Computational accounting in determining Chart of Accounts using nominal data analysis and concept of entropy

A new application of nominal data analysis to computational accounting system is introduced. "Chart of Account" (COA), the structure of the Enterprise Requirement Planning (ERP) Accounting System is used as a nominal dataset enabling nominal feature selection technique be used to determine the close-optimal number of accounting segments. Five datasets are simulated with entropy measurement using the method of SUD. Self-Organizing map (SOM) is used to investigate the similarities among different segments, which proved to be a useful approach in cross-examining the COA structure. The obtained results show that they are promising from both computation and accounting perspectives. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.