Today in the U.S. most purchases are done with cash, credit cards, checks and other methods which do not include any computer message or data transmission to the seller regarding identity of buyer, supplier, payer, items bought, etc. Similarly, no data is passed from seller to buyer's computer such as who was paid, or what was bought. And most accounting software is incapable of using such data even if it existed.  Below this waste is estimated at $145 Billion/year domestically.  UN/CEFACT has estimated the waste at $2 Trillion globally. http//www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&q=ray+walker+cefact+trillion 

XML standards are being developed to provide a standard data format for such information as customer and supplier identities, product codes, and detailed information about the products and services items. These make possible to automate buying, settling, payments, and inventory through networks even when buying, selling or paying happens outside the internet.

This survey is designed to collect the judgments and assessments by professionals in accounting and IT regarding the waste of labor in various industries caused by the lack of system integration in buying, selling, inventory and other bookkeeping, and settlement.  The whole Excel file is available in this 50Kbyte zipfile: http://www.gldialtone.com/survey_of_waste.zip.  It looks like this: 

Assume for the purpose of this survey that most of the larger businesses in the world adopt such systems, but 50% of the individual consumers and 30% of small businesses do not immediately buy software or make any use of the technology. 

Assume however, that numerous aggressive businesses began selling electronically both on networks and physically, such that 98% of the products and services in the economy were available with data integration from such suppliers.

Assume that the costs of inventory, procurement etc. in these aggressive businesses went down sufficiently that their prices were marginally lower than the older businesses.

Assume, accordingly, that everyone in the economy was free to participate in the networks, i.e. the chicken-and-egg problem were overcome. The nonparticipation by 50% of American population did not critically reduce the paperwork savings achieved by the participants in such networks.

Assume that the participant never has to do any accounting whatsoever. When you buy stuff, assume that your computer already knows the products you want, or that you can get catalogs and items with a click. When you want to pay bills, assume they are in your inbox and can be paid with a click. When you sell goods or services, your customer would be doing the purchase by beaming a message from their cellphone, browser, etc or touching a keypad like we do today in supermarkets.

Assume that accounting systems were available, that could make use of the network and the new standard data formats. Assume that recordkeeping for all purchases, sales, inventory, services, and payments were handled perfectly correctly "in the background". All past histories of payments, purchases, income, expense, etc. for the participants are perfectly accurate, easy for the owner to access. 

Assume that the system makes it possible for whoever should choose, to maintain nearly perfect audit trails automatically. Assume that for these participants, it is impossible to falsify records because they do substantially all their dealings within the network, and accordingly, their records of every transaction can be tracked back to the other party if necessary.

Assume for such individuals and businesses, property crimes decline.

Now take the survey:

The survey page lists total employment in several hundred occupations. How much of each occupations' time would be saved, if the above networks were in place? 

NOTES

1. Do NOT assume that occupations would actually disappear-- just provide your estimates of how much time is wasted today. For example, many thousands of people work in accounting and computer industry on problems that are fundamentally caused by lack of data integration, needs for software and services related to manual accounting systems etc. Assume that these employment numbers would not go down but rather, they would begin working on things that provide some value to somebody.

2. Do NOT include the following secondary savings:

a. time or headcount reductions in management layers from new forms of organization enabled by online partnerships and collaborations. 
b. time or headcount that would be saved in construction of fewer banks, postoffices and office towers,
c. reductions in the transportation or petroleum industry, etc. 

* Todd F. Boyle CPA http://www.GLDialtone.com/ 
* tboyle@rosehill.net Kirkland WA (425) 827-3107 
* XML accounting, web ledgers, BSPs, ASPs, whatever it takes