Providing Accounting Services Research Articles

ACCOUNTING IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITALIZATION

The article examines the most common digital technologies and software products used in accounting that have a significant impact on the development of modern business. The changes in modern accounting practice caused by the digitalisation process are considered. It is found that digital transformation has become relevant not only at the corporate level, but also at the sectoral and even the state level. It is aimed at simplifying the processing of large data sets, automating almost all activities, and improving the interaction between customers and businesses, citizens and the state. The essence and trends of digital transformation processes are disclosed. It is determined that companies are currently offered a wide range of accounting software. In particular, accounting applications are integrated into enterprise management software products used to prepare and publish financial statements in XBRL format, organizing of electronic document management, computer information, reference materials and legal documents. The article analyses the latest advances in the evolution of information technology, including machine learning, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. These innovations are contributing to a revolution in accounting, making it more efficient, reliable, accurate and cost-effective for business. It has been determined that the digitalization of the accounting business has caused significant changes in the work of accountants, in particular through the automation of many routine tasks. This stimulates the reform of accounting education to meet the future requirements of the accounting services market. The firms providing accounting services should try to be more proactive in implementing changes to meet the anticipated needs of consumers in the future. The challenges for the accounting profession are reflected in the need to rapidly adapt and transform business practices and business processes without abandoning the basic rules and principles of accounting.

Accountability as a service for robotics: Performance assessment of different accountability strategies for autonomous robots

Abstract An essential requirement for increasing human confidence in computer systems is knowing an event’s origin. Therefore, it is necessary to have an efficient method to record such information. It is especially challenging in robotics, where unexpected behaviours can have unpredictable consequences, endangering the interests of people or even their safety. Furthermore, to analyse an incident’s cause or anticipate future behaviours, we must identify the events that cause a specific action. Although it is common to use logging systems for such purposes, issues such as partial recording of events, unhelpful data or the impact on robot performance suggest conceiving new accountability solutions that assist when determining the responsible entities or the provenance of specific information. This paper presents a general-purpose approach to developing an accountability system for autonomous robots. It consists of four main components: a system event logger, a message producer, a distributed event streaming platform and a database. Our proposal is completely decoupled from the monitored system and allows real-time analysis, improving flexibility, besides system protection and transparency. Finally, the need to reduce the impact of the audit process and logging tasks on robot performance has promoted the development of different assessment scenarios to determine the best strategy for providing accounting services.

The role of entities providing accounting services in the implementation of structured electronic invoices

The role of entities providing accounting services in the implementation of structured electronic invoices

Work-life balance as gaslighting: Exploring repressive care in female accountants’ careers

Corporate leadership, in particular that overseeing professional service firms (PSFs), such as accounting, auditing, and consulting firms, has been, and continues to be, overwhelmingly male-dominated. Despite a wealth of research and decades of implementing countless diversity and work-life balance (WLB) initiatives, only a small fraction of women ‘make partner’ in such PSFs. We argue that the problems around women’s career progression are reproduced and exacerbated by the very “caring” initiatives that claim to support these women. In order to investigate the implications of such WLB initiatives for women providing accounting services, this article draws on extensive empirical material gathered in the span of 12 years within two leading accounting, auditing, and consulting firms. From this material, we present the stories of four women accountants who are on the receiving end of these WLB initiatives – as well as their repressive effects. We find that WLB measures exert epistemic control, gaslighting women accountants by manipulating their sense of reality and persuading them to work less than their male counterparts. This repressive care feminizes these women, constructing them as fragile and thus in need to forgo work opportunities. However, once it is time for evaluations, their superiors forfeit their promotions. In so doing, WLB measures further gender the understanding of what ‘counts’ as accounting and consulting work and ultimately direct women’s careers sideways – into stagnation – rather than upwards, to partner levels.

Moralno rasuđivanje i profesionalna poslovna etika u računovodstvenoj profesiji - analiza sprovedenih istraživanja

Due to limited resources and information asymmetry, the responsibility for tax compliance and compliance with other regulations is in practice often transferred from clients to their accountants (i.e. providers of accounting services). Consequently, the unethical attitudes and behavior of accountants can significantly impact the clients' business activities, through advice on how to operate in compliance with the regulations or advice on how to exploit the existing regulatory framework. The main goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of existing research questions, methodological approaches and most important findings regarding accountants' (non)compliance with regulations and ethical principles of the accounting profession. Special attention is given to the existing literature findings on ethical beliefs and factors affecting the (un)ethical conduct of accounting professionals. The findings presented in this paper do not provide for an unequivocal designation of determinants of ethical beliefs and behavior of professional accountants. However, they do indicate a great importance of adequately focused educational measures, creating adequate incentives to resist pressure to behave unethically, and ensuring a high level of accountants' familiarity with the best practices when providing accounting services. In this regard, the existing codes of ethics and their consistent application are of great importance.

