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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.14
How to Cite:
Kovalevska, N., Nesterenko, I., Lutsenko, O., Nesterenko, O., & Hlushach, Y. (2022). Problems of accounting digitalization in
conditions of business processes digitalization. Amazonia Investiga, 11(56), 132-141. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.14
Problems of accounting digitalization in conditions of business
processes digitalization
Problemas de la digitalización de la contabilidad en condiciones de digitalización de los
procesos
Received: September 1, 2022 Accepted: September 30, 2022
Written by:
Kovalevska Nadiia60
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2758-5972
Nesterenko Iryna61
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-8248
Lutsenko Olena62
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5621-1152
Nesterenko Oksana63
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9516-0917
Hlushach Yuliia64
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8068-5753
Abstract
The study of accounting digitalization in the
context of business processes digitalization is an
actual and modern problem. Methods used:
analysis and synthesis, graphic methods, the
method of comparisons, the cause-and-effect
method. The purpose of the article: the
determination of the stages of business processes
digitalization, the formation of directions for
digitalization of accounting, the identification of
opportunities and threats. Tasks of the article:
research of modern trends, advantages and
disadvantages of digitization; determination of
the features of digital technologies introducing;
formation of the directions and problems of
digitization of accounting. As a result, modern
trends, advantages, and disadvantages of
digitalization were outlined, its process was built,
and the main directions of digitalization of
accounting were proposed. The obtained results
can be used by business managers to build the
process of digitalization and determine further
directions of digitalization of accounting. Further
60
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor Department of Accounting, Audit and Taxation Faculty of Economic Relations and Finance,
State Biotechnological University, Ukraine.
61
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Accounting, Audit and Taxation Faculty of Economic Relations and
Finance, State Biotechnological University, Ukraine.
62
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department Department of Accounting, Audit and Taxation Faculty of Economic
Relations and Finance, State Biotechnological University, Ukraine.
63
Doctor of Economics, Professor Head of the Department of Statistics, Accounting and Audit V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National
University, School of Economics, department of statistics, accounting and audit, Ukraine.
64
PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Statistics, Accounting and Audit V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National
University, School of Economics, department of statistics, Ukraine.
Kovalevska, N., Nesterenko, I., Lutsenko, O., Nesterenko, O., Hlushach, Y. / Volume 11 - Issue 56: 132-141 / August, 2022
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research may include legal support for the
digitization of accounting and its improvement.
Keywords: digitalization, accounting,
digitalization of business processes, information
technologies, innovations.
Introduction
Digitalization's penetration into all areas of life
and society is an irreversible process that creates
a number of benefits for businesses, but it also
creates a long list of challenges. Otherwise, the
digitalization of business processes has a direct
impact on accounting. The digitalization of
accounting involves its transformation from
traditional to digital form, which also entails both
prospects and disadvantages for businesses. The
ability of a business, particularly its accounting,
to adapt as quickly as possible to the current
trends of digitalization depends on its future
market position and existence in general.
Therefore, it is relevant to investigate the
opportunities, prospects, and challenges of the
digitalization of accounting and the digitalization
of business processes.
Accounting has evolved in parallel with
information technology (Knudsen, 2020), so it
can be assumed that this area will adapt to the
new realities faster than others. The directions of
implementation and development of
digitalization of accounting in enterprises are:
changes in the accounting system in terms of its
methodological elements; application of new
digital forms of assets, liabilities, and capital;
professional development in accordance with the
requirements of digital competencies of
accounting personnel (Chyzhevska et al., 2021).
The vast opportunities offered by digitalization
for accounting are difficult for modern
businesses to ignore and not use in their
activities. Internet technology can significantly
reduce the cost of communication and the
transfer and storage of information. Electronic
communications allow businesses to expand into
new markets, provide ample opportunities to
attract customers, significantly save time, and
allow them to respond quickly to market
fluctuations (Lazebnyk, 2018).
The main barriers to the implementation of
digitalization are resistance to change,
organizational culture, lack of trust, and the high
cost of technology (Vărzaru, 2022). Separately,
researchers note cybersecurity risks (Pantelei &
Lazari, 2022), as well as the decline in the quality
of information and the issue of the reliability of
the person involved in its preservation and
transmission (Agostino et al., 2021).
Researchers agree that the hope that things will
remain more or less as they are now should be
considered potentially dangerous. That is,
digitalization will affect business processes and
accounting, and technologies such as big data
analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain
technology, and other advances have the
potential to stop any human interference in the
audit process. In particular, big data can
supplement original accounts and improve the
quality of reporting. In the future, artificial
intelligence will be able to perform the same
audit procedures and judgments as a human
colleague (Tiberius & Hirth, 2019).
