SECAI Core · phase 9 of 15 · noun
Accounting
Tracking authorized usage of a resource or use of rights by a subject and alerting when unauthorized use is detected or attempted.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Accounting is tracking the authorised usage of a resource or the exercise of rights by a subject, and raising an alert when unauthorised use is detected or attempted.
- Example
- An AI platform records every model call with the user, timestamp, tokens consumed and data sources accessed. When an account starts querying the HR retrieval index at 3 a.m. despite having no HR role, the accounting system flags it.
- Why it matters
- Authentication proves who you are, authorisation decides what you may do, and accounting proves what you actually did. Without it, AI misuse leaves no trail to investigate.
- Hook
- The third A in AAA: the one that keeps the receipts.
Word knowledge
How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.
In a sentence
Accounting records each AI gateway request with the user identity, model name, token count, and result of the permission check.
How it is built
- account base a record or reckoning
- -ing suffix a process or practice
Where it came from
- Origin
- Middle English accounting, formed from account and -ing; account came through Old French aconter, ultimately from Latin computare
- Entered the language
- 14th century
- What changed
- The sense developed from counting and reckoning to financial recordkeeping, then to recording activity within technical systems.
How it is spelled
- Pattern
- The base account keeps its spelling when -ing is added.
- Pattern
- A base ending in a consonant cluster normally takes -ing without doubling its final consonant.
Spelled like
- counting
- discounting
- reporting
Broken into chunks
-
account
- accountant
- accountable
-
-ing
- auditing
- monitoring
What it sits beside
Same subject
- authentication
- authorization
- audit logging
Same shape
- counting
- recounting
- discounting
AAA security functions
- authentication
- authorization
- accounting
usage-record fields
- user identity
- timestamp
- token count
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 9: Roles, Teams, and Organisational Accountability
Governance frameworks are executed by people — introduce the human roles and organisational structures responsible for building, operating, and auditing AI systems.