Фінансовий моніторинг сектору бухгалтерських послуг за міжнародними стандартами: новий виклик для професії бухгалтера

The growing risks of financing terrorism in the conditions of martial law necessitates the strengthening of financial monitoring. Accountants, business entities providing accounting services, and their related entities of audit activities are among the specially defined subjects of primary financial monitoring. Determining the level of riskiness of financial transactions is an essential function of an accountant. It, therefore, requires measures to increase the general and special competence of accounting specialists in financial monitoring. The article aims to determine the approaches and directions of regulatory and methodical support of financial monitoring of accountants as specially defined subjects following international standards. The requirements of FATF international standards and the national regulation system of specially defined professions regarding the fulfillment of financial monitoring requirements were analyzed. Special attention is paid to studying the risk-oriented approach in the financial monitoring system. A comparison was made of the results of sectoral risk assessments regarding the use by subjects of primary financial monitoring for money laundering according to the National risk assessments. The dynamics of the number of individual entrepreneurs who provide accounting services and are registered with the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine were evaluated. With the help of the Google Trends search tool, the results of national risk assessments and the level of interest in financial monitoring carried out by accountants in different countries were evaluated. An example of a risk matrix of client-accounting service combinations was presented, which can be developed based on a risk analysis of the experience and activities of an individual accountant. It was noted that the dilemma of the choice of accountants between the interests of the client and the requirements of financial monitoring is related to the professional judgment of accounting specialists and their increased functional responsibility within the limits of current legislation and international standards.

Digital transformation in accounting firms in Poland

Unlike large organizations, the digital transformation (DT) of the micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise sector has not been the subject of much academic research. DT and the use of old and new digital technologies in accounting firms that provide accounting services to companies in this sector have not really attracted any scholarly interest. This article contributes to some extent to filling this research gap. In addition to a review of the literature on DT, particularly electronic data interchange (EDI) and robotic process automation (RPA) in SMEs, and the outsourcing of accounting services in the context of DT, selected results from 3 different empirical studies covering these issues that were conducted in Poland are presented and commented on. Two studies used the survey method and the third one – the interview method. The studies showed that: 1) 1 in 3enterprises surveyed that use the services of an accounting firm transmit documents electronically, 2) less than 1 in 10 clients have integrated their IT system with the accounting firm's financial and accounting system and transmit documents via EDI, 3) 1 in 2 accounting firms surveyed use RPA software, 4) 60% of all the documents delivered to the accounting firms surveyed are processed by RPA. The main conclusion of the present study is that the degree of digital transformation of accounting firms in Poland, involving the automation of processes using RPA software, can be described as relatively good, while the use of EDI for the exchange of accounting documents is low.

The impact of professional accountancy organizations on the quality of accounting education

Purpose. To assess the impact of professional accounting education provided by professional accounting organizations (PAOs) on the quality of accounting services. Methodology. This study is quantitative research, and was conducted through a closed questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed through professional accounting organizations in Kosovo by its members, professional accountants, auditors and accounting technicians. Factor analysis and multiple regression were applied to measure the impact of professional associations on the quality of higher accounting education in Kosovo. Findings. The results showed that professional associations that provide accounting services in Kosovo play a very important role in the sustainable development of accounting education in Kosovo, through the promotion of accounting education as well as in the framework of improving services, raising standards of accounting services in Kosovo, as part of their improvement. Originality. It is proposed to improve professional accounting education programs in Kosovo through the provision of information by accountants and experts in the field who provide services in the public interest and meet high quality standards of the services they offer. Practical value. Implications relate to the possibility of involving more companies and following the development trends of accounting education.

Improvement and evaluation of the financial (accounting) services quality in the era of SARS-COV-2

Abstract The changes brought about by the spread of COVID-19 require from entrepreneurs a new approach to the way they manage their businesses. Accounting offices are also facing a major challenge these days. In addition to the constant changes in tax regulations and the implementation of many new provisions concerning anti-crisis shields, the way of customer service in accounting offices has also changed as they had to adapt to the new reality. The aim of this article is to present the importance of improving the quality of accounting services in the pandemic era. The first part of the paper includes the scope of services and theoretical aspects of customer service in accounting offices in the era of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the characteristics of the concept of quality. Subsequently, the results of an anonymous survey conducted among entrepreneurs who are clients of accounting offices are presented, which contributed to the formulation of conclusions on the significance of customer service quality in accounting offices. The article highlights the significant changes in the way tasks are performed in accounting firms and financial departments. Among the modern methods of providing accounting services, two have been selected which (according to the respondents) will significantly effect on the service providing quality (in particular by limiting personal contact of contractors).

