IT Competences for Professional Accountants. A Review

Abstract

Uncertainty in world economy in conjunction with the impact of information as a critical resource have reformed drastically the role and contribution of an accounting and finance professional. IT has modified the way data is collected, stored, processed and distributed between business stakeholders, and as a result accountants were strongly affected by this change. Nowadays, the use of IT in accounting is widely applied and has turned into an every day routine, so that it is no longer possible to perform most of the accounting and financial operations without the engagement of IT. This implies a significant transformation in the competences required from the accountants in order to successfully perform their tasks. This change has been acknowledged by both academic and practitioners. Several scholars attempted to investigate these new competences as well as a number of International accounting organizations proposed competences frameworks. However, a lot of concerns about the level of IT related competences required from the contemporary accountants has been raised by many business parties.In this article, the IT competences required by contemporary accountants are identified, based on a conciseliterature review in order to track all major changes realized during the last decades and develop an IT competency framework.

Accounting Information System Courses: Developing a Hybrid Syllabus in the Era of Digitization

“…It is said that accounting is the "language" of business; if this maxim is true, then an accounting information system (AIS) is the vehicle for that language (Romney & Steinbart, 2018). Many researchers and practitioners have noted the extensive changes taking place in the field of AIS (Damasiotis et al, 2015;Krahel & Vasarhelyi, 2014) as new types of information system (IS) technologies have emerged and evolved. This evolution may result in changing the way accountants work (Damasiotis et al, 2015).…”

“…AIS is "a crossdiscipline subject, often taught by Computing and Accounting disciplines" (Tran & Anvari, 2013). It has been defined as "a computerized system that is used for performing accounting operations using IT resources" (Damasiotis et al, 2015). According to Monk and Wagner (2012), the accounting profession was the first to use IS applications by automating accounting data operations (e.g., retrieving, storing, and calculations) via the use of simple spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel.…”

Theoretical Aspects of the Formation of Accountant’s Professional Competence in Working Environment

“…Ahmeda izveidotā zināšanu kategorija "knowinghow" ir sinonīms terminam "prasmes", savukārt "knowing-that" zināšanas, kuras iegūst mācoties. (Damasiotis et al, 2015) Mūsdienās kompetence tiek definēta kā spēja veikt atbilstošus uzdevumus līdz noteiktam prasmju līmenim strauji mainīgos apstākļos. Tā prasa efektīvu attiecīgo prasmju un īpašo īpašību pielietošanu, kas parasti ir iespējama tikai pēc īpašas praktiskas pieredzes iegūšanas (Borgonovo, Friedrich, & Wells, 2019).…”

Reflexividade do exame de suficiência frente ao estabelecido pelo currículo mundial ONU/UNCTAD/ISAR e a eixos de competências requeridas dos profissionais da área contábil

“…O Exame de Suficiência contribui para a melhoria do ensino, e, assim, para a valorização e, aprimoramento profissional (SARSUR et al, 2008;KOUNROUZAN et al, 2010), todavia pesquisas (JACKLING;LANGE, 2009;BUI;PORTER, 2010;MARIN;NOVA, 2014;ORO;BEUREN;CARPES, 2014) destacam a existência de distanciamento entre o perfil de profissionais desejado pela academia e o requerido pelo exercício da profissão Contábil. Esta preocupação é mencionada também em estudos como os de Cardoso, Mendonça Neto e Oyadomari (2010), Pereira (2013), Chen (2014), Marin, Lima e Nova (2014), Laffin (2015), Damasiotis et al (2015), Slomski et al (2016), Barrese, Bastoni e Nogueira (2017), Amorim e Silva ( 2018), e Freitas e Odelius (2018), que ressaltam a necessidade de o contador desenvolver e otimizar competências tais como: visão sistêmica, trabalho em equipe, conhecimento de novas tecnologias, capacidade crítica e analítica, iniciativa própria, criatividade, inovação, capacitação técnica e científica, dentre outros.…”