Digital Accounting Revolution and Misconception among Organizations and People

Digital Accounting Revolution and Misconception among Organizations and People

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Digital Accounting Revolution and Misconception among Organizations and People

Literature Review

            The digital accounting (DA) revolution defines the various technological transformations utilized within the accounting profession. The DA aspect describes how financial or accounting information is created, represented, and transferred electronically from one setting to another. Therefore, there is limited usage of papers in conducting various accounting transactions. Originally, accounting digitization emerged following the increased need for more efficient taxation systems (Agur et al., 2020). Its implementation led to modernized tax and customs administration, proper electronic invoicing, and digital bookkeeping. DA revolution has enhanced business performance by providing organizational tools to embark on their digital transformation. Such fosters an increased range of business activities and processes. Currently, there is increased utilization of DA systems following the COVID-19 pandemic onset. Besides, there is enhanced integration of diverse digital technologies and processes among business operations. Therefore, the digital transformation within the accounting and finance industry has accelerated. This has reshaped how firms operate, especially their financial transactions and business models being utilized.

            Furthermore, the majority of the companies have leveraged technology to transform their operational facet. Efficient usage of the DA systems provides organizations with competitive advantages over their opponents. There are various forms of DA revolution influencing organizational performance. For instance, the innovative feature is essential as it is a catalyst and enabler for organizations to attain their business sustainability goals. Secondly, the revolution fosters financial data analytics, especially in auditing, to help improve the quality, value, and efficacy of financial statements. DA revolution also includes using artificial intelligence and machine learning in accounting data analysis and interpretation (Malau, 2021). These help support strategic decision-making within the organization and enhance diverse business plans execution.

The revolution prospect is further critical in enhancing cybersecurity in business, and such is a business growth catalyst within the digital era. DA entails using advanced technologies to foster accounting roles, which requires proper cybersecurity measures (Ozili, 2018). Revolutions include blockchain, robotic processing automation (RPA), ERP, cloud technology, and other DA forms. Currently, the revolution has enhanced taxation processes and digital financial forensic investigations. Therefore, the transformation has developed a digital strategy to facilitate operations among organizations. Regardless of the positive implications of utilizing DA, there are different misconceptions about its use. This explains why most organizations and people have not fully implemented and used DA systems in their transactional activities. In this literature review, the researcher defines the DA revolution and misconceptions among organizations and people while describing its foundational theories.

There are various study topics within this literature review context, and they relate to the research questions. The research questions efficiently clarify the digital accounting revolution and related misconceptions among people and organizations. The research focuses on defining the main impacts of the DA revolution among accounting professionals. This is defined through their experiences and perceptions of the DA systems as utilized. Hanna (2020) offers critical insight into how harnessing diverse digital innovations facilitates major accounting operations in organizations. This allows professionals to mobilize available technological resources to foster exquisite financial transactions’ implementations.

As a result, organizations can assess their digital economic growth potential while defining various developmental gaps following their accounting structures. Therefore, professionals in accounting and finance contexts can efficiently perform their accounting roles by using newer and advanced automation software. Further, the DA revolution will ensure there is increased accuracy of accounting operations and reduction of automation errors. Most businesses can avoid various legal consequences, including tax penalties. Professional accountants can also organize organizational edits in highly efficient ways.

Secondly, the aspect of the DA revolution enhances various commercial transactions and interactions among professionals through digital contexts. More time is saved for firms to attain high-quality growth and expansion of their businesses. Zhang et al. (2021) describe the positive impacts of accounting digitalization among professionals in improved bookkeeping, financial reporting, and auditing roles. Therefore, there is improved business decision-making, and such enhances the continuous survival of an organization following the major market changes. Besides, the DA revolution places an organization in a strategic position within the marketplace and enhances its performance goals.

Thirdly, the study describes how DA augments financial services and performance management. For instance, there is increased utilization of diverse accounting software, which is crucial in facilitating accounting data quality and accuracy (Chong & Nizam, 2018). The revolution improves the efficacy of the accounting systems, which improves business survival, especially in these ever-changing and competitive business settings. DA revolution improves business operations by increasing its efficacy, operational competency, and sustainability (Arnaboldi et al., 2017). The study also seeks to identify the efficacy of integrating DA within the academic curriculums, especially for learners interested in financing and accounting. This is a strategic aspect for improving the accounting profession whereby professionals acquire DA knowledge. Besides, the students will graduate while acquiring work-related skills and knowledge (Al-Htaybat et al., 2018). Thus, DA education is necessary for enhancing professional accounting by developing an individual’s capacity and qualification. McKinney Jr. et al. (2017) indicates that DA education will develop a data and tech-driven workforce in different organizations.

Following the various studies within this context, the reader should also identify how the new technologies have heightened irrevocable transformations in business. The technological interventions facilitate better time management, financial information conversion, and data presentation. Such improves in-depth analysis of what a business does and the various financial functions attracting more investment. Following proper decision-making facilitates organizational growth (Al-Htaybat & von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2017). Finally, the digital accounting revolution leads to improved accounting services provision, and this explains why most organizations opt for online accounting. The services are swift and allow organizations to survive within a competitive marketplace. Hence, this explains why DA systems’ revolution elaborates organizational performance following the reliability, efficiency, accuracy, ease of use, and data quality characteristics.

Lastly, the reader should effectively understand the aspect of DA misconceptions among organizations and people. Mostly, these misconceptions affect the organizations in terms of their transactional and performance prospects. The various misunderstandings define the main challenges professional accountants face in their daily lives. For instance, the main misconception is that the DA revolution does eliminate the accountant’s role and dismiss their importance in various accounting routines. However, that is not always the case. DA revolution enhances the accountants’ role by automating various accounting data facets. In addition, the revolution leads to empowerment and increased value among the accounting professionals as their work becomes more efficient.