Ethical perspectives of certified public accountants and the cannabis industry

BackgroundCertified public accountants must follow very high standards of ethical conduct as set forth by the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and individual state licensing requirements. A 2019 grounded theory qualitative study posed that CPAs remain largely hesitant to serve the cannabis industry primarily because they fear federal prosecution as long as cannabis remains on the DEA’s Schedule I Drug List. The purpose of this research was to determine the perceptions of CPAs regarding providing accounting services to the cannabis industry in states that have legalized cannabis usage. This study investigated whether CPAs would serve the industry, why they might decline to serve the industry, what risks they believe serving the industry posed, and whether they believe serving the cannabis industry would create a moral or ethical issue.MethodsThis follow-up quantitative study investigated a small convenience sample of approximately one hundred CPAs in Colorado and Washington to learn more about their perceptions of serving the cannabis industry. Data was analyzed using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests to determine if there were any differences in perceptions between groups such as states, gender, and age categories.ResultsOf the participants, 77% responded that neither they nor their firm provided services to a cannabis-related business client compared to 23% that did serve cannabis clients. More Colorado CPAs were willing to turn down CRB work than were expected and fewer Colorado CPAs would be willing to take on CRB clients than were expected. While in Washington, fewer CPAs would turn down RB clients than expected, and more are willing to accept CRB clients than were expected. The risk due to potential liability coverage issues due to serving the cannabis industry was rated the highest while the risk of losing the CPA license was rated lowest. Data indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference between Colorado and Washington participants related to whether they were morally or religiously opposed to working in the industry or if they viewed serving the industry as an ethical violation.ConclusionCPAs remain largely unwilling to serve the cannabis industry primarily because CPAs fear federal prosecution as long as cannabis remains on the DEA’s Schedule I Drug Listing. The results of this study indicate that while most CPAs are not morally or religiously opposed to serving the industry, about half still believe doing so may constitute an ethical violation for a CPA.

Benefits of using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) by Accounting Services Providers

Accountants as service providers, offer services consisting of analysis of the profitability of their own clients. However, accountants, with the organizational forms they operate through, are also profit-oriented entities. In order to properly position on the market, accountants are forced to find ways, methods or technologies that would improve the service they offer to the clients. The concept of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) will be presented as a comprehensive business philosophy that enables the improvement of the relationship between the provider and the user of accounting services. CRM systems are a synthesis of software and business philosophy that focus on the specific customer requirements. Recognizing the benefits offered by these systems allows accounting service providers to obtain relevant information about their clients' characteristics. This allows to offer added value to the services, increasing the loyalty of existing customers, it also enables opportunity to develop a strategy to attract new customers, which could ultimately result in increasing the profitability of companies that provide accounting services.  

Benefits of and Obstacles to RPA Implementation in Accounting Firms

This paper describes the concept of a novel research planned to be carried out in Polish accounting firms providing accounting services to micro and small enterprises. The accounting firms consist of around 36,000 active entities providing services to as many as about 2 million entrepreneurs. The principal objective of this research is to determine the extent of robotic process automation in Polish accounting firms, as well as to identify the benefits of and obstacles to its implementation. The research is to be structured into 6 tasks, while the methods to be applied include a literature review, interviews with the owners and accountants working in accounting firms, survey methods/pen-and-paper personal interview and computer-assisted web interview, as well as raw data collection and statistical analysis. The results of a preliminary pilot study in two accounting firms are also presented in the paper.

Cosmos : A Unified Accounting System both for the HTCondor and Slurm Clusters at IHEP

HTCondor was adopted to manage the High Throughput Computing (HTC) cluster at IHEP in 2016. In 2017 a Slurm cluster was set up to run High Performance Computing (HPC) jobs. To provide accounting services for these two clusters, we implemented a unified accounting system named Cosmos. Multiple workloads bring different accounting requirements. Briefly speaking, there are four types of jobs to account. First of all, 30 million single-core jobs run in the HTCondor cluster every year. Secondly, Virtual Machine (VM) jobs run in the legacy HTCondor VM cluster. Thirdly, parallel jobs run in the Slurm cluster, and some of these jobs are run on the GPU worker nodes to accelerate computing. Lastly, some selected HTC jobs are migrated from the HTCondor cluster to the Slurm cluster for research purposes. To satisfy all the mentioned requirements, Cosmos is implemented with four layers: acquisition, integration, statistics and presentation. Details about the issues and solutions of each layer will be presented in the paper. Cosmos has run in production for two years, and the status shows that it is a well-functioning system, also meets the requirements of the HTCondor and Slurm clusters.

