<p>The accounting information system comprises budgeting, accounting, and costing. The accounting information system has, traditionally, constituted an integrated system where the different elements collaborate. If ABC is introduced this order is disturbed, since ABC is based on another logic which cannot easily be integrated with budget and accounting. ABC, therefore, is usually used parallely to the conventional costing method. There are, however, companies that have taken its ABC one step further by letting it replace the old costing model and integrate it with the accounting information system. Our purpose is to describe how a well-integrated ABC has been designed and analyse its general possibilities to create an integrated ABC and accounting information system. In order to fulfil this purpose we have based our empirics on interviews and internal documents from our case company; a subsidiary to Volvo. In the case we have studied, a high degree of integration has been achieved through a partial adaptation of ABC as well as the remaining components of the accounting information system. The account of overhead revenues has changed from focusing on hours to register based on articles produced. The budget, at a whole, continues unchanged, but some rationalisations in the budget process have been a positive consequence of the adoption of ABC. ABC has been adapted by letting the accounts plan and the cost pool structure remain unchanged and no division based on activities has been realised. The procedure of the studied case can be applicable to other constructing enterprises facing the decision to adopt or integrate ABC to its accounting information system.</p>

The accounting information system comprises budgeting, accounting, and costing. The accounting information system has, traditionally, constituted an integrated system where the different elements collaborate. If ABC is introduced this order is disturbed, since ABC is based on another logic which cannot easily be integrated with budget and accounting. ABC, therefore, is usually used parallely to the conventional costing method. There are, however, companies that have taken its ABC one step further by letting it replace the old costing model and integrate it with the accounting information system. Our purpose is to describe how a well-integrated ABC has been designed and analyse its general possibilities to create an integrated ABC and accounting information system. In order to fulfil this purpose we have based our empirics on interviews and internal documents from our case company; a subsidiary to Volvo. In the case we have studied, a high degree of integration has been achieved through a partial adaptation of ABC as well as the remaining components of the accounting information system. The account of overhead revenues has changed from focusing on hours to register based on articles produced. The budget, at a whole, continues unchanged, but some rationalisations in the budget process have been a positive consequence of the adoption of ABC. ABC has been adapted by letting the accounts plan and the cost pool structure remain unchanged and no division based on activities has been realised. The procedure of the studied case can be applicable to other constructing enterprises facing the decision to adopt or integrate ABC to its accounting information system.

Sammanfattning Titel: Redovisningsinformationens betydelse vid kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag. Nivå: C-uppsats i företagsekonomi. Författare: Annelie Engström och Christian Mattsson. Handledare: Ann W Dörner. Datum: Juni 2012. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kreditgivare använder sig av redovisningsinformation vid kreditbedömningen av små och medelstora företag. Forskningsfrågorna är: Stämmer redovisningsinformationen överens med kreditgivarnas behov av information vid kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag? Vilka delar av redovisningsinformationen är viktiga vid en kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag? Metod: I denna studie används en mixad metod vilket innebär att en kvantitativ metod används vid insamling av data och en kvalitativ metod vid analyseringen av data. Empirisk data har samlats in med strukturerade frågeformulär med fasta svarsalternativ som skickats ut till respondenterna. Sekundärdata har sökts fram ur relevant litteratur, artiklar och tidigare undersökningar. Resultat och Slutsats: De flesta kreditgivare är nöjda med den information som ges. Balans- och resultaträkning är de viktigaste rapporterna vid en kreditbedömning. Rörelseresultatet är den viktigaste resultatposten, kassalikviditet och soliditet är de viktigaste nyckeltalen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Följande två frågor har uppkommit under arbete och föreslås därmed som ämnen till framtida studier. Vilken redovisningsinformation saknar kreditgivare och vad skulle de vilja förbättra i den nuvarande informationen. Revisionspliktens betydelse vid kreditbedömning. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna uppsats utreder vilka av årsredovisningens delar som är viktiga vid kreditbedömning. Detta kan vara till hjälp för att utveckla bedömningsunderlag för framtida rapporter. Nyckelord: Kreditbedömning, kreditgivning, redovisningsinformation, årsredovisning, finansiella rapporter / Abstract Title: The relevance of accounting information in the credit-granting process concerning small and medium firms. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Authors: Annelie Engström and Christian Mattsson. Supervisor: Ann W Dörner. Date: June 2012. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how creditors use accounting information in the credit-granting process concerning small and medium-sized firms. The research questions are: Does the provided accounting information fulfill the creditor’s needs of information in the credit-granting process of small and medium-sized firms? What parts of the accounting information is important in the credit-granting process of small and medium-sized firms? Method: The design of this study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The primary data is collected by a quantitative method. To obtain empirical data, structured questionnaires have been sent out with fixed response alternatives to the respondents. Secondary data, have mainly been taken from literature, articles and previous studies. Result and Conclusions: Not all but most creditors are satisfied with the provided information. The balance sheet and the income statement are the most important reports when credit-granting decisions are to be made. The operating profit is the main performance record and cash liquidity and solvency are the most important ratios. Suggestions for future research: Two questions arose during the study and is thereby suggested as topics for future studies. What are the creditors missing in today’s accounting information and what needs improvement? The mandatory auditing importance of credit-granting. Contribution of this thesis: This paper investigates which parts of the Annual Report that is important for credit-granting. This may help to develop the assessment basis for future reports. Key words: Granting of credit, credit process, accounting information, annual report, financial reports

Bakgrund och problemformulering: Det är ett problem för mindre-och medelstora företag då redovisningsstandards som redovisningen upprättas enligt har varit onödigt komplicerad utifrån de behov användarna har av redovisningen. Sveriges förenklingsarbete har bland annat kännetecknats av förenklingar för de små-och medelstora företagen. Förenklingsarbetet benämndes K-projektet vilket delvis har till syfte att tillgodose användarnas behov av finansiella rapporter. K2 är det förenklade regelpaket som riktar sig till mindre företag såsom mindre aktiebolag där banker är en av de primära användarna av deras finansiella rapporter. Då K2 medför förenklingar, schabloniseringar och en mindre rapporteringsskyldighet får detta konsekvenser för bankerna eftersom de efterfrågar mycket information vid en kreditbedömning av ett företag för att fatta välgrundat beslut. Utifrån detta blev problemformuleringen följande:   I vilken omfattning använder banker företags redovisningsinformation vid kreditgivning? Hur anser bankerna att årsredovisningar upprättade enligt K2-regelverket täcker informationsbehovet vid kreditgivning?   Syfte: Vi vill undersöka hur bankernas informationsbehov tillgodoses vid kreditbedömningen utifrån finansiella rapporter upprättade enligt K2-regelverket. Studien syftar till att öka förståelse och uppfattning för vad bankerna efterfrågar i den finansiella information som företagen lämnar.   Metod: Syftet med studien var att öka förståelsen och uppfattningen om det valda ämnet. En kvalitativ metod syftar till just att erhålla en djupare förståelse. En fallstudie innefattas av komplexitet i det som undersöks, vilket vår studie kännetecknas av eftersom det är relativt få företag som idag tillämpar K2 vid upprättande av redovisningsinformation, därav valdes en fallstudie. Valet att intervjua banker skedde utifrån att de är en primär användare av finansiella rapporter enligt K2.    Slutsats: Redovisningen är den primära källan som banker utgår ifrån i en kreditbedömning. Redovisningen utgör dock aldrig ett tillräckligt beslutsunderlag för banken utan ytterligare information inhämtas för att fatta ett välgrundat beslut. Bankens egen bedömning av företaget som helhet innebär inhämtning av både hård- och mjuk data. Detta medför att oberoende av vilket regelverk ett företag använder sig av gör banken alltid egna interna kreditbedömningar av företagen. Att redovisningen skall kunna återspegla det verkliga värdet är en viktig egenskap för banken. Då K2 kännetecknas av förenklingar, schablonlösningar och begränsade valmöjligheter skapas sämre förutsättningar för detta.   Förslag till vidare forskning: Ett intressant regelverk att göra en liknande studie om är K3-regelverket då detta är en valmöjlighet för mindre aktiebolag. Idag är det frivilligt att tillämpa K2 vilket medför att få upprättar sin redovisning efter K2. En ny undersökning då regelverket blivit obligatoriskt för mindre aktiebolag vore ett sätt att belysa bankens direkta uppfattning om regelverket. Nyckelord: Informationsasymmetri, K2, banker, kreditgivningsprocessen och redovisningsinformation. / Background and problems: It has been an issue for small- and medium sized companies, as accounting standards that they set up their accounts after having been unnecessarily complicated in compared to the needs of the users of its financial statements. Sweden’s efforts to simplify these accounting standards has among other things, been characterized by easing the work for small- and medium size companies. These efforts were called K-projektet, whose purpose partly has been to meet the needs of users of financial statements. K2 is the simplified rule package aimed at smaller companies. Banks are one of the primary users of small companies’ financial statements. K2 is characterized by simplifications, standardization and less reporting obligation. Since banks are demanding a lot of information at a credit decision of a company to make an informed decision, the questions where as follow To what extant do banks use companies accounting information in credit decision? How do financial statements prepared in K2 framework meet the needs of regarded information in credit decisions?Purpose: We examine how the information needs of banks´ are met at credit decisions based on financial statements prepared in the K2 framework. The study aims to increase the understanding and perception of what banks´ demand in the financial information provided by the entities.Method: In the purpose of this study, we wanted to increase the understanding and perception of the chosen topic. A qualitative method aims to do just that, to obtain a deeper understanding of banks´ information demand for credit. A case study includes a complexity of the investigated object, which our study is characterized by because there are relatively few companies that currently apply the K2 in the preparation of accounting information, hence a case study was chosen. The choice to interview the banks was based on that they are the primary users of financial statements in accordance to the K2-regulation.Conclusion: In credit evaluation, accounting is the primary source of information for banks´. Accounting is never a sufficient basis for credit decision for the bank. They have to obtain further information to make an justified decision. The banks´ own assessment of the company as a whole, are based on both hard and soft information which means that regardless of the regulations a company is incorporated by, the banks own internal assessment if a company will be able to repay the credit they will be granted. The most important quality for the bank is that the financial statements are reflecting the fair value, but since K2 is characterized by simplifications, standard solutions and limited choices it creates fewer opportunities for it.Suggestions for further research: An interesting framework to conduct a similar study on, is the K3-framework, since smaller entities may be able to also establish its own financial statements for these regulations. Today is it voluntary to apply K2 this means that few today have chosen to apply the rules. Establishing a new survey when regulations become mandatory for small companies would be a way to highlight the banks´ direct perception of the rules.