There are other different misconceptions regarding DA and its usage among companies and individuals. One of these misconceptions includes the DA systems being only efficient in executing taxation roles exclusively. This is not the case, as the DA revolution foster different accounting roles and tasks, including banking reconciliations, financial reporting, and auditing (Moll, 2021). Therefore, different professionals within the accounting context utilize modernized systems in executing their responsibilities. For illustration, DA is useful in preparing financial statements, maintaining payroll records, and invoicing. Kroon et al. (2021) illustrate diverse usage of DA systems apart from taxation. The revolution enhances proper examination of incoming statements, financial strategy development, and investment decisions.

Among other misconceptions include DA transformation being a separate facet added to business performance and accounting models (Fadzilah, 2017). Such is a misleading concept since the DA revolution affects the organization as a whole, and every workforce is involved. Additionally, not all accounting professionals are math prodigies. However, accounting and math are crucial in building one’s capability in the accountancy profession. Besides, the DA revolution does not benefit large organizations only. Instead, every business, including small and medium-sized, requires various accounting operations. Therefore, accounting software is useful to small, medium, and large organizations.

Also, accounting is not a boring profession regardless of its repetitiveness nature. Instead, it is an interesting profession that includes diverse analytical actions that improve decision-making (Moll, 2021). Furthermore, some individuals misunderstand accounting as a profession loved by introverts and have lesser opportunities for growth and development. This is the opposite of reality since there are extroverts who are great accounting professionals and the professionals have enhanced opportunities for their career growth, including investment consultants. Besides, the Chief Digital Officer is not the only individual leading and owning the DA revolution process. Instead, the whole workforce is included to prevent potential resistance to changes caused by DA usage in the organization.

Two foundational theories drove the literature review feature for this study. They include the business process re-engineering and resource-based view theories. These are essential approaches that provide efficient analysis on why organizations would opt to transform their performance processes (Kruskopf et al., 2020; Lombardi & Secundo, 2020). Besides, the theories explain why organizations opt for different accounting software usage, especially in the modern working context. The two theoretical facets analyze organizational performance and improved productivity through modern accounting software.

First, the business process re-engineering theory is a strategic approach to examining the organization’s digital transformation need. Therefore, the theory examines how organizations and people implement DA as a better alternative to foster their business productivity. The approach also shows the increased quality and productivity following the operational rethinking prospect. The customers also attain more value from the services and products offered (Weerakkody et al., 2021). Besides, the re-engineering process simplifies productivity, improving the excellence of decisions made. Typically, the digital accounting revolution enables organizations to redesign, retool, and reorchestrate various business transactional components.

An additional study theory includes the resource-based view theory. This theory explains the diverse management frameworks utilized in describing the strategic resources a company exploits to attain productive features. Understanding the resources available helps the organization acquire sustainability and competitive advantages. Besides, the company can easily analyze what is necessary for its performance improvement, including the revolution of its DA systems. Hence, the DA system becomes a crucial resource for an organization in executing various financial transactions within the business. This improves internal and external organizational operations, which contribute to the efficient positioning of the company within the industry of operation (Dubey et al., 2019).

Title Searches and Documentation

Conducting a literature review requires critical searching of different academic websites and ensuring the right information is attained. This context helps describe the researcher’s approaches in searching for relevant documentation essential for the study results. The literature review aspect for the research covered different scholarly works from diverse study sources. These include articles, journals, published dissertations, whitepapers, and e-books. The study’s primary purpose was to critically evaluate the aspect of the digital accounting revolution and diverse misconceptions among organizations and people. The study search was based on three critical facets, including the usage of keywords, journals relating to digital accounting, and the utilization of specific websites.

The various articles and journals reviewed for the study were retrieved from diverse databases and search engines. The search carefully ensured the articles and journals were peer-reviewed and published within the last five years except for the historical content analysis. Such ensures the study uses recent information to inform the reader regarding the DA revolution component and the different misconceptions to DA usage in organizations and among people. Thus, the generated terms resulting in the fulfillment of this study were from different repositories searchable on various websites. Mostly, the study used PloS One, Science Direct, Research Gate, Google Scholar, Sage Journals, EBSCO, ProQuest, and different university libraries, including Walden.

Furthermore, the study utilized different keywords to help establish an efficient analysis of the information relating to the study features. These include accounting information systems, accounting curriculum, accounting professionals, accounting misconceptions, and the digital accounting revolution. In addition, the research included terms such as accounting education, accounting software, business performance, big data, financial performance, business process re-engineering, and resource-based view theory. These terms were easily identified in the various resources’ abstracts analyzed categorically to describe the study ideas. The researcher was keen to analyze the publication dates for the various articles and the journals’ titles. These eased the searching and documentation process for the different study prospects.

Lastly, the study prospect included a search strategy using various journals within the accounting and business contexts. For instance, eight crucial accounting and business journals are useful in the study. These include the International Journal of Accounting and Business Performance, International Business Research, Accounting Education, and Journal of Management Control. Additional journals for the study include Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Journal of Finance and Risk Perspective, Information Systems and e-Business Management, and the Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. These are among the significant journals utilized for the study as they offer an efficient analysis of the accounting revolution and related misconceptions.