Qualificação Profissional, Inovação Tecnológica e Desempenho em Escritórios de Contabilidade

The study aims to analyze the indirect influence of professional qualification on the performance of Offices that provide Accounting Services, through technological innovation. Additionally, it investigates the direct relationship between professional qualification and technological innovation, as well as the influence of the latter with organizational performance. The methodological procedures are of descriptive, quantitative nature and were applied through a questionnaire on an electronic platform, and the data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling estimated using Partial Least Squares, in SmartPLS. The sample includes Accounting Offices associated with the Union of Accounting Services, Advisory, Expertise Information and Research in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (SESCON-RS). The findings indicate that professional qualification influences technological innovation, and latter influences performance. It is observed that technological innovation promotes total mediation between professional qualification and performance, since the indirect effect is significant, while the direct effect is not significant. This way, it is concluded that although the investments with the qualification of the accounting professionals do not directly influence the performance, it promotes a greater technological innovation, which consequently will significantly boost the performance. Theoretically, this research contributes by showing an indirect effect of professional qualification on performance, through the total mediation promoted by technological innovation. In a practical terms, subsidies are shown to infer the relevance of Accounting professionals in qualifying, mainly in the technological terms.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ ВЕДЕННЯ БУХГАЛТЕРСЬКОГО ОБЛІКУ ПОСЛУГИ У СФЕРІ БЕЗПЕКИ БІЗНЕСУ

The organization of accounting is a special component of the formation of information space management of business activities of the company in the field of business security. This is due to the fact that it is at the stage of accounting organization that the basic issues of accounting and the order of establishing information and communication relations in the service management system in the field of business security and in the context of interaction with the customer of this kind of service. The purpose of this study is to provide accounting services in the field of business security. In the course of the research it was found that the issues of organization of accounting consulting services in the field of security should be considered in the following sequence, namely: the task of accounting; principles of accounting; elements of accounting method. The organization of accounting is the element that at the stage of formation of information management system of economic activity, allows to determine the mechanism of execution of all tasks. It is established that the task of accounting for services in the field of business security is the formation of information about the processes of provision and implementation of services in the field of business security and their impact on the results of business activities of the implementing company. In turn, the task of accounting information is to meet the specific information needs of internal and external users. Determining the tasks of accounting and accounting information are directed to the management and evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation of services in the field of business security and take into account their specificity and properties. The article explores the domestic and foreign experience of accounting regulation of the general list of accounting principles. Developing a system of accounting principles in Ukraine, we note that the domestic accounting legislation on the composition of the principles does not have a single approach, we consider it necessary to apply the principles foreseen by the National Accounting Regulation (Standard) 1 in the organization of accounting consulting services in the field of security reporting. "

Comparative analysis of models of organization of providing accounting services: outsourcing, insourcing, co-soursing

The organizational structure of an enterprise should provide a system of effective management of operational processes, which can not function without optimal organization of accounting, which is a set of interacting units aimed at the holistic activity and development of the entity. The urgent issue is to study the qualitative and effective organization of accounting at the enterprise, to find alternative models of accounting organization through the use of services of external providers, to identify the relationship between them and differences in their application. The article focuses on such models of accounting organization as the organization of accounting by internal units and on a contractual basis by an external provider, i.e. the transfer of the maximum possible number of accounting processes and procedures to crowd technology (outsourcing, intsourcing, co-sourcing) in terms of accounting transactions’ organization. The essence of the concepts of outsourcing, offshoring, insourcing, outstaffing, co-sourcing is defined. A comparative analysis of these crowd technologies is conducted and their advantages and disadvantages for the purposes of qualitative organization of accounting transactions in the structure of the enterprise are determined. It is emphasized that the choice of any model of organization of accounting processes (outsourcing, insourcing, co-sourcing) is a strategic decision for the enterprise, since this decision is directly related to all aspects of enterprise management. In terms of digital economy formation, by means of information technologies and platforms, business models are dramatically changing. The use of an outsourcing/insourcing/co-sourcing strategy enables the company not only to reduce costs and increase the company’s capitalization, but to grow and develop at a faster rate.

