Controllers' Perceptions of the Importance of Accounting Skills to Lodging Managers

Are managerial accounting skills important to all managers? Which of the common managerial accounting skills are the most important to the non- accounting manager? The authors report on their descriptive research gathered from controllers in the hospitality industry which provides guide- lines for managers in these areas.

Analysis and comparison of the moral development of students required to graduate with an ethics course

Accounting students become practitioners facing ethical decision-making challenges that can be subject to various interpretations; hence, the profession is concerned with the appropriateness of their decisions. Moral development of these students has implications for a profession under legal challenges, negative publicity, and government scrutiny. Accounting students moral development has been studied by examining their responses to moral questions in Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), their professional attitudes on Hall's Professionalism Scale Dimensions, and their ethical orientation-based professional commitment and ethical sensitivity. This study extended research in accounting ethics and moral development by examining students in a college where an ethics course is a requirement for graduation. Knowledge of differences in the moral development of accounting students may alert practitioners and educators to potential problems resulting from a lack of ethical understanding as measured by moral development levels. If student moral development levels differ by major, and accounting majors have lower levels than other students, the conclusion may be that this difference is a causative factor for the alleged acts of malfeasance in the profession that may result in malpractice suits. The current study compared 205 accounting, business, and nonbusiness students from a private university. In addition to academic major and completion of an ethics course, the other independent variable was academic level. Gender and age were tested as control variables and Rest's DIT score was the dependent variable. The primary analysis was a 2x3x3 ANOVA with post hoc tests for results with significant p-value of less than 0.05. The results of this study reveal that students who take an ethics course appear to have a higher level of moral development (p=0.013), as measured by the (DIT), than students at the same academic level who have not taken an ethics course. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p=0.034) exists between freshmen who took an ethics class and juniors who did not take an ethics class. For every analysis except one, the lower class year with an ethics class had a higher level of moral development than the higher class year without an ethics class. These results appear to show that ethics education in particular has a greater effect on the level of moral development than education in general. Findings based on the gender specific analyses appear to show that males and females respond differently to the effects of taking an ethics class. The male students do not appear to increase their moral development level after taking an ethics course (p=0.693) but male levels of moral development differ significantly (p=0.003) by major. Female levels of moral development appear to increase after taking an ethics course (p=0.002). However, they do not differ according to major (p=0.0 97). These findings indicate that accounting students should be required to have a class in ethics as part of their college curriculum. Students with an ethics class have a significantly higher level of moral development. The challenges facing the profession at the current time indicate that public confidence in the reports of client corporations has eroded and one way to restore this confidence could be to require ethics training of future accountants.

Welke 'acteur' neemt de controllerrol als extraverte business partner?

