More than 35 years ago, calls were made for research on the constitutive role of accounting. Since then, many statements have been made to specify what accounting is or is not. This study describes what accounting does, in order to amalgamate a fragmented picture of accounting in practice, instead of seeking the answer to the existential question of what accounting really is. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe what accounting does, and how this is done on the basis of business meetings in order to contribute to a better understanding of the role of accounting in practice.This study is based on the actor-network theory approach. Particular attention hasbeen paid to accounting as named numbers, when becoming a performative participantin framed situations. The framed situations of business meetings contained three elements; 1) pure calculation, 2) qualculation which include both calculation and judgments, and 3) calqulation as a collective social process. An ethnographically inspired field studywas carried out at Eton Fashion AB, a Swedish shirt making company. Data was collected by participant observations of business meetings supported by interviews. Photography, sound recording, and field notes were used as techniques for documentation.Diagnoses of five business meetings revealed that; 1) accounting restricted time,place and content, 2) accounting brought past and future into the present, 3) accounting summarized and obscured discontinuities, 4) accounting defined people and things, and 5) accounting called for the filling of content. Accounting became an actor in these five ways as they were allied with people and things that appeared in the meetings. Accounting was in a context where people made sense of situations by making both estimates and judgments. During the meetings, an ongoing reduction of complexity was taking place. Step by step, diversity and complexity were reduced until an order filled with numbers was the only thing remaining. At the same time, something was gained, as we step by step achieved greater legibility, transportability and universality. In this way the situation could subsist. It might move to new situations and it might allow for new summaries and new situations to take place. The situation of a meeting contained elements of pure calculation representing the cold, anonymous and empty part. Oftenthough, calculation, because of its emptiness, initiated for qualculation and calqulation to begin. Accounting as an idea is a taken for granted phenomenon, with influence, often far beyond what we can see when we find ourselves in a given situation. I conclude that it could have been some other way. It is not accounting in itself, its own excellence or ability to represent the truth, which makes it successful. The success story of accounting is simply about “the others” with whom accounting is an ally. / För avläggande av ekonomie doktorsexamen i företagsekonomi som med tillstånd av Handelshögskolans fakultetsnämnd vid Göteborgs universitet framlägges för offentlig granskning fredagen den 30 mars kl. 13.15 i CGsalen vid Företagsekonomiska institutionen, Vasagatan 1, Göteborg.

Bakgrund: Enligt Kommunallagen (SFS 2017:725) ska kommunernas verksamhet bedrivas med god ekonomisk hushållning. Målet med kommunernas verksamhet är inte att uppnå finansiella resultat utan att genomföra de uppgifter kommunen måste enligt lagar och egna policyer med en ansvarsfull ekonomihantering (Prop. 1990/91:117). Kommunernas goda ekonomiska hushållning står inför utmaningar bland annat i form av en åldrande befolkning där skatteintäkterna kommer minska i förhållande till ökade kostnader för flera av kommunernas verksamheter. Den komplexa situationen kommunerna står inför gör det intressant att undersöka hur kommunerna redovisar den goda ekonomiska hushållningen idag.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kommunernas redovisning av god ekonomisk hushållning och utmaningen med att upprätthålla den när ekonomi och verksamhet sätts på prov. Kommunerna har formellt ansvar för den goda ekonomiska hushållningen men fokus för studien är hur de redovisar det.Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats för att kunna ge detaljerade beskrivningar av hur kommunerna redovisar. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har tolkningar av årsredovisningar från fem kommuner gjorts. Studien framför ett resonemang kring hur kommunerna redovisar och tar sitt ansvar för den goda ekonomiska hushållningen genom att undersöka och tolka kommunernas vilja att förklara och redogöra för vad som gjorts.Slutsats: De slutsatser studien kan dra är att det finns kvalitativa skillnader i hur kommunerna redovisar. De redovisar kring kommande utmaningar men genomgående brister de i utvärdering och analys vilket även resulterar i en brist på redovisning av hur de ska klara av att möta utmaningarna. Kommunerna visar dock ett långsiktigt helhetstänk genom sitt arbete med målstyrning via visioner vilket ger en bra grund för en god strategi för kommunal hushållning. Det som upplevs saknas i årsredovisningarna kan eventuell finnas i andra dokument men för att öka tillgängligheten till information för invånarna bör dessa inkluderas i utvärderingen. / Background: According to Kommunallagen (SFS 2017:725) municipal activities must be conducted with good financial management. The goal of municipal activity is not to reach financial results but to implement the tasks the municipalities are obliged to according to law and own policies with a responsible financial management (Prop. 1990/91:117). The municipal good financial management stand before challenges, for example the effect of an ageing population with lower tax revenue relatively to the increase of costs. The complex situation the municipalities stand before making it interesting to examine how the municipality account for the good financial management today.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the municipalities accounting of good financial management and the challenge of maintaining it when the economy and activity is put to test. Municipalities have the formal responsibility for good financial management, but the focus of this study is how they account for it.Methods: This study used a qualitive approach to enable the possibility to give detailed descriptions of how the municipalities account. To fulfill the purpose of this study interpretations of five municipalities’ annual reports have been completed. This study forwards a reasoning about how the municipals account for and display accountability for their good financial management through examining and interpreting the municipalities will to explain and describe what has been done.Conclusion: The conclusions of this study are that there are qualitative differences in how the municipalities account. They account for future challenges but throughout lack in evaluation and analysis which also result in lack of accounting of future plans of how they intend to deal with the challenges. The municipalities does however show a long-term holistic view through their work with goals according to visions which provide a foundation for a good approach to municipal management. What lacks from the annual reports might be found in other documents but for higher accessibility to information for the citizens this should be included in the evaluation.