Historical Content

General Overview on Historical Development in Accounting

A proper analysis of accounting history is essential for accounting professionals. It offers a clear preview of where the accounting journey started until today where digitalized accounting systems are used. There has been major growth and development in organizations’ accounting technologies, from manual accounting norms to modern tech usage. Traditionally, accountants and bookkeepers were tasked to ascertain different accounting processes, which was time-consuming manually. For instance, they could record different business transactions while generating accounting books and ledgers. This helped in facilitating basic business operations. Belfo and Trigo (2013) indicate that computerized accounting operations were introduced as time went by. This allowed accounting professionals to use machines for their accounting operations through automation processes. A key impact included saving on significant time and financial resources.

The context provides germinal content on the DA revolution and its impacts on modern accounting practices among organizations and people. This includes analyzing ancient times when various accounting systems were utilized, including manual and computerized. Belfo and Trigo (2013) illustrate that the accounting strategies date back when clay tablets were used for business transactional recording. This was useful for centuries, where the analytical prospect included bookkeeping, cost accounting, auditing, and financial reporting. Accounting remains a respected profession since it requires significant knowledge and cognitive skills to maintain manual and computerized accounts. Understanding the historical context of accounting offers professionals a better understanding of the need to appreciate the digital systems (Sangster, 2016). For instance, technology reduces time wastage in accounting.

There are five other subtopics within the historical content analysis to define the various evolution components of accounting. First, the researcher will describe the earliest accounting records used in ancient times, especially in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Secondly, the study will define the accounting history during the Roman Empire. Thirdly, the research will analyze various accounting pioneers during the early centuries, which led to accounting development. Fourth, the discussion will include a crucial analysis of accounting during the Medieval and Renaissance periods (middle ages). Lastly, the review will include a critical preview of the main reasons for the accounting revolution since ancient times and accounting history importance.

1. Earliest Records of Accounting

Napier (2006) indicates that the original form of accounting was practiced amid 3300 to 2000 BC in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt using clay tablets. Trading food crops upon harvesting and domestic animals was the main reason for accounting processes. Thus, during this time, the main accounting objective was for owners to determine a shortage or surplus of crops and animals. Compared to modern accounting, the main aim for the DA revolution entails the critical determination of surplus and shortages of different goods and services sold. Such illustrates how accounting history has formulated a solid foundation for modern business operations. During this period, accountants learned more about numbers and money as these are essential trading features.

The accounting prospect allowed accountants to facilitate control of goods sold, stock attained, and transactions made on specific periods (Adamo et al., 2020). The revolution started as more accounting needs led to the expansion of an accountant’s role and profession. In most cases, accounting professionals executed record-keeping accounting roles, especially for merchants in business and for religious activities. Among the major accounting needs during the 4^th century included auditing services, especially among the Babylonians and Egyptians (Luther, 2003).  Accounting helped define the flow of money into and out of their businesses, and its increased use led to effectual taxation processes.

1. Accounting Component during the Roman Empire

Over time, there was enhanced usage of accounting features for business and religious purposes under Emperor Augustus’ ruling. Augustus engaged in diverse financial dealings, including public expenditures like land grants, religious offerings, military, and veterans (Lai & Samkin, 2017). He also accounted for expenses incurred in building temples, subsidies, capital spent on theatrical shows, and gladiator proceedings. Therefore, all these operations required proper accounting roles execution. The accounts were often availed to Augustus for efficient planning and decision-making. Concerning modern society, the usage of different accounting systems helps organizations and people help in making decisions on future business performance and development prospects

Napier (2006) further highlights the DA revolution as continuously improved financial accounts preparation. These helped rule out the public revenues attained, money in the treasury, taxations, and contractions. Therefore, the revolution enhances the Roman army personnel’s proper allocation of financial resources (Foreman, 2012). During the Roman Empire, accounting was centralized based on legal codes, which improved the monitoring of various accounting procedures. During this time, large businesses were developing, requiring more complex and standardized accounting procedures’ utilization. Daily transactions were always recorded to ensure the business was operating smoothly. Luther (2003) illustrates that accounting systems included papyrus scroll pieces during the Roman Empire. Accounting processes effectively made economic decisions as the data was recorded and rearranged purposefully.

1. Accounting Pioneers

 Analyzing the accounting history entails discussing the accounting pioneers during the pre-analytic age. The pioneers are known for their inventions, including the bookkeeping systems such as the double-entry accounting feature in 1458 by Benedetto Contrugli. Such was an important improvement in accounting since the business was growing continuously. In 1494, Luca de Pacioli developed mathematical record-keeping systems and efficiently described how double-entry functioned (Sangster, 2021). Pacioli is known for a 27-page book written to describe the arithmetic processes, geometry, proportions, and proportionality concepts. He simplified bookkeeping based on different financial calculations and recording strategies. His book remained a critical referencing tool in business operations, academics, and teaching. Besides, this was the first time the plus and minus symbols were defined in a printable format (Sangster, 2021). The inventions offered a basis for modern-day accounting regarding journal entries, ledgers, and double-entry in bookkeeping. Pacioli is the father of accounting and bookkeeping (Napier, 2006).

1. Accounting during the Medieval and Renaissance Era (Middle Age)

This subtopic highlights how there have been major accounting changes leading to better organizational performance. In the middle age, capitalism influenced accounting since the accounting processes had been standardized and diffused in society. As a result, the educational prospect in accounting developed, enhancing the official accounting profession’s emergence (Goldthwaite, 2015). During this period, the double-entry accounting system increased usage in industrial and domestic (individual) contexts. Such enhanced extension of accounting knowledge into reality. Additionally, the monetary economy was attained within the 13^th century, where merchants would record multiple transactions (Ten Raa & Greene, 2019). This provided constant information on various business operations among merchants, and it was used as an ad hoc system.