Which 'actor' takes the management accountant role as an extravert business partner? Does a relation between the personal trait Extraversion and fulfilling a management accountant role as a business partner exist? Open Universiteit Nederland End thesis MSc Management, Accounting & Finance Support 1: Prof. dr. A.C.N. van de Ven RA Support 2: dr. P.C.M. Claes Examinator: dr. P. Kamminga Date of approval: September 3, 2014 student: P.R. van der Wal (studentnumber 839104017 email petervanderwal2003@yahoo.com The main question of this research is: Does a relation between the personal trait Extraversion and fulfilling a management accountant role as a business partner exist? This research is based on the dataset obtained by the controller survey 2013, executed in commission of the 'Open Universiteit' (Bork & van der Wal, 2014). From the literature review it is clear: among other management accountant roles we need business partners. And there is a relation between the personal trait Extraversion and fulfilling the role as business partner. At the same time a lack of necessary personal traits for this role has been noticed, among which is Extraversion. The factor- and cluster analyses reported by Bork & van der Wal (2014) resulted in the identification of two types of management accountant roles. In this extended research TYPE II is identified as a business partner because (s)he practices activity-combinations which are related to strategy, analyzing, supporting management in decision making, advisory, change-agency and representing the organization. 36% of the population of Dutch management accountants with a master degree (or similar) meet with the role of the business partner. Although the fulfillment of the role (TYPE II) is not purely business partnering. E.g. reporting and scorekeeping are still activities executed by TYPE II and it is not clear to what extent. Apart from that, role TYPE I executes change management and risk-management activities, which are (according to the definition) activities that belong to the business partner. The role as business partner is practiced but not that optimal as defined in theory. The logistic regression analyses on the survey-data show that Extraversion among three other triggers is significant for the prediction of the fulfillment of the management accountant role (Bork & van der Wal, 2014). A more extravert personal trait predicts a preference for TYPE II, which relates to the business partner. This 'in depth research' concentrated on the relation between the Big Five personal traits and the six activity-combinations (factors) instead of on the two clusters (I and II). The statistic analyses confirm the predicting influence of Extraversion on the business partner role. Although, except for one factor, no extra significance has been found in this additional research. The essential question can be confirmed positively: the management accountant role business partner exists in practice, some management accountants are more extravert then others, and there is a positive relation between extraversion and fulfilling the business partner role. Some formulated research limitations are related to the statistical weakness of some prediction outcomes and to interpretation differences that might occur. Further research can e.g. concentrate on the other personal traits and the significance for role-differentiation in education programs. The management accountant survey 2013 Management accountant roles in 2013 in the Netherlands Open Universiteit Nederland End thesis MSc Management, Accounting & Finance Support 1: Prof. dr. A.C.N. van de Ven RA Support 2: dr. P.C.M. Claes Examinator: dr. P. Kamminga Date of approval: September 3, 2014 student: P.R. van der Wal and H.J. Bork studentnumber: 839104017 and 838532340) email: petervanderwal2003@yahoo.com and hjbork@hotmail.com This paper describes the conceptual model and results of the 'management accountants survey 2013'. The survey is part of a longitudinal survey, earlier executed in 2004, 2007 and 2010 under responsibility of the 'Open Universiteit Nederland'. Secondly the dataset of this survey will be used by us to do our own analyses on the predicting value of the triggers 'personality factor: extraversion' and 'lever of control: interactive controls' on the management accounting role that comes close to a role defined as 'Business Partner'. Scientific research shows that there are different management accounting roles, and that these roles change and that preferences exist for certain roles (Verstegen B. , Loo, Mol, Slagter, & Geerkens, 2007). The main question that will be answered in this paper is which coherent combinations of activities are being executed by management accountants in 2013 in the Netherlands by master-graduates? And secondly which triggers of management accountants' activities predict to which cluster a management accountant belongs? The conceptual model of this research has been developed in 2004 (Verstegen B. , Loo, Mol, Slagter, & Geerkens, 2007). For this research the same 37 activities as in the former researches are included (appendix 1). In the trigger-set (appendix 1) some adaptations have been made for reasons of restricting the length of the survey and to pinpoint on particular research goals (e.g. personality and levers of control). The coherent combinations of activities were found by a factor-analysis and the groups of controllers by a cluster analysis. A regression analysis shows which trigger-items are most significant. The survey has been sent to 2.353 students that finished a controller-study on a Dutch University. There was a 9% (211) response with a completely filled survey. 137 of which indicated to work in a controller-function at the moment. These controllers have been included in the results. The factor-analysis results in six different coherent combinations of activities (factors). Shortly these factors are: advising top management on strategic level with result-effecting information (1), organizing internal reporting (2) organizing and representing the organization on external reporting (3), advising and managing changes by shortcomings in processes and control systems (4), maintaining and managing administrative organization- , information- and control systems (5) and organizing/executing risk management and internal audit (6). Factors 4, 5 and 6 are clustered in cluster TYPE I (125 controllers) and factors 1, 2 and 3 in cluster TYPE II (69 controllers). TYPE II can be associated with the management accountant role 'Business Partner', although the accountant keeps partly active in a scorekeeper role. The four most significant triggers for predicting being a TYPE II controller are 'Executing a risk-management task in order to meet compliance standards' (1), extraversion (2), company size in terms of fte (3) and gender (4).

Hospitality Management Accounting: Current Problems and Future Opportunities

This paper discusses areas for future research opportunities by addressing accounting issues faced by management accountants practicing in hospitality organizations. Specifically, the article focuses on the use of the uniform system of accounts by operating properties, the usefulness of allocating support costs to operated departments, extending our understanding of operating costs and performance measurement systems and the certification of practicing accountants.

