According to The Internal Auditor (April 2000):

In the past, credible financial reports could be produced, audited, and published only on a periodic basis, because the information needed to generate such reports was either impossible or too costly to obtain on a real-time basis. However, a growing number of important items on financial statements have come under real-time management, as information technology has made such practices both economically feasible and competitively necessary for survival.

REQUIRED:

What does it mean that information can be obtained on a real-time basis? What items on the financial statements do you think have come under real-time management, and what advantages might real-time accounting create?