From Cisco:
The ip accounting command records the number of bytes (IP header and data) and packets switched through the system on a source and destination IP address basis. Only transit IP traffic is measured and only on an outbound basis; traffic generated by the router access server or terminating in this device is not included in the accounting statistics. Traffic coming from a remote site and transiting through a router is also recorded.
If you specify the access-violations keyword, the ip accounting command provides information identifying IP traffic that fails IP access lists. Identifying IP source addresses that violate IP access lists alerts you to possible attempts to breach security. The data might also indicate that you should verify IP access list configurations.
To receive a logging message on the console when an extended access list entry denies a packet access (to log violations), you must include the log keyword in the access-list (IP extended) or access-list (IP standard) command.
Statistics are accurate even if IP fast switching or IP access lists are being used on the interface.
IP accounting disables autonomous switching, SSE switching, and distributed switching (dCEF) on the interface. IP accounting will cause packets to be switched on the Route Switch Processor (RSP) instead of the Versatile Interface Processor (VIP), which can cause performance degradation.