Framework estratégico para sustentação da vantagem competitiva em empresas de serviços contábeis: análise da complementaridade entre as perspectivas de Porter e das capacidades dinâmicas

Este estudo objetiva desenvolver um framework estratégico para sustentação da vantagem competitiva a partir do consenso entre os gestores de empresas de serviços contábeis em relação ao conjunto de elementos da perspectiva teórica de Porter e das Capacidades Dinâmicas (CDs). O estudo é descritivo, de análise quantitativa, com amostra de 38 empresas prestadoras de serviços contábeis, cujas respostas foram obtidas majoritariamente de proprietários, diretores, gerentes, supervisores e coordenadores com poder de tomada de decisão. Os resultados apresentaram consenso entre os profissionais de empresas prestadoras de serviços contábeis perante a complementariedade entre as teorias. Além disto, os resultados apresentam certo nivelamento perante estratégias de diferenciação no mercado do Alto Vale do Itajaí. Com isso, conclui-se que não houve predominância de consenso das práticas internas das organizações sobre nenhum dos dois modelos teóricos analisados neste estudo. Destaca-se a complementariedade entre as teorias, a qual seria estabelecida na visão dos elementos externos e internos para tomada de decisões estratégicas, destarte, desenvolveu-se um modelo de gestão para sustentação da vantagem competitiva fundamentado nas teorias de base do presente estudo.

Classification of accounting outsourcing: compliance with modern development trends

The object of research is accounting outsourcing, the effectiveness of implementation depends on many factors, one of the main processes is properly organized transition to outsourcing. One of the most problematic places is the analysis of all types of accounting outsourcing and accounting of those signs that are suitable for a particular enterprise. In the process of research, the following methods are used: analysis and synthesis, logical generalization, analogies, comparative comparison, graphical method.Based on the results of the analysis of the positions of scientists, it is established that there is no systematicity in the disclosure of classification characteristics, according to which types of accounting outsourcing are delineated in literary sources. Despite the rather high level of research on this issue, there is no clear unity in the allocation of relevant types of accounting outsourcing.The types of accounting outsourcing are systematized and presented in the context of three groups of characteristics:– depending on the provided services;– depending on the subjects of management (types of business entities, tax status and location of business entities);– depending on the requirements for outsourcing organization (time period, cooperation procedure, implementation mechanism, list of works, models for providing accounting services).It is confirmed that the proposed classification largely depends on the specifics of the formation of the relationship between the parties to the contract – the customer and the contractor.The implemented theoretical developments in the field of accounting outsourcing are the basis for describing models of accounting in the conditions of using outsourcing.

Capital humano e sua relação com o desempenho organizacional em empresas prestadoras de serviços contábeis

Na atualidade o valor das empresas não pode ser estimado apenas pelos seus ativos tangíveis. A geração e aquisição de conhecimento são fundamentais para a obtenção de vantagens competitivas, pelo que cresce a importância do capital intelectual da organização. Nesse contexto a pesquisa objetiva analisar se o capital humano (CH) que as empresas prestadoras de serviços contábeis dispõem se relaciona positivamente com seu desempenho organizacional (DO). Metodologicamente, a pesquisa se caracteriza como quantitativa e de natureza aplicada, com os dados empíricos obtidos com questionário numa amostra intencional. Levantaram-se dados de ambos os constructos e dos respondentes e suas empresas. Os métodos estatísticos foram o teste t e a análise de variância para as comparações de médias. Empregou-se também a análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória e a modelagem em equações estruturais para avaliar a relação conjecturada. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que os respondentes têm percepções estatisticamente iguais para ambos os constructos ao considerar o gênero e o tipo de gestão que a firma possui, mas houve diferenças para a percepção do desempenho segundo seu tamanho. Empresas maiores declaram ter maior desempenho. A hipótese que o CH se relaciona positiva e significativamente com o DO foi confirmada.

The Role of Technological Business Incubators in Supporting and Developing Marketing Capabilities for Entrepreneurship Business and Small Projects in Jordan

This research aimed to identify the role of technological business incubators in supporting and developing marketing capabilities for entrepreneurship business and small projects in Jordan. The research population included all personnel and owners of the small entrepreneurship, either those projects were incubated or not. The sample of the study consisted of (400) respondents. It was concluded that there was a role for the services provided by technological business incubators of, (administrative services, financial services, professional services, follow-up and personal services) in supporting and developing the marketing capabilities in business entrepreneurship and small projects in Jordan. The averages for those services were of a high level of Importance. In light of the findings’ it was recommended to continue to provide accounting services and billing for business entrepreneurship and small businesses, and to emphasized the importance of holding specialized training courses for business entrepreneurship and small projects.