ones that are used to operate some of today's electronic office machines.
In 1931 Vannevar Bush invented the differential analyzer, the first of the modern computers. World War II spurred the development of computers and rapid calculating machines. In 1944 International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) installed the first large-scale digital calculator, at Harvard University. Even in factories, in the 1940's and 1950's, the production boom resulted in electronic devices.
Now, back to accounting. Many businesses (in fact, these days, all businesses of any moderate size) are using computers to figure taxes, prepare payrolls, keep inventories, and do countless other counting jobs. Accounting is no exception; in fact, because of the nature of it, accounting has been a pioneer in the use of electronic machines.
Almost any bookkeeping office has an adding machine or at least a small calculator. A high-speed calculator is an indispensable aid for totaling long columns of figures and for figuring taxes, percentages, and other figures.
Machines will greatly speed your work as an accountant, and it's important that you at least somewhat understand them and have a certain amount of respect for them. An accountant recently said that about 98 percent of his work is with figures, and most of that is done on some sort of machine.
Machines, of course, make you more efficient. Working constantly with column after column of figures is tedious and monotonous and can tax your brain almost as much as the government can tax your income. But with an adding machine or calculator, it becomes much simpler.
Computers, as you can imagine, are quite expensive. Some cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, others, several million. Obviously, it isn't feasible today for every accounting office to go out and buy its own computer. So what has happened- in a genius stroke of electronic conservation-is that smaller companies are renting time with larger companies' computers. Perhaps the giant firm's computer isn't being used at night, so the smaller business leases time for night use.
It's important to remember, though, that accounting hasn't become more complicated because of the advent of these big machines. On the contrary, because accounting had been becoming more complicated, there was a need for the big machines. Computers filled a need, not created one.
In a sense, the whole computer craze has created several needs. One of them is that ye>u, as an accountant, should understand machines. It doesn't mean that you have to know how to punch a programming card (there are people who go to school just to learn how to do that), but you should at least know how it all works, and how it all relates to the job that you will do.
In college you will be able to take courses to help decipher the maze of the amazing computer world. At first it may seem very complicated, but remember that computers are meant to simplify your work. Although a computer may not dust your desk or refill your coffee cup, the machine will be your constant companion throughout your career as an accountant. Start by getting to know it now. As you will do with other aspects of business, try to find ways so that you can see computers work-perhaps in a friend's business; perhaps by taking a tour of a large corporation; perhaps by, once again, volunteering your time and energies to some company that has a computer. There are lots of people out there who are willing and anxious to help you learn. All you have to do is ask.