The process of digitalization of business
processes is insufficiently covered and
systematized, there is no clarity or consensus in
the works of scientists regarding its main stages.
There is also little coverage of specific areas of
digitalization of accounting.
Thus, the purpose of this article is to define the
stages of digitalization of business processes, the
formation of directions of digitalization of
accounting, and the identification of
opportunities and threats that accompany these
processes. Achieving these goals requires
solving the following tasks:
Study of current trends, advantages, and
disadvantages of the digitalization of business
processes for business;
Defining the peculiarities of the process of
implementing digital technologies;
Formation of the main directions and problems
of digitalization of accounting.
Theoretical Framework or Literature Review
The problems of digitalization of accounting and
digitalization of business processes, in general,
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are developed in their studies by many Ukrainian
and foreign researchers. Annarelli et al., (2021)
in their work highlight the benefits that
companies that have implemented digitalization
will provide to their customers. Eller et al.,
(2020) devote their research entirely to
examining the impact of digitalization on small
and medium-sized businesses. The researchers
identify the peculiarities of digital transformation
of such businesses and in the conclusion provide
a list of barriers to the successful implementation
of digitalization related to the lack of personnel
with relevant competencies. Agostino et al.,
(2021) worry about potential risks along with the
benefits of digitalization. Researchers attach
great importance to the deterioration of
information quality and reliability with the
implementation of digitalization and note the
importance of the reliability of those responsible
for its preservation and transmission.
Stefanovova et al., (2020) also focus on the
disadvantages of digitalization, including the
neglect of human capacity and imperfect
legislative enforcement. As you can see from the
literature review, the focus of scholars is on the
disadvantages of digitalization. But this does not
mean that digitalization should be suspended or
that businesses would be better off not doing it.
Digitalization is a well-recognized necessity, and
its benefits are known and obvious. That's why
researchers are seeking to improve the efficiency
and safety of the process by carefully considering
and proposing ways to prevent and minimize the
threats and risks of digitalization.
Methodology
As the main scientific methods for the study were
selected analysis and synthesis of the scientific
literature to determine the theoretical aspects of
the issue under study; graphical methods for a
visual representation of theoretical information;
method of comparison to compare the results of
research; causal method to determine the
advantages and disadvantages of the aspects
under study. The tools used in the research were
Smart Art add-in MS Word, used to represent
information in the form of drawings, as well as
the software Visio to build a flowchart to
determine the decision-making process on the
digitalization of business and a mind map to
identify the main areas of digitalization of
accounting.
The complex nature of the study involves its
division into stages.
The first stage identifies current trends,
advantages, and disadvantages for businesses in
terms of implementing digitalization of business
processes. The main trends in the development of
electronic communications are considered and
the advantages and disadvantages of the
digitalization of business processes are
identified.
The second stage includes the construction of the
process of digitalization of business processes
and a detailed description of each of the stages.
A generalized view of the process of deciding on
the digitalization of business processes with its
distribution into two alternative directions is
offered. The result of deciding on each of the
defined directions is analyzed.
The third stage is the identification and analysis
of current directions of digitalization of
accounting. The main opportunities for the
development of accounting through the
implementation of digitalization are disclosed.
The main threats and barriers associated with this
process are outlined.
The final stage of the study contains a
comparison of the results obtained with the
conclusions of the researchers of the topic. It was
found that scientists generally agree on the
benefits and necessity of the digitalization
process. However, in some papers, there are lists
of significant disadvantages.
Results and Discussion
Theoretical aspects of the digitalization of
business processes: current trends,
advantages, and disadvantages for business
Digitization is an unavoidable process that
covers all spheres of life and the functioning of
the economy. With the global digital
transformation of economies, each individual
business unit sooner or later asks the question of
digitizing its activities. Failure to digitize a
business may result in the loss of customers and
counterparties, losses, lost value, reduced
competitiveness, and, ultimately, the termination
of the business. Entrepreneurial business models
are often divided into classic and innovative
models. Classical is aimed at maximizing the
return on resources, and innovative - the goal of
applying all possible innovations in the
enterprise, even in the absence of sufficient own
resources for their implementation. Such
innovations include both the latest financial tools
and management models (Iorgachova et al.,
2018) and the implementation of information
technology. Most often such, when these models
are used by the business at the same time because
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to implement all possible innovations in the
enterprise is impractical and too valuable, and
not to implement them at all will lead to the
decline of the business. Digitalization of business
involves using digital technology to change the
business model and provide new opportunities
for profit and value creation (Bloomberg, 2018;
Gobble, 2018). In other words, digitalization or
digitization of business processes involves
making a transition from analog to digital
Lozic, J. (2019). The main role in the process of
digitalization is played by the development of
information technology and means of
communication. Information becomes the most
valuable resource, and most of the carriers of
information tend to be converted into electronic
form. This form enhances the possibilities of
communication between businesses and their
customers, creates new markets and
opportunities for restructuring economic
processes, in particular the reorganization of
business processes. The main trends in the
development of electronic communications are:
the digitization of business information, doing
business over the Internet, minimizing physical
limitations through the use of electronic
networks, the development of the entire
infrastructure of production based on the use of
information devices, the transfer of payments
into cashless form, access to information about
the business, production, and product, etc. for
customers. (Lazebnyk, 2018). In addition to the
obvious advantages of digitalization, there are
also a number of significant disadvantages to this
process. Figure 1 shows the following
disadvantages and advantages of implementing
digitalization in the business processes of the
enterprise.