The Medieval and Renaissance accounting era further illustrates the Islamic nature of financial transactions. Muslims practice bookkeeping as per the Qur’an guidelines on maintaining indebtedness. It is part of their religious obligations to be accountable to Allah in their life. This integrates the usage of accounting systems for business and religious purposes as per traditional beliefs. For instance, Muslims could use accounting systems in defining inheritance allocation following a person’s death. Therefore, the pre-analytic era of accounting led to improved ratios, multiplication, and division usage. By now, teaching accounting in few learning institutions had been attained, leading to the increased usage of accounting books in financial institutions.

In addition, the Islamic accounting to foster inheritance allocation fostered the development of three accounting techniques, including debit-credit, real, and nominal accounts.  The debit-credit accounts entail algebraic manipulation of financial figures in balancing revenue and expenditures. It helps in eliminating double-entry errors. Secondly, the real accounts were essential for racking asses while weighing against various liabilities to help define a person’s wealth and net worth. Lastly, the nominal accounts were created to help track various activities impacting one’s wealth by net income calculations. Paper money was introduced as it is easily portable (Luther, 2003). Westland (2020) indicates that the double-entry technique in bookkeeping is essential for managing complex accounting proceedings like taxations.

The increased usage of various accounting systems led to the development of the banking profession as newer accounting techniques were developed. Banking originated mostly in the Vatican ad Italy, especially in Florence, Genoa, and Venice. As of the 14^th century, there was increased wealth growth due to improving accounting systems. Lai and Samkin (2017) indicate that business people mostly relied on bookkeeping systems due to increased trading revolutions into the money economy. Various financial transactions occurred simultaneously, and this required continuous monitoring. Continued industrial growth enhanced the demand for clearer accounting procedures, facilitating high efficacy and accuracy of various commercial transactions. Most transactions utilized Pacioli’s Venetian method, which allowed better auditing of entries. Hence, the accounting revolution enhanced the accurate maintenance of business inventory.

Since ancient times, accounting practices have helped analyze the spread of accounting systems’ usage based on complex trading relations. Talukdar et al. (2018) provide critical analysis of the accounting evolution from the traditional to the digital platform. The researchers have indicated that within the early 18^th century, investors had started developing accounting machines for enhanced simple calculations. Although the machines had inefficient storage space, the enhanced delivery of accurately calculated financial features and efficient results were attained. In 1854, the first professional bodies of accountants were developed. These were the Edinburg Society of Accountants and the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Scotland.

In 1887, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants was established (Lai & Samkin, 2017). Such a step towards enhanced accounting practice as various professional bodies illustrated that more people were now interested in pursuing accounting as a career. During this age, more advances were realized, thus providing a basis for the current electronic accounting prospect. For instance, the first electronic device was used in 1890 in processing accounting data by Herman Hollerith. This became the HOLLERITH mechanism of accounting which enhanced calculations and tabulated engine-based system. This was the first machine used and led to major savings of time and resources. Hollerith founded IBM following the privatization of the punch-card concept.

In the early 1950s, computers became widely used specifically for computing various accounting values, especially payrolls and information storage purposes. The computers were now available, although personal computers, related software, and accounting applications existed. Better still, accounting operations were being developed as individuals; especially the accountants could now see financial and accounting data on the screens. Therefore, this describes the beginning of an era that could practice accounting using computers in 1953 (Anandarajan et al., 2004). The computing aspect led to the first application of computer systems in organizations to enhance financial transactions using accounting information systems (Belfo & Trigo, 2013). Hence, there was enhanced economic development as the transactions and financial calculations were easily processed. 

In the early 1960s, computerized accounting had gained momentum in organizations. Charles W. Bachman developed the integrated database system (IDS), thus improving the setup of the accounting information system. The IDS is critical in managing various financial information as it implements diverse computations of different accounting data figures (Bartelmus et al., 2018). In the mid-1960s, the use of computers for accounting functions increased following the development of their speed and flexibility. Besides, the speed and flexible use were due to the continued advancement of information technologies. Using computers became more popular, increasing the availability and usage of database systems. Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), usage of spreadsheets on Lotus 1-2-3, and Turbo cash are among the major accounting evolutions in the 1980s. Other software used includes Pastel, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Other developments in the 1990s and early 2000s include the business intelligence tool and electronic data interchange (EDI) system. EDI was a major business requirement as it fostered the development of diverse accounting standards, including EDIFACT and X12 (Drum & Pulvermacher, 2016). These were essential in governing accounting documents’ content and structure. VisiCalc spreadsheet software was introduced to the accounting world. Over time, other software were introduced, including the Peachtree and QuickBooks, in 1998. These helped in facilitating the accounting processes through bookkeeping until the modern-day era.

• Reasons for Accounting Revolution and Importance of Accounting History

A study by Fu et al. (2004) defines the adoption of electronic filing methods among organizations and people for taxation purposes. This indicates that the improved utilization of DA systems resulted from taxation needs among organizations. Besides, taxpayers needed to file for personal returns. Technological improvement in accounting led to strong satisfaction levels among organizations and people following the DA system usage intents. Fu et al. (2004) further illustrate that diverse demographic characteristics helped distinguish which individuals were likely to use the revolutionized tax filing systems and methods. Therefore, the DA revolution has been essential in improving the taxpayers’ decision-making. It enhances the government’s capacity to plan and implement its provision of state services to the citizens effectively.

