Employees in all businesses train for years on ways to obtain efficiency without sacrificing accuracy. "Best practices" and standardized procedures were once the human employees' goals. With the increasing capabilities in business intelligence technology, organizations can turn human best practices into machine-driven processes. By doing so, it is possible to harness the massive quantities of information already contained within an accounting system in a more strategic manner.

As part of the initial process to automate accounting tasks, accounting staff knowledgeable about the organization's operations and conventional methods needed to assess which tasks could be automated and how quickly. For this assignment, you will formulate a "mapping" plan as if you were beginning the process of accounting system automation for a governmental unit.

1. What overall considerations do you think you would make in deciding whether or not to automate an organization?
2. How will you assess a particular task on its ability to be automated?
3. Which of the accounting entries covered in this or previous modules would be suitable for process automation? Provide at least 5 along with your rationale.
4. Which entries could be automated but might require human interaction to review for accuracy? Provide at least 5 along with your rationale.
5. Which entries are nearly impossible to automate? Provide at least 5 along with your rationale.