What is informational accounting?

Answer 1

Informational Accounting (IaA) is similar to Financial Accounting except that it applies to information instead of money.

IaA uses accounting techniques - tables identifying sources, targets, balances, acquisitions, assets, allocations, savings - but not of money, only of information.

For example, in IaA, it is possible to account whether there is sufficient information coming in and going out of an org. Very importantly, information can be checked to determine whether it is in or out of balance, and whether there is sufficient information for optimised operation, and also what informational investments exist that will support optimum operations and growth.

Like double-entry bookkeeping shows where financials are out of balance, so the equivalent IaA approach shows where informationals are out of balance. Similarly, where a financial income statement addresses financials coming into the org, an IaA income statement addresses informationals coming in to the org.

Informational Accounting is a new discipline and the number of practitioners is growing.