2. COST ACCOUNTING CONCEPTS FOR IS ORGANIZATIONS › 2.4 Transaction Accounting › 2.4.2 Implementing Transaction Accounting

2.4.2 Implementing Transaction Accounting

From all perspectives, transaction accounting can be an
extremely advantageous method of accounting.  However, the
initial effort to implement a transaction accounting system,
and the extensive continual administrative support, is
expensive.

Organizations should consider the value and utility of
transaction accounting.  If the approach makes sense for your
organization, you can plan for a gradual change to
transaction accounting as new applications systems are phased
into production.  Effective transaction accounting is so
different from existing charge-out system implementations
that few organizations, if any, will be able to afford the
luxury of retrofitting transaction accounting into computing
processes that are currently in production.

When implementing transaction accounting, keep in mind that
for a computing process to be a good candidate for
transaction accounting, it must be composed of clearly
defined transactions.  While most computing processes do, at
some point, possess this vital characteristic, a few
processes do not lend themselves to this systematized method
of charge-out.  For example, in program development and
testing, transactions can be defined for the assemblies,
compilations, and links involved in the development work, but
no well-understood input or output transaction has been
defined for program testing.  Therefore, program development
is suitable for transaction accounting, but program testing
is not.

Before you can use a transaction accounting system, you must
have in place certain vital elements.  These are discussed in
the following sections:

    1 - Resource Measurement Systems
    2 - Cost Accounting Systems
    3 - Transaction Logging Facilities
    4 - Charge-out Systems
    5 - Cost Study and Administration