‘‘Big Data”: A new twist to accounting Diane J. Janvrin a , Marcia Weidenmier Watson b,⇑ a Iowa State University, 3365 Gerdin Business Building, United States b University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Belk College of Business, Friday 268C, United States article info Article history: Received 14 October 2016 Received in revised form 27 December 2016 Accepted 28 December 2016 Available online 13 January 2017 Keywords: Big Data AACSB Accounting Standard 7 Pathways Commission Educational resources abstract This commentary introduces the ‘‘Big Data” (hereafter, Big Data) Special Issue of the Journal of Accounting Education. We argue that while the data sets are now larger than ever before and better data analytic software is available, the primary goal of accounting has always been the same - to create and provide information to internal and external decision mak- ers. In addition, this commentary identifies resources for incorporating Big Data into the classroom. These resources include links to free datasets, software tools, cases, and class slides. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the articles in this Special Issue and how they fit into the existing Big Data literature. Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Despite the current focus on ‘‘Big Data” (hereafter, Big Data) and its effect on accountants, the goal of accounting has always been to provide information to decision makers (Capriotti, 2014). Even before Pacioli documented the double entry system of debits and credits (Payne, 2013), accountants tried to make sense of large volumes of business data, whether it came from a paper-based system, an early/legacy computer-based system, or a highly technical, all-encompassing enterprise system. 1 Using available analytical tools, accountants recorded, filtered, summarized, and consolidated this data to provide information for internal and external decision makers. Further, internal and external auditors examined the data to make sure it complied with GAAP, applicable laws, and management’s directives-more recently using a variety of automated techniques including generalized audit software and continuous auditing that could scrutinize all transactions of a firm. In the last few years, the term Big Data has emerged as the new buzz word. While some claim Big Data is, ‘‘just turning mess into meaning” (Kho, 2016, 28), Gartner (2016, emphasis added) provides a more official definition of Big Data as, ‘‘high- volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.” Volume, velocity, and variety are known as the three-Vs and imply that vast amounts of transactions are quickly created from a wide variety of sources. Other sources frequently suggest two additional Big Data Vs – veracity and value (Merritt-Holmes, 2016). Veracity refers to the data accu- racy and reliability of data while value examines the cost-benefit of collecting data (Zhang, Yang, & Appelbaum, 2015; Merritt-Holmes, 2016). Accountants tend to focus on the veracity and value/cost-benefit of data collection. Volume and velocity have been around since the 1990s when enterprise systems (and even some legacy systems) were created to handle high volumes http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2016.12.009 0748-5751/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: djanvrin@iastate.edu (D.J. Janvrin), mwatso40@uncc.edu (M. Weidenmier Watson). 1 ‘‘According to Pacioli, accounting is an ad hoc ordering system devised by the merchant. Its regular use provides the merchant with continued information about his business, and allows him to evaluate how things are going and to act accordingly.” (ITICALE, 2016). Journal of Accounting Education 38 (2017) 3–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Accounting Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaccedu