Bakgrund: Poängen med entreprenörskap är enligt många att skapa en lönsamhet. Det är lönsamheten som driver företagarna framåt. För att skapa en lönsamhet krävs kunskap inom ekonomistyrningsområdet och dess verktyg som kan användas för att skapa en lönsamhet. I november 2012 fanns det enligt Statistiska Centralbyrån, SCB (2012) cirka 7500 stycken medel – och stora företag, samtidigt som småföretagen uppgick till cirka 35 000 stycken. Delar av dagens litteratur riktar sig främst mot större företag, därför vill denna studie istället rikta sig mot småföretag. Studien syftar till att belysa om småföretag använder sig av ekonomistyrning, med inriktning på traditionell formella styrmedel, som kalkylering, budgetering, resultatplanering och internredovisning. Används dessa styrmedel inom småföretag eller väljer företagen bort dem och ersätter med andra? Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur småföretag använder sig av den traditionella ekonomistyrningen, med inriktning på de formella styrmedlen. Undersyftet med studien är att belysa vilka styrmedel som eventuellt väljs bort av småföretagen och om de eventuellt ersätts med andra. Bidraget till det företagsekonomiska ämnet är att belysa användandet av ekonomistyrningen med inriktning på de mer formella styrmedlen inom småföretag. Metod: Denna studie använder sig av en hermeneutisk tradition, en kvalitativ metod samt ett abduktivt synsätt. Genom användandet av en abduktivt synsätt innebär det att studien pendlar mellan teorin och empirin. Detta innebär att ny teori har tillkommit efter att empirin har samlats in. En kvalitativ metod har använts eftersom att studien tar fram empirin genom en fallstudie med intervjuer av respondenter. I metoden har alla steg i studien genomgåtts och förklarats för att skapa en förståelse för hur arbetet gått till rent praktiskt. Resultat: Resultaten från denna studie tyder på att småföretagen som medverkat i denna studie använder sig till stor del av de formella styrmedlen som den traditionella ekonomistyrningen förespråkar. Främst används kalkylering och budgetering, vilket går att koppla till denna art av tjänsteföretag. / Background: The point of entrepreneurship is according to many people to create a profit. It is profitability that drives the business forward. To create viability it requires knowledge in the management accounting area and its tools that can be used to generate viability.In November 2012, there were according to Statistics Sweden, SCB (2012) about 7 500 of medium - and large enterprises, while small enterprises amounted to about 35 000. Parts of today’s literature are aimed primarily to larger companies, which is why this study instead target to small businesses. The study aims to shed light on small business, if they use financial management, with a focus on traditional management control systems, such as cost estimating, budgeting, profit planning and management accounting. Uses these instruments in small business or does the firms decide remove them and replace with others? Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how small businesses use the traditional management control systems. The aim of this study is to elucidate what instruments might opts out of small businesses and their possible substitution. The contribution to the subject of Business Administration is to illustrate the use of financial management, focusing on the management control systems in small businesses. Method: This study uses a hermeneutic tradition, a qualitative method and an abductive approach. Through the use of an abductive approach involves the study oscillates between theory and empirical data. This means that the new theory has arisen subsequent to the empirical data has been collected. A qualitative approach was used because the study produces empirical data through a case study with interviews of respondents. The method has undergone all stages of the study explained to provide an understanding of how the work was put into practice. Result: The results from this study suggest the small businesses that participated use a large part of the management control systems such as the traditional financial control advocates. Mainly used is costing and budgeting, which can be linked to this kind of services.

Human resource accounting is a concept that was created to deal with the problem of the measurement of the value of human capital. This concept can be very influential for many different human resource practices. This concept is of the utmost importance as it deals with one of the biggest problems within the sectors of accounting and human resources, the constant seeking of an acceptable way of acknowledging human capital in the financial statements as an asset and not as an expense. The skills and knowledge that people can bring into a company are vital for its prosperity and yet no realized. Hereby identifying the similarities and differences in the decision-making factors of HR managers between traditional accounting and human resources accounting (HRA) focused organizations, we want to examine the perceptions of managers who work under both types of organizations. Therefore, the research question we have formulated is the following: What are the similarities and differences between the decision-making processes of HR managers of Traditional accounting and Human Resource Accounting focused organizations? The field of HRA is not new. It is approximately 70 years old, but progress in it has stopped for a while now. The problem besides that is that it is not accepted by international accounting principles. However, nowadays more and more companies try to find a way to allow them to use HRA. In this paper, we have managed to interview HR managers that are currently working under HRA or traditional accounting practices. We selected HR practices in which HRA can have a strong influence so that we can understand and examine how it influences the decision-making process of the managers. The choice of Patterson´s model was based on the fact that it contains four HR practices (recruitment and selection, training and development, retention and turnover, and performance management), in which HRA has a strong influence. Overall, our findings showed us that when it comes to recruitment & selection, and retention & turnover there are more differences between HRA-focused and traditional accounting-focused organizations than in the practices of training & development and performance management. The main difference in recruitment and selection is that HRA-focused organizations make decisions based on measuring the total cost and value of their resources; in training and development the main difference is that HRA-focused organizations calculate the cost of learning by HRA; in retention and turnover, the main difference is that HRA focused organizations can calculate and forecast all cost have already spent and need to spend for replacement an employee, and finally in the performance management the main difference is that HRA focused organizations take into serious consideration the job level of their employees in contrast to traditional accounting focused ones. This offered us the chance to develop a suggested framework. It is based on Patterson’s model but also includes our findings. Finally, we believe that this paper has the possibility to contribute in many different ways. For example, it can be used as a manual from HR managers in order to help them see and understand the differences and similarities between HRA and traditional accounting and extensively manage to focus on the important factors for each respective practice. Moreover, the findings could contribute to the general evolution of HRA, as this paper is one of the few that have approached the HRA concept via qualitative research.