On the relationship between REA and SAP

Abstract Resources–Events–Agents (REA) is the best known theoretical accounting enterprise database model, while SAP is the dominant enterprise resource-planning system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate some of the relationships between the underlying data models in REA and SAP. The criteria of Dunn and McCarthy [J. Inf. Syst. (1997) 31] for differentiating accounting systems (database orientation, semantic orientation, and structuring orientation) are used to structure a summary of those relationships. Although it is found that there are substantial similarities, SAP does have some implementation compromises that generally keep it from being fully REA. These compromises are based on the use of accounting artifacts and other, often, implementation-specific compromises. In addition, there are emerging differences between the two. A comparison between REA and SAP is important for a number of reasons. First, the tie between SAP and REA provides SAP with a theoretic basis. Second, the existence of a relationship between REA and SAP provides an important basis for the coverage of REA in the curriculum. Third, the opening of a dialogue between SAP and REA could spur further development of both.

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