An additional study by Turner and Apelt (2004) illustrates how the DA revolution has fostered the taxation system. The introduction of computer hardware and software was attainable following globalization, innovation, and usage of information-sharing accounting systems. The study also describes the transformation of accounting prospects from analog to digitized business transaction forms. The researchers define various factors which have led to the diffusion and adoption of DA systems to foster electronic lodgment of tax returns. These include the circulation of ideas, technology, national context, and tax policy. Various accounting systems have been advanced mainly for taxation purposes and to ensure all business transactions are executed effectively (Turner & Apelt, 2004).

Furthermore, Guney (2014) has defined the various roles of technology in accounting and e-accounting. For instance, the DA revolution has enhanced the execution of accounting tasks and activities, including organizational transactions. Further, information technologies’ rapid growth and development have enhanced the digital revolution within the economic, social, and cultural context. The 21^st century is an information era, and there has been improved acknowledgment of accounting being an information system component. Therefore, the e-accounting prospect has enhanced various accounting processes regarding business transactions in organizations.

Guney (2014) further indicates how technological improvements have influenced accounting education and practice whereby individuals can easily pursue accounting. Including the DA information aspect within the education system will allow the information era and technology to benefit the accounting learners. Such is attainable by using digital resources ad theoretical information to ensure proper integration of ideas. Learning using the DA systems enhances information acquisition effectively through various interactions among learners. Thus, the future of accounting will have competent professionals with performance-driven targets. Accounting performance targets foster professionals in evaluating and interpreting accounting information beyond basic accounting.

DA revolution is important as it enhances efficiency, affordability, and flexibility of operations in the organization. The revolution enhances instant sharing of updated accounting information among real-time users, including employees, management, customers, and business partners. Therefore, this describes the increased need for restructuring the accounting education aspect. This is by developing content that considers the present organization’s accounting conditions (Guney, 2014). Hence, this illustrates that the various accounting technologies are crucial for supporting the professionals, especially through automation. This will help in solving various accounting problems and daily transactions.

Understanding the history of accounting is critical for professionals in comprehending the evolution aspect of accountancy. For instance, accounting history enhances learners’ high caliber and quality of research. In addition, comprehending accounting history assists one in better comprehending current issues or practices that have been accepted. It also provides background knowledge to ensure people understand accounting purposes and actions to help attain the accounting aims. For instance, accounting history enhances various auditing procedures and financial state disclosures. Hence, this leads to a commonality of accounting ideas and the continuation of the profession among professionals with a similar understanding of their roles. Besides, having a clue of the source of the accounting profession enhances individuals’ sense of satisfaction in practice.

Current Content

1. Reasons for Digital Accounting Revolution

Salawu and Moloi’s (2020) study analyzes various critical factors influencing accounting operations by estimating different investments among organizations. Among the main technologies included is artificial intelligence, and the fourth industrial revolution influenced its increased growth. Therefore, the DA revolution is imperative to organizational growth as various accounting systems are termed the company and individual assets. Artificial intelligence is utilized within accounting principles and standards estimations. However, there remains a major controversy on artificial intelligence and other DA systems’ usage as most organizations have not fully implemented the technological changes. Therefore, the technologies remain foreign to most organizations. Therefore, there is an increased need for an organization to identify important factors to facilitate policy reviews to accommodate further developments in accounting domains.

Additionally, the DA revolution is crucial as it allows organizations to capitalize on using different and simplified algorithms in promoting financial reporting and auditing fairness. Hence, this allows organizations to evaluate and measure their performance following the technology used (Salawu & Moloi, 2020). Besides, they can easily define what needs to be changed in their accounting aspects to foster the transacting financial component. DA tools also facilitate access to real-time accounting data, essential for reporting prospects. They foster automation processes within the organizations, increasing performance efficiencies while decreasing accounting errors. Furthermore, the DA tools help organizations and people to handle uncertainties through cloud computing and automation. DA revolution leads to efficient organizational productivity and accuracy of accounting tasks. Companies and individuals also become less vulnerable to transactional risks.

Moreover, most organizations and people have facilitated the DA revolution following the new possibilities of growth and development. This relates to both productivity and professional growth among proficient accountants. The revolution includes the utilization of technological innovations, allowing accounting experts to evolve with time while increasing the value of their businesses. For instance, automation following the DA revolution enhances daily operations’ streamlining. This creates clear paths for continued accounting while defining efficient techniques for proper resources utilization (Salawu & Moloi, 2020). Thus, the revolution has helped organizations and people to outsource various organizational auditing procedures, analysis, and generation of financial reports. DA revolution has also enhanced financial decision-making following the increased access to timely and essential accounting data. Therefore, the revolution fosters accounting process paces aligned with the business pace.

Similarly, the aspect of the DA revolution has been essential for organizations and individuals following the transformation of the accountants’ job description. For instance, accountants are no longer back office operators but have evolved to become business partners. An accountant can effectively accomplish the various roles distributed across their working periods. Therefore, they become less frantic and can effectively deal with major transactional problems, including exceptions. Besides, accountants’ capability to process every transaction is attained due to easy access to real-time data. Therefore, the management can effectively fulfill their customers’ and stakeholders’ needs (Aguiar & Gouveia, 2020). These actions provide an organization or people with more competitive advantages within their production context. Increasing the professional accountants’ automation capacity enhances their concentration on strategy development and financial analysis. These tasks foster a business to glide into a real operational partnership.

Regardless of the positive reasons for the DA revolution, there are some downsides to technological advancements. Automation of accounting processes provides opportunities for applying technologies, which increases the potential for more productivity and failure chances equally. Besides, the failure to effectively implement DA leads to the provision of more opportunities to business competitors to grow and be more streamlined in business. Further, major uncertainties are attached to increased technological changes, especially those happening rapidly (Aguiar & Gouveia, 2020). DA revolution may have required increased utilization within a short period. These actions only increase fear and ambiguity among accounting professionals, especially if they are not prepared for the changes. Hence, all organizations and people in accounting should improve their roles through automation.

