The accountant's role in the 2020s : Case study Kojamo Oyj
Delucca, Federico (2020)
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060817650
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060817650
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to analyse and present the role of accountants in the 2020s, focusing on corporations’ financial accountants. The commissioner of this thesis is Kojamo Oyj, the largest private residential real estate company in Finland. The company is going through a process of innovation in its accounting department and therefore it is interested in understanding how the accountant’s role will change with the implementation of advanced accounting software programs.
The objective is to study the tasks that accountants will cover in the upcoming years, the following changes and the factors that affect these changes. With this information, it will be possible to gain an understanding of the role of accountants within corporations.
As qualitative research, the method applied was the case study method with semi-structured interviews, in addition to academic literature as a theoretical framework. Interviews were conducted with Kojamo’s accountants and finance controller to understand their processes and their ideas about the accountant’s role, and with accountants working for more developed companies from the accounting viewpoint in order to have also their perspective on the subject.
Based both on literature and interviews, the accountants’ role is moving towards a position of data controller and analyser, affected by the development of automation within accounting processes. It is always more important for accountants to develop interaction skills to cooperate actively both with finance controller and other departments, in addition to be able to understand the whole process having the ability to analyse singular transactions.
The results achieved in this thesis can also be relevant for other companies which are developing their accounting activities and are interested in understanding how the changes will affect the accounting personnel. Here can be found also useful information for accounting agencies which are moving towards more automated accounting systems.
This thesis can be further developed by analysing the accounting systems from the technological point of view and assessing the real potential of technology in the accounting field. Accountants have ideas about how could be improved the efficiency of accounting activities, but as they are not engineers, they do not know what technology’s limits and possibilities are.
The objective is to study the tasks that accountants will cover in the upcoming years, the following changes and the factors that affect these changes. With this information, it will be possible to gain an understanding of the role of accountants within corporations.
As qualitative research, the method applied was the case study method with semi-structured interviews, in addition to academic literature as a theoretical framework. Interviews were conducted with Kojamo’s accountants and finance controller to understand their processes and their ideas about the accountant’s role, and with accountants working for more developed companies from the accounting viewpoint in order to have also their perspective on the subject.
Based both on literature and interviews, the accountants’ role is moving towards a position of data controller and analyser, affected by the development of automation within accounting processes. It is always more important for accountants to develop interaction skills to cooperate actively both with finance controller and other departments, in addition to be able to understand the whole process having the ability to analyse singular transactions.
The results achieved in this thesis can also be relevant for other companies which are developing their accounting activities and are interested in understanding how the changes will affect the accounting personnel. Here can be found also useful information for accounting agencies which are moving towards more automated accounting systems.
This thesis can be further developed by analysing the accounting systems from the technological point of view and assessing the real potential of technology in the accounting field. Accountants have ideas about how could be improved the efficiency of accounting activities, but as they are not engineers, they do not know what technology’s limits and possibilities are.