While the lack of publicly available literatures examining the applications of managerial accounting information in service organizations, this study uses the international tourist hotel as an example to determine the relationship between managerial accounting information, the organization, strategies and business performance. Multi-national comparison is another important issue of this paper. As background the paper cited a popular text by Horngren and Sundem (1999), which delineated three types of managerial accounting information: scorekeeping, attention directing, and problem solving. The purposes of the study present as follows: 1.Have an outlook of managerial accounting information exercising in international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan. 2.To analyze the effects of organization characteristics and strategies on managerial accounting information and business performance. 3.Through multi-national case comparison, both countries could see the differences of managerial accounting information exercising between each other and the reasons behind. Both countries can use them as a reference for future operating improvement. This study interviewed four international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan. To minimize the interference from international chain hotels on decision makings, the target of case research hotels were all focused on independent operated, belonged to the range of 4 to 5 stars. The results of these case studies suggest: 1.Due to the differences of multi-national environment and accounting regulations, the international tourist hotels in the Netherlands and Taiwan exercise different degrees of managerial accounting information. 2.The result partly proved that international tourist hotels need sufficient managerial accounting information to cooperate with Cost Leadership Strategy. 3.The hotels emphasizing corperate governance attach more importance to managerial accounting information. Besides, the accounting sections within these companies are usually more professional operated. 4.The hotels in the Netherlands which follow Differentiation Strategy need abundant accounting information to support decision makings; while those hotels in Taiwan usually rely on the rich experiences of top managers to make decisions. There is no significant relationship between managerial accounting information and Differentiation Strategy in Taiwanese hotels. 5.In the Netherlands, relevant relationship was observed between managerial accounting information and business performance; whereas there is no direct conclusion for Taiwanese hotels.

The audit firms play an important role in the capital markets by verifying that auditors provide reliable information to the decision makers. However, trust in auditing firms has been questioned following Enron‘s failure and accounting scandals at WorldCom and other companies. As a result, Arthur Anderson failed and the number of big audit firms fell to four firms and no one knows who might be next. Defond and Francis (2005) believe that a critical trigger occurred when Deloitte & Touch issued a “clean” peer review report on Arthur Andersen in December 2001, just a few weeks before Andersen publicly announced that it had shredded documents related to Enron audit. The credibility and integrity of the profession‘s self-regulation program was immediately in doubt. To protect public interests and to restore confidence in the capital markets, the USA government issued the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. Similarly, the Financial Reporting Council in the UK provided the Professional Oversight Board with similar mission. This thesis aims to explore the role of independent audit regulators in promoting confidence in the audit profession, and analyse the big four firms’ strategies that react toward these regulatory changes in the audit markets. The lack of studies in this area supports the use of grounded theory as a research methodology. 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the top management level of the audit regulators and big four firms’ partners. This study contributes to the literature as it provides a better understanding of the satisfaction of the big four audit firms toward the new independent regulators, and how these firms react toward the additional requirements of the independent inspectors.

Tyrimo objektas – apskaitos tvarkymo kompiuteriais technologijos. Tyrimo tikslas – išanalizavus teorinius ir praktinius apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo kompiuteriais technologijos aspektus bei nustačius svarbiausiuosius šios technologijos vertinimo kriterijus ir rodiklius ištirti ir įvertinti apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo technologijų, naudojančių tris skirtingas apskaitos informacines sistemas, kokybę. Tyrimo metodai: monografinis, palyginimo, loginės analizės ir apibendrinimo, grafinio vaizdavimo, anketinės ir interviu apklausos, statistinio duomenų apdorojimo, duomenų analizės ir sisteminimo, porinio palyginimo, daugiaaspekčio vertinimo bei kiti mokslinio tyrimo metodai. Naudojant monografinį, palyginimo, loginės analizės ir apibendrinimo mokslinio tyrimo metodus buvo išanalizuoti apskaitos kompiuterizavimo tikslingumą atskleidžiantys veiksniai ir svarbiausieji apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo technologijos aspektai bei suformuluoti pagrindiniai reikalavimai, keliami apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo kompiuteriais technologijai, o taip pat parinkta apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo technologijos kokybės tyrimo metodika, sudaryta šios technologijos kokybės vertinimo kriterijų ir rodiklių sistema bei sudarytos apskaitos informacijos tvarkymo technologijos kokybės rodiklių metrikos. Siekiant išvengti tų pačių kokybės savybių vertinimo naudojant skirtingiems kriterijams priskirtus rodiklius, buvo atliktas jų optimizavimas. Naudojant anketinės ir interviu apklausos, statistinio... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research object: technologies of computerized accounting. Research aim: after analyzing theoretical and practical aspects of computerized accounting technology and after determining the main criteria and indexes of this type of technology, to investigate and evaluate the quality of computerized accounting technologies, which use three different information systems of accounting. Research methods: monographic, comparison, logical analysis and generalization, graphical representation, questioning and interviewing, statistical management of data, data analysis and systematizing, pair comparison, multi – aspect evaluation and other scientific research methods. The expedient factors of computerized accounting and the most important aspects of computerized accounting technology were analyzed using monographic, comparison, logical analysis and generalization methods. Fundamental requirements for the computerized accounting technology were also formulated. Moreover, the methology, analysing the quality of computerized accounting technologies, and the system of criteria‘s and indexes‘ quality evaluation were selected and created. The metrics of quality indexes were formed. These indexes were optimized in order to avoid the evaluation of the same quality characteristics. The significance of quality criteria and indexes was determined using the methods of questioning, interviewing, statistic management of data and pair comparison. The value of quality indexes was determined using the... [to full text]