Fig. 1. Advantages and disadvantages of implementing digitalization in enterprise business processes
(built by the author for (Kraus et al., 2021; Rooksby, 2018))
Figure 1 shows the risks of digitalization at the
individual business entity level. If we consider
the risks and threats of digitalization at the global
level, we can identify many more disadvantages
of this process. These are mainly social
disadvantages, but they will have an impact not
only on society but also on national economies.
In particular, such disadvantages can include the
so-called “Internet addiction”, degradation of the
population through the ability to find any
information with the help of gadgets,
deterioration of mental health due to the revision
of inappropriate content, increasing income
differences between the population, loss of jobs
due to replacement of human. labor with
automation increased control of the state over the
costs, income, movement, and its citizens, the
risk of personal information, transfer of decision-
making responsibility to machines, and so on.
(Khandii, 2019). It should be noted that with the
Disadvantages of
digitalization Advantages of
digitalization
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globalization of all processes and activities in
people's lives, all of these disadvantages will
have an indirect and perhaps prolonged but
weighty impact on businesses. In contrast to the
disadvantages of the introduction of
digitalization, this process has a number of
positive effects, in particular, increasing the
commitment of users, for whom it is more
convenient to access information about the
business, increasing the possibility of buying
goods and services by ordering them at any time
via the Internet, etc. Through the Internet, it is
possible to create a positive image, conduct
marketing campaigns. Digitalization of
document flow, production, and other processes,
when skillfully applied, contributes to cost
reduction (from saving office materials to
speeding up the production process by times,
saving significant amounts of electricity,
reducing manual labor, etc.). Processing, storage,
and operation of even the most significant
volume of information becomes fast and
convenient. All these factors increase the
competitiveness and efficiency of the business.
Peculiarities of the process of implementation
of digital technologies
The process of digitalization in the enterprise, as
mentioned above, should be continuous, but it
also has stages, which can be cyclical if new
innovations need to be introduced. The three
main stages of such a process are shown in Figure
2.
Fig. 2. Stages of implementation of digitalization (built by the author for (Husieva & Lehominova, 2018))
The first stage involves a detailed analysis of the
business activities, goals, and objectives of
digitalization and the development of an
appropriate strategy. This stage contains the
analysis of all business processes and assets of
the subject of entrepreneurship. The purpose of
this analysis is to identify the amount of lost
value, to determine the effectiveness of each
department, the efficiency of production,
communications. The analysis should make it
possible to evaluate the strategic result of the
introduction of digitalization, to develop,
implement and be able to adjust the appropriate
strategy. The second stage, in which the direct
implementation of digitalization technologies
takes place, involves the selection and use of
appropriate digital tools. Their implementation is
accompanied by digital experiments that aim at
progressive, consumer-oriented development
and the expansion of innovation potential. For
example, one of these tools is the use of low-code
platforms that allow rapid creation,
customization, and adjustment of experimental
systems and applications.
The third step is to analyze the effectiveness of
the results in detail. This includes analysis of the
effectiveness of solutions for the digitalization of
the business, analysis of statistics on the change
in profits through the implementation of digital
tools, etc. Based on the results of the analysis,
conclusions are made regarding the directions of
further implementation of digitalization
measures (Husieva & Lehominova, 2018).
In addition to the generalized stages of
digitalization implementation, each business
should develop a detailed step-by-step process
for the implementation of digital technologies
that meets the needs and characteristics of the
business. Based on this process, the
organization's overall strategy will be developed.
Such a process can be built again with the help of
modern digital tools. Such tools include software
that can be used to create, for example,
roadmaps, “goal trees,” other schemes and
processes. As a generalized example of the
process of implementation of digital technologies
at an enterprise, Figure 3 shows a flowchart of
decision-making on digital business
transformation.
Business analysis, planning,
setting goals and objectives,
strategy development Introduction of digitalization Analysis of the results of the
implementation of digital
technologies