When I was at university “back in the day” studying Accounting and Financial Management 1A, learning double-entry bookkeeping was paper-based – we literally drew the ledger in our notebooks and learnt about debits and credits. Students now learn accounting using Saasu – cloud accounting is being taught in the Business School at Griffith University in Australia. This is a first for Australian universities – incorporating cloud accounting into the curriculum.
I love this story because it is bringing practical experience into the classroom and fast tracking students’ learning, before they’ve even joined the workforce. Using Saasu, students are learning about business workflow AND the underlying accounting – from creating pre-quote opportunities through to orders and invoices. The depth of Saasu’s feature set created the educational opportunity.
Students have access to online videos explaining accounting principles in terms of real business applications, getting hands-on with Saasu files and working through real-world examples.
Dr Ian Sims, Senior Lecturer of Accounting at Griffith University Business Schools said…
My role is to introduce our students to “Business Information Systems” in their first semester of study for the Master of Commerce. By setting practical tasks using the cloud-based Saasu software, I can give them exposure to recording business processes as they will be when they graduate, rather than using twentieth century software. Additionally, I am able to take advantage of all of the normal cloud advantages – a constantly updated application, secure software management and ubiquitous access on most computer platforms and mobile devices through browsers and apps…
What do you think of cloud accounting being taught at university? I think it reinforces my view that this year will see a record number of business move their accounting to the cloud.
Thanks for the feedback Angus – you know I did that some course when I was at the University of New South Wales “back in the day” and I do remember the paper-based training materials (the “Max Machinery” Accounting Practice Set as I recall) Would love to make contact with your professors – feel free to email me at tony (at) saasu (dot) com and we can catch up on this. Who knows, Dr Sims from Griffith University may be interested in meeting them!
This is impressive. I’m studying Accounting 1A at University of New South Wales, and it is ALL paper based. They are making us do an online practice set, which is PAPER BASED! It makes you calculate everything by yourself as if you are doing it on paper, even adding up columns needs to be done manually.
It’d be great if we could use cloud computing as part of our course!
Griffith Uni is very progressive. Not only computerised accounting but also cloud. I’ve seen videos of them actually teaching and it is very practical. No different really to what you would teach a bookkeeper or accountant when they are learning the system.
Profession do not actually know how a set of books becomes a set of financial reports because it is all done for them. Maybe it because I am getting “old” but I do think that some real work
I don’t know of any university that teaches an “Accounting 101″ equivalent using computer software. It’s always paper journals, debits, credits etc.
Teaching students about ‘business information systems’ is a good thing in a degree, but it’s certainly not accounting. My degree (only several years ago) had a separate unit on computerised accounting. It was only 1 unit out of 24 in my degree, and half the time was spent on ‘relational databases’, not just all Myob etc.
Now there is a lecture I’d love to give! Great work getting in at the education level and skilling the professionals of tomorrow.
Thanks for the insight Tony. I too learn’t accounting using paper based methods and for the first few years in professional accounting offices, likewise – it was not until the mid 1980′s that we had access to any form of computerised accounting software – even then it was really just pumping the manually drafted numbers into glorified word processors.
One of the issues which I do have is that the more recent entrants into the profession do not actually know how a set of books becomes a set of financial reports because it is all done for them. Maybe it because I am getting “old” but I do think that some real work on the basics first up would be a good idea. It’s a bit like the lack of mental arithmetic skills; calculators have taken over to the point that many students these days do not know whether or not they have made a mistake – the answer is given so it must be right.
Having said all that, I do believe that this is an essential part of the learning experience for students and should only be seen as a positive move. Well done Saasu and Griffith Uni!
Hi Jeremy,
They don’t pay anything actually. We don’t charge for educational use by schools, TAFE’s, College’s or Universities where the educational organisation is part of our Saasu Social Giving programme.
Except that now you don’t have free accounts, just trials. So students have to pay to use Saasu for the semester.