1. Utilization of Modern Accounting Systems

Since the earliest accounting records, there have been significant changes within the accounting profession. Besides, different technologies have been advanced, including several software to facilitate different computations. For instance, during the early 2000s, optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent data capture (IDC) technologies were developed. These were to foster advanced data capturing in various index fields. This was critical in fostering the accounts payable automation processes (Aakash, 2016). Therefore, this alleviated manual entries of financial data and other accounting pieces of information, including time, date, and amounts. The technologies have structured documentation features in pre-set template forms. This was crucial in ensuring information entry into digital accounting systems utilized robotic automation.

Modern accounting technologies are efficient among professional accountants and other users, especially in financial transacting. The DA revolution has improved the capacity for organizations and people to identify and track complex accounting facets affecting their workflows. Besides, the digitalized accounting systems are used as key performance indicators through proper monitoring of diverse analytical tools. This makes it easy to compare different automation prospects and potential impacts of the DA revolution (Lugovskу & Kuter, 2019). Furthermore, continuous accounting modernization and industrial evolution have enhanced automation (Kruskopf et al., 2020). Hence, this influences the need for continued learning among accounting professionals. They will attain more skills and improved knowledge to foster their role in financial operations.

Revolutionization within the industries and businesses has facilitated accounting features, including financial reporting, bookkeeping, and auditing. Therefore, there is improved usage of diverse accounting software, which causes prosperity among businesses. More value is attained while growth and expansion opportunities are acquired. Professional accountants can easily save more time, financial resources, and mental efforts, which they apply in other operations, including consultancy and advisory (Pan & Seow, 2016). Moreover, various accounting packages and software advances have improved business value. Most organizations and people now use various business intelligence facets to improve their productivity. These include data mining, business monitoring technologies, dashboards, blockchain, and alert features.

1. Modern Forms of Accounting Software

Different DA revolutions describe the modernized way of performing various accounting and financial roles by organizations and people. Mostly, this defines the accounting software features and technologies as developed. They are internet-based systems that facilitate computations and numbers’ automation. For instance, cloud computing software is utilized for storing and retrieving accounting data. Therefore, enhancing the accounting education feature will allow professionals to efficiently adapt and use cloud computing systems. In addition, accounting database systems, including Microsoft SQL, enhance the functionality of various tasks at reduced costs.

Talukdar et al. (2018) define how digital accounting has enhanced the usage of portable software. This allows accountants to work remotely from any location using either Windows, Novell, Linux, or Apple computers. A controversial issue concerning the increased usage of technological accounting systems includes efficient data security. As more technology is used, there is an increased possibility of security breach risks. There are many accounting software used currently to foster business transactions. For instance, Sage 50 cloud software is important in keeping tabs. It also improves taxation, invoicing, cash flow analysis, budgeting, financial data analysis, and inventory intake. FreshBooks software is essential in enhancing payment functionalities, reminders for overdue payments, and direct payments.

 FreeAgent software is essential in DA following the effective management of different financial operations, including payrolls, cash flows, taxes, expenditures, and banking transactions. The Zoho Books software is useful in automating banking feeds, invoicing, and reminding clients of their sent payments. Xero software is important in enhancing the management of actual financial data on different devices at any time. Adamo et al. (2020) indicate that Xero software is more convenient for small business owners. Lastly, QuickBooks software is the most used accounting prospect among organizations and people in their businesses. This software is mostly used to enhance tax computations, track accounting services, locate accounting tasks, and create bills of materials. The increased usage of modern accounting features defines the efficacy of the accounting migration from analog to digital accounting functions.

1. Digital Accounting Misconception among Organizations and People

Various studies indicate major misconceptions about DA usage regardless of the various improvements DA has made in the accounting profession. Most organizations and individuals may dread the accounting part of business following its intimidating nature. This is caused by different beliefs, false facts, and stereotyping prospects over the internet, as most people are now in the digital zone. The lack of proper understanding of the accounting prospect risks poor business performance and outcomes. One of the commonest misconceptions regarding DA includes the DA prospect being only useful for taxation purposes. Tax time could be crucial for bookkeepers, but it may not be the only important time for professional accountants to utilize DA systems.

Another misconception includes the lack of need to fix the manual accounting prospect as it functions just fine. Today’s reality is that there is an increased need for accounting transformation to increase business success achievement. More time and mental effort are saved for other efficient functions, including consultancy. Furthermore, most organizations and people think that DA and related software are simple to implement and use. Therefore, this depicts no need for a deeper understanding of the DA software. The reality of such a misconception is that a professional using the DA system must know how the company operates financially. A professional must take some time to comprehend the accounting programs, especially through class training.

Theoretical Framework Literature

This context within the study is crucial in informing the audience of the study purpose and proper understanding of the specific DA phenomenon. There are different features an organization or a person must consider while diverging to digital transformation (Lombardi & Secundo, 2020). For example, most companies and individuals would experience DA revolution to foster their financial and accounting functions. As a result, their business performance will be increased (Kruskopf et al., 2020). This study utilizes two major theories to help elaborate the importance of the DA revolution and the general impacts of digital transformation. These include the business process re-engineering approach and the resource-based view theory.

1. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) Theory

This is a strategic approach for various businesses to redesign their business processes that best suit their productivity goals. In the late 1880s, Frederick Taylor indicated that organizational managers should discover efficient processes to enhance work performance while re-engineering the processes to optimize productivity. Michael Hammer developed the BPR theory with the help of Thomas Davenport in the mid-1980s. Their main concept was for enhanced business management strategies’ implementation by analyzing and designing various organizational workflows and business processes. Further, the BPR was developed to assist companies in rethinking how to do their work in order. As a result, this would improve customer services, reduce operational costs, and enhance the organization’s competitive advantage. Hence, the theory is crucial in influencing the radical changing of organizations by focusing on enhancing the business processes. This helps achieve the defined business outcomes using a holistic performance focus on business objectives.

Laguna and Marklund’s (2018) study indicates that BPR theory is crucial for organizations and people to define various strategic needs for digital transformation. Mostly, BPR is influenced by cost-saving technological innovations to help reduce old business operations methods. DA revolution defines the capacity of companies and individuals to redesign their accounting prospects to foster their business processes. This helps implement better alternatives in fostering business performance and operational quality (Bhimani, 2020). The BPR theory inspects how diverse businesses and people rethink their operational and production approaches in delivering more value to consumers in different niches.

DA revolution defines how BPR is utilized as a technological innovation to improve business productivity (Weerakkody et al., 2021). DA is a new business strategy that fosters operational, including financial transactions and reporting (Weerakkody et al., 2021). The theory’s re-engineering features focus on attaining various accounting needs to offer clients better services. Besides, more financial data can be disseminated over the DA systems’ usage, facilitating quality decision-making in business. Therefore, the DA revolution allows organizations and people to redesign, retool and reorchestrate different business transactional components for improved accounting outcomes. Through this, businesses attain their goals, quality of services, and reduced production costs.

1. Resource-based View Theory

The resource-based view (RBV) theory is an efficient strategic management tool widely utilized in organizations to foster project executions. Its main focus is on examining how resources present in an organization can assist in driving major competitive advantages. Therefore, the DA revolution is a crucial resource that helps organizations and people attain more value than their rivals. This enhances their capacity to generate higher returns on their investments. Birger Wernerfelt promulgated RBV theory in 1984. He regarded it as a strategic management tool because of its practical relevance to modern management practices. Freeman et al. (2021) further emphasize that the theory leads to sustainable competitive advantage and profit maximization.

The presence of certain resources within the organization offers the firm more superiority in its performance. This theory elaborates on diverse management frameworks that are useful in depicting efficient strategic resources a company could exploit to attain its productivity goals. For instance, the DA prospect is a critical resource for an organization to attain efficient accounting goals and performance. Organizations using modernized systems in accounting have increased chances of better performance (Dubey et al., 2019). Professional accountants spend less time conducting general roles, while more time is spent on consultancy and client advisory prospects. DA revolution enhances continued organizations’ internal operations as management ensures efficient implementation of the tech innovations. Improved usage of DA systems strategically positions an organization within the marketplace while enhancing excellent outcomes and productivity levels.

DA Misconceptions among Organizations and People

Misconceptions describe the diverse misunderstandings relating to a certain phenomenon, including accountancy and relating practices following the revolution prospect. One of the commonest misconceptions is that the DA revolution will only be effective when dealing with taxation functions in organizations and by people. DA revolution will not sustain tax accounting roles only but also support every accounting aspect, including financial reporting, accounts reconciliations, auditing, and invoicing (Moll, 2021). All these functions will help foster the development of financial strategies and proper investment decisions. Another misconception includes the DA transformation being a separate facet added to accounting and business performance models (Fadzilah, 2017). This is a misleading ideology for organizations and people to engage in DA transformation. In reality, the DA revolution is impacts the whole organization and requires everyone to be involved in its implementation and utilization.

The majority of people think that the accounting profession naturally requires math prodigies. However, the reality is that math proficiency is an added advantage for someone pursuing accountancy. However, it is not the only thing that will automate one’s success in accountancy (Kroon et al., 2021). In addition, the DA revolution does not only benefit large organizations and businesses as misconceived. The DA systems and technologies foster performance for small and medium organizations and businesses. Another accounting fallacy is that it is boring following the repetitiveness of various accounting functions. In reality, accounting is quite interesting since it requires one o utilize their analytical skills to enhance impactful decision-making. The revolution also introduces new technologies which intrigue major changes in accounting tasks in various professional niches (Ghasemi et al., 2019). 

Additional misconception on accounting and the revolution aspect is that professional accountants will have fewer opportunities to grow and develop themselves professionally. This is the opposite of reality, though, since technological advancements lead to more opportunities for an accounting professional. For instance, one could engage in consultancy to advise clients on better investment r attain a rise in their rank in an organization. Therefore, technological advances will not make the profession obsolete. Instead, the digital accounting revolution will provide more accounting tools efficient in interpreting information collected, processing, and using the data in efficient organizational decision-making. They are also free from mundane tasks consuming much of their time and are more proactive within and outside the workplace.

Methodology Literature

There are different sources of information for this study. Mostly, they relate to accounting, finance, digital transformation, and business operations. The studies have originated from different journals, including the International Journal of Accounting and Business Performance, International Business Research, Accounting Education, and Journal of Management Control. Additional journals for the study include Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Journal of Finance and Risk Perspective, Information Systems and e-Business Management, and the Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. The studies have utilized qualitative and quantitative approaches to help attain the main study outcomes. The outcomes offer critical support to the current study following their findings on accounting modernization and misconceptions.