On the Use of Regression and Verbal Protocol Analysis in Modeling Analysts’ Behavior in an Unstructured Task Environment: A Methodological Note

This paper discusses areas for future research opportunities by addressing accounting issues faced by management accountants practicing in hospitality organizations. Specifically, the article focuses on the use of the uniform system of accounts by operating properties, the usefulness of allocating support costs to operated departments, extending our understanding of operating costs and performance measurement systems and the certification of practicing accountants.

A utilidade da informação financeira para a gestão das microentidades, na perspetiva dos gestores e dos contabilistas certificados

Dissertação de Mestrado em Contabilidade

Manual para la aplicación de las normas y procedimientos de auditoría de cumplimiento de obligaciones tributarias aplicables en la auditoría fiscal.

Toda profesión debe establecer las más altas normas de calidad en el ejercicio de su trabajo, ya que personas incapacitadas para juzgarlo por sí mismas confían en él, a veces con consecuencias irreparables. Es evidentemente imposible (e indeseable) relevar al contador de su responsabilidad profesional estableciendo reglas detalladas de conducta, ya que la responsabilidad profesional es una de las cualidades que las normas mismas deben salvaguardar, por lo que éstas deben ser cuidadosamente definidas y clasificadas para que sirvan como la guía más clara y útil al auditor en el desarrollo de su trabajo diario. La pugna entre el ejercicio de la responsabilidad profesional individual y la aplicación de regla específica de conducta se presenta en cada aspecto de la contabilidad y de la auditoria, la solución es clara en los extremos: por un lado, el contador no puede renunciar a sus responsabilidad profesional y, por otro, es imposible dictar reglas que cubran todas las circunstancias posibles, la tensión entre estos extremos crea controversia y ansiedad; el problema está en dictaminar cuánta uniformidad y rigidez se puede establecer mediante los principios de contabilidad, y qué tanta flexibilidad puede dejarse al juicio personal; o hasta qué grado debe definirse detalladamente el alcance de las pruebas y los procedimientos de auditoria, y hasta qué limite debe dejarse al juicio pragmático del auditor, etc. Aunque el punto específico de discusión cambie de tiempo en tiempo, es probable que nunca se dé por concluida esta polémica. Los miembros del Instituto Americano de Contadores Públicos (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) han adoptado oficialmente 10 requisitos básicos conocidos en conjunto como “Normas de Auditoria Generalmente Aceptadas”. Estas normas se ampliaron a principios de 1973 en el boletín Nº 1 del Pronunciamiento de las normas de auditoria Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) llamado “Codificación de las Normas y Procedimientos de Auditoria”. La solidez y utilidad de las normas han quedado demostradas por su permanencia: 9 de ellas fueron originalmente adoptadas en 1948 y desde entonces básicamente no han cambiado (aunque ha tomado mucho tiempo entender algunas de ellas), la décima fue adoptada unos años después, aunque el principio básico que la rige existe desde entonces y quizá desde antes. Sin embargo, no existía ningún tipo de normativa definida mediante la cual el auditor pueda definir su responsabilidad como auditor fiscal, y que a la vez lo oriente a dictaminar con apego a las Normas de Auditoria Generalmente Aceptadas. Los procedimientos que en nuestro trabajo se adopta nos permitieron determinar los métodos más adecuados para llevar a cabo los exámenes de auditoría fiscal ejecutados por el auditor Fiscal Independiente, del contribuyente sobre la base de las leyes tributarias y a la generación de la documentación respectiva que ampare la evaluación del control interno. Por lo que el presente trabajo está enfocado a la práctica de la Auditaría Fiscal, específicamente en la observancia de la Norma de Cumplimiento de Obligaciones Tributarias y la elaboración de un documento que sirva de guía para su aplicación en concordancia con los procedimientos de este tipo de auditoría, que será de gran ayuda al contador público. Considerando que en el país no existe suficiente bibliografía especializada de la auditoría fiscal, se ha elaborado el presente trabajo para profundizar en el aspecto técnico, como un aporte en la materia. Se considera de utilidad social debido a que la aplicación de la norma dará validez y profesionalismo a su trabajo, el trabajo pretende diseñar métodos, procedimientos y cuestionarios de control interno con enfoque al cumplimiento de la norma, que pueda aplicarse y adaptarse a todo tipo de empresa. Esto le otorga a la presente investigación una gran importancia por su aporte a la comunidad de contadores públicos, ya que este tema ha sido tratado en forma mínima.