Managerial work has been described as fragmented, action-oriented, and highly interpersonal, leaving limited room for formal planning and analysis. Even so, managers are expected to engage with accounting information for planning and analysing their area of responsibility. Accounting information has, however, been found to be tardy, aggregated, and incomplete, leading managers to rely on a wide set of additional informational resources. Still, managers’ doings and concerns tend to remain largely in the background in much management accounting research, which leaves us with limited knowledge of how accounting information comes into play in managers’ work. Moreover, technologies aimed at accommodating managers’ information needs are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and allow for timelier and more precise accounting information. This gradual transformation of technologies has led to questions concerning how management accounting is practised, and how it is related to accounting information systems. The aim of this dissertation is to identify roles of accounting information in managerial work in order to better understand the link between managerial work and management accounting systems. The dissertation consists of two volumes, each with three papers and a summary appraisal. The empirical material consists of interviews with a cross-sectional sample of mainly first-line managers, and a study of a construction firm including interviews with higher- and lower-level managers, observations of workshops where higher-level managers and staff discuss the management accounting systems, and internal documents. Overall, this dissertation suggests four roles of accounting information, based on its capacity to serve as representation, translation, key and perspective. Essentially, these roles reflect the ability of accounting information to both aggregate and disaggregate “reality”. The potential of each of these roles is shaped by managerial, organisational and technological issues, and is not always easily realised. The potential of these roles is particularly challenged in an environment with many local contexts. By accentuating what makes accounting information more and less valuable vis-à-vis other informational resources, this dissertation adds clarity to the emerging body of literature on managers’ situated use of accounting information, and to the debate on information technologies and management accounting.

När människor åstadkommer något tillsammans innebär det att deras ansträngningar samordnas på något sätt. Samordningen kan vara planerad eller spontan, informell eller formaliserad, medveten eller omedveten och kan ske i samförstånd eller leda till konflikter. Denna avhandling handlar om hur samordningen kan ske inom företag och vilken betydelse ekonomisk styrning och ekonomidatasystem har i sammanhanget. Påverkar eller påverkas deras utformning och funktion av hur samordning organiseras? Har de någon inverkan på företagets ekonomiska prestationer? I avhandlingen redovisas de svar en undersökning av samordningsproblematik i svenska börsnoterade tillverkande företag lett fram till. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001

Quality information is critical to organisations’ success in today’s highly competitive environment. Accounting information systems (AIS) as a discipline within information systems require high quality data. However, empirical evidence suggests that data quality is problematic in AIS. Therefore, knowledge of critical factors that are important in ensuring data quality in accounting information systems is desirable. A literature review evaluates previous research work in quality management, data quality, and accounting information systems. It was found that there was a gap in the literature about critical success factors for data quality in accounting information systems. Based on this gap in the literature and the findings of the exploratory stage of the research, a preliminary research model for factors influence data quality in AIS was developed. A framework for understanding relationships between stakeholder groups and data quality in accounting information systems was also developed. The major stakeholders are information producers, information custodians, information managers, information users, and internal auditors. Case study and survey methodology were adopted for this research. Case studies in seven Australian organisations were carried out, where four of them were large organisations and the other three are small to medium organisations (SMEs). Each case was examined as a whole to obtain an understanding of the opinions and perspectives of the respondents from each individual organisation as to what are considered to be the important factors in the case. Then, cross-case analysis was used to analyze the similarities and differences of the seven cases, which also include the variations between large organisations and small to medium organisations (SMEs). Furthermore, the variations between five different stakeholder groups were also examined. The results of the seven main case studies suggested 26 factors that may have impact on data quality in AIS. Survey instrument was developed based on the findings from case studies. Two large-scale surveys were sent to selected members of Australian CPA, and Australian Computer Society to further develop and test the research framework. The major findings from the survey are: 1. respondents rated the importance of the factors consistent higher than the actual performance of those factors. 2. There was only one factor, ‘audit and reviews’, that was found to be different between different sized organisations. 3. Four factors were found to be significantly different between different stakeholder groups: user focus, measurement and reporting, data supplier quality management and audit and reviews. 4. The top three critical factors for ensuring data quality in AIS were: top management commitment, education and training, and the nature of the accounting information systems. The key contribution of this thesis is the theoretical framework developed from the analysis of the findings of this research, which is the first such framework built upon empirical study that explored factors influencing data quality in AIS and their interrelationships with stakeholder groups and data quality outcomes. That is, it is now clear which factors impact on data quality in AIS, and which of those factors are critical success factors for ensuring high quality information outcomes. In addition, the performance level of factors was also incorporated into the research framework. Since the actual performance of factors has not been highlighted in other studies, this research adds new theoretical insights to the extant literature. In turn, this research confirms some of the factors mentioned in the literature and adds a few new factors. Moreover, stakeholder groups of data quality in AIS are important considerations and need more attention. The research framework of this research shows the relationship between stakeholder groups, important factors and data quality outcomes by highlighting stakeholder groups’ influence on identifying the important factors, as well as the evaluation of the importance and p erformance of the factors.