ABSTRACT: This paper proposes a generalized accounting framework designed to be used in a shared data environment where both accountants and non-accountants are interested in maintaining information about the same set of phenomena. This framework, called the REA accounting model, is developed using data modeling techniques, and its underlying structure is found to consist of sets representing economic resources, economic events, and economic agents plus relationships among those sets. Correspondence of REA elements with the accounting theories of Ijiri and Mattessich is discussed. Finally, practical use of the model in the database design phases of view modeling and view integration is presented, and some REA representations of accounting objects are reconciled with those representations found in conventional double-entry systems.

ABSTRACT: This paper is an extension of previous work aimed at integrating ideas in the field of database systems with accounting theory. Unlike others, however, it does not propose use of a particular type of database system. Instead, it concentrates on an overall design methodology--the entity-relationship model--which transcends specific database theoretical structures. A complete model is specified for a small retail enterprise, and some accounting uses for the derived system are shown. Finally, the use of an entity-relationship model in integrating aspects of measurement theory, causal double-entry, and "events" accounting with computerized information systems is discussed.