The development of the accounting professional in a postcolonial context: evidence from Sierra Leone

Despite increasing interest in the development of the accountancy profession and constitutive professional bodies in ex-colonies, little is known about the development of professional accountants as individuals. Similarly, although the continuing influence of the legacies of colonialism and imperialism on the accounting professionalisation trajectory in ex-colonies has been recognised, little attempt has been made to theorise such continuing colonial intervention as a postcolonial condition of accommodation and resistance, with implications for the development of professional accountants. This thesis fills this vacuum by employing four aspects of the critical lens of postcolonial theory – local-global nexus, psycho-existential complex, postcolonial hybridity and diaspora - to gain an insight into the development of accounting professionals in ex-colonies with specific reference to Sierra Leone. Specifically, it examines the current model of accounting professionalisation adopted in Sierra Leone and implications for the development of professional accountants in the country; investigates the historical and ideological legacies of colonialism that shaped and continue to influence the professionalisation trajectory in Sierra Leone; explores the perceptions of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants of their professional identity in terms of their professional development within Sierra Leone; and explores the lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants in the diaspora and the diaspora effect on accountancy in Sierra Leone. The empirical evidence presented here emanated from two sources: a web-based survey and semi-structured interviews with Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants both within and outside the country at the time of the study. The model for developing professional accountants in Sierra Leone comprises a partnership between the local professional body, ICASL, and the British-based global body, the ACCA. A postcolonial analysis of the empirical evidence reveals that an unintended consequence of this model is that the local is co-opted within the global while the global becomes increasingly localised. The analysis also shows that the presence of a perceived global body ‘inferiorises’ the local body to the point of undesirability among local chartered and aspiring accountants. Thus the partnership has to date done little by way of developing ICASL’s capacity to ensure the development of a localised profession and professionals. Instead, it produces, within the Sierra Leone accountancy space, professional hybrids that at once pose as global as well as local accountants. This has significant implications for the local profession because many of the hybrid professional accountants who could potentially drive the local profession forward end up in the diaspora, which leaves the local profession in a weaker state. Also, given the established link between a robust accountancy profession and sustainable economic development, such professional diasporisation could negatively impact on the country’s economic development. In sum, Sierra Leone has failed to establish an accounting professionalisation model that develops professional accountants (through contextualised professional education and training) that meets the specific accounting needs of its growing economy.

Worldwide convergence of IFRS: Evidence from the global automotive industry

Worldwide convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), ongoing since 2002, is a requirement if international comparability between publicly listed companies is to be ensured. Convergence is examined from the point of view of regulators, accountants, and users of financial information. For this purpose, data on 534 companies from the global automotive industry is used. This paper concludes that worldwide convergence is mostly being effective. Its triumph, however, varies depending on the set of accounting standards being compared to IFRS. Options within IFRS, national tax regulation, cultural differences, different company strategies and country resistance are found to hinder convergence.

Busy auditors, ethical behavior, and ciscretionary accruals quality in Malaysia

The required professional and ethical pronouncements of accountants mean that auditors need to be competent and exercise due care and skill in the performance of their audits. In this study, we examine what happens when auditors take on more clients than they should, thus raising doubts about their ability to maintain competence and audit quality. Using 2803 observations of Malaysian companies from 2010 to 2013, we find that auditors with multiple clients are associated with lower earnings quality, proxied by total accruals and discretionary accruals. Our results demonstrate that associating client firms’ reported discretionary accruals with individual auditors, rather than their firms or offices, is important in determining audit quality. Moreover, we demonstrate that the disclosure of auditors’ signatures on their reports is useful for assessing auditor quality at the individual level, thus contributing to the debate on the usefulness of having auditor identities on reports.