There are over thirty studies analyzed for this research. Few of those are original research articles, while the rest are review articles and e-books. The authors provide their perspectives regarding accounting technological transformation. The studies have utilized various methodologies, including interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and case studies. For this research, the method used is semi-structured interviews since it is a qualitative study. The interviews allow study participants to participate in the study within their natural environment effectively. Besides, formal consent is attained before the interview as an ethical consideration for the subjects. Therefore, the study procedures will ensure that the participants are aware of their role, and the outcomes are used only for the study analysis.

Research Design Literature

The DA revolution and misconception study will utilize the descriptive research design, which applies to qualitative studies. The design will efficiently help in attaining accurate information from the study respondents. Besides, the approach is crucial for accurately and systematically describing the study population. A descriptive study design allows the researcher to answer different questions efficiently. This enhances a proper understanding of the study phenomenon, settings, and timing of the investigation. The researcher can investigate more than one variable without manipulation (Willis et al., 2016). Qualitative descriptive research design utilizes efficient techniques in attaining the study population. For instance, it utilizes purposive sampling, which is essential in planning for a focused group to include in the study (Willis et al., 2016).

Additionally, the descriptive research design accurately describes a study and the subjects. It is less time-consuming compared to other qualitative study designs. This study’s descriptive research design is essential in defining the various DA trends in contemporary business contexts (Kim et al., 2017). Furthermore, descriptive research design allows for efficient data analysis using the content analysis strategy. The study outcomes’ representations are mostly straightforward, and the data collected is accurately detailed.

Aspers and Corte (2019) offer an efficient description of qualitative research and the various designs fostering its productivity in research. The study has critical support in defining qualitative study as a multi-method focused on interpreting study results naturally to the subject matter (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Rawls, 2018; Goertz & Mahoney, 2012). These methodologists support the various social research pioneers and their contributions. A descriptive approach allows ease in studying various phenomena within natural settings. The main idea is to make sense or interpret study prospects concerning subjects’ understanding.

Conclusions

There is different information from the literature on the DA revolution and misconceptions. First, the study has provided an efficient definition of the DA revolution and its applicability in the contemporary business world. Further, the study has indicated why the DA revolution has occurred over the past years. The main one includes the need for improved taxation operations among companies. More transformation is also expected considering the continuous changes and advances in modern technology. DA revolution has improved accounting operations, leading to increased organizational sustainability goals. In addition, the DA revolution has facilitated financial data analysis and auditing in organizations leading to better financial operations.

Further, the literature has indicated that technological innovations in accounting have improved cybersecurity features. This has fostered efficient storage of accounting data and secured financial transactions. Zhang et al. (2021) further add that the DA revolution has improved professional accounting roles, including bookkeeping, financial reporting, and auditing. The accountants’ roles have been advanced as they engage in consultancy and advisory to their clients. Therefore, the revolution has caused irrevocable accounting transformation, which has improved various organizations and business operations. Mostly, the DA revolution was facilitated by the fourth industrial revolution. Besides, the transformation has enhanced efficient forecasting within the accountancy profession. This is based on introducing different software like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Regardless of the essential impacts of the DA revolution, there have been major misconceptions among organizations and people regarding the transformation. Among these fallacies include the DA revolution being useful for taxation roles only. In reality, the revolution will support every accounting role in an organization and not tax role only. Secondly, some individuals feel that the DA revolution will make the accounting profession redundant (Kroon et al., 2021). The reality is that the DA revolution empowers the professionals as their role is enhanced. Utilizing the DA systems saves more time and allows the accountants to engage in other roles, including consultancy and advisory on financial decision-making and investments. Among other misconceptions on DA revolution is that it is boring following the repetitive nature. In reality, accounting is an interesting profession since it requires critical thinking and analytical skills to foster the various computation operations (Moll, 2021).

Similarly, the literature reviewed has provided a critical analysis of the foundational theories for the study. The theories elaborate on why the DA revolution is essential to the modern business context. These include the business process re-engineering and the resource-based view theories (Weerakkody et al., 2021; Freeman et al., 2021). They elaborate on an organization’s main focus on improving performance by redesigning its accountancy features and utilizing available sources to transform overall productivity. Furthermore, the literature has included the historical and current content on the DA revolution and fallacies among organizations and people. The historical content analyses the earliest accounting records towards the modern era (Luther, 2003; Napier, 2006). This provides a historical perspective on where the accounting profession has grown from accounting records on clay tablets to modern software utilization. The current content provides an efficient review of different accounting software used in accountancy (Adamo et al., 2020). It also offers more analysis of why organizations engage in the DA revolution.

Chapter Summary

The study has critically reviewed the digital accounting revolution and the misconceptions among organizations and people.  One of the essential study prospects includes a clear definition of the DA revolution and the possible reasons for its increased occurrence. DA revolution has improved accounting operations leading to better business sustainability goals achievement. The transformation has enhanced different financial transactions and accounting accuracy. Moreover, there are better bookkeeping, auditing, and financial reporting strategies, among other organizational accountancy roles. Therefore, the revolution has led to irrevocable accounting transformation, which is expected to grow into the future following the continuous technological changes.

Furthermore, the study has provided effective research on the diverse misconceptions on the revolution among organizations and people. The research has critically analyzed the study’s foundational theories, which described the theoretical framework. These include the business process re-engineering and the resource-based view theories (Kruskoft et al., 2020; Lombardi & Secundo, 2020). Further, the study includes a crucial analysis of the research’s title search and documentation strategy. The main focus is on how keywords, specific websites, and repositories have been used to identify essential journals for the study. In addition, the historical and current content have been described, including various crucial subtopics to enhance proper understanding of the study. Lastly, the study has included the methodology and research design literature before making the overall conclusions. Chapter 3 will focus on critically analyzing the research methodology and findings for the study.

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