Berita gembira datang dari Asian Journal of Accounting Research - AJAR, salah satu jurnal internasional Departemen Akuntansi, yang berhasil ...

Pada hari Kamis 26 Agustus 2021 Departemen Akuntansi menyelenggarakan Webinar Series #1 dengan tema “Research Trends in Public Sector Accounting and Auditing” dengan pembicara Prof. Nafsiah Mohamed dan Dr. Noor Marini Hj Abdullah dari Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia yang dimoderatori oleh Dr. Devi S. Kalanjati, Dosen Akuntansi Universitas Airlangga. Webinar ini dihadiri sekitar 200 peserta yang berasal dari kalangan mahasiswa dan praktisi.

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Webina1 Peserta

Prof. Nafsiah Mohamed membahas tentang tema-tema penelitian akuntansi sektor publik terkini dan tren tema di masa depan. Prof Nafsiah mengemukakan bahwa tema terkini lebih membahas pada bentuk-bentuk pengukuran akuntansi, moneter, dan lebih ke angka-angka. Sedangkan untuk tren ke depan, Prof. Nafsiah menyebutkan bahwa tema tentang digital world, financial criminology, dan pandemi Covid-19 akan banyak dibahas di masa mendatang. Contohnya untuk digital world, Prof. Nafsiah membahas bagaiman saat ini pemerintah sudah membelanjakan anggaran untuk teknologi, kita perlu mengetahui siapa yang mengawasi penggunaan anggaran tersebut dan mengetahui apakah masyarakat sudah mendapatkan manfaat sesuai dengan apa yang seharusnya mereka dapat. Beliau juga menekankan bahwa baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung penelitian di sektor publik ini perlu mengarah ke aspek finasial dan non finansial, serta menjawab “mengapa” dan “bagaimana”; mengapa suatu kasus terjadi dan bagaimana hasil riset bisa memberi masukan untuk regulasi. Prof. Nafsiah juga menggarisbawahi bahwa tren ke depan kita tidak hanya fokus pada fakta dan figure angka, kite perlu membahas apakah sektor publik sudah melayani masyarakat dengan baik (citizen oriented).

Webinar1 Marini

Sementara itu Dr. Marini mempresentasikan hasil penelitiannya yang berjudul “Non-audit services, audit opinion, cultural, affiliated directors and fraudulent financial reporting: Evidence from Malaysia”. Studi ini meneliti empat faktor yang terkait dengan kecurangan pelaporan keuangan (Fraudulent Financial Reporting - FFR) di perusahaan publik Malaysia (PLC). Penelitian ini menduga bahwa jasa non-audit (NAS) yang disediakan auditor, opini audit, komposisi direktur bumiputra di dewan dan direktur terafiliasi terkait dengan FFR. Sampel yang diteliti terdiri dari 41 perusahaan yang terkena sanksi hukukman karena penipuan sekuritas dan 41 perusahaan yang tidak terkena kasus penipuan, semuanya terdaftar di Bursa Malaysia dan memiliki satu set lengkap data pelaporan keuangan dari 1999-2009. Hasil penelitian tersebut mengungkapkan bahwa jasa audit dan NAS yang diberikan bersamaan secara signifikan terkait positif dengan FFR. Berkenaan dengan opini audit, perusahaan yang menerima selain opini audit wajar tanpa pengecualian (WTP) sebelum tahun kecurangan memiliki hubungan positif dengan FFR. Penelitian ini juga mengungkapkan bahwa proporsi direksi terafiliasi dalam dewan memiliki hubungan negatif yang signifikan terhadap FFR. Namun, penelitian ini juga menunjukkan hubungan positif yang signifikan antara komposisi direksi bumiputra di dewan dan FFR.

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Department of Accounting Universitas Airlangga Proudly Presents Webinar and Public Lecture Series with grand theme "Research Trends and Methods in Accounting".

 

Webinar #1: Research Trends in Public Sector Accounting and Auditing

Thursday, 26 August 2021 | 10:00 a.m. - 12.00 a.m (GMT+7)  

Speaker 1: Prof. Nafsiah Mohamed (Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia)

Speaker 2: Noor Marini Hj Abdullah (Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia)

Moderator: Dr. Devi S. Kalanjati (Universitas Airlangga)

 

Webinar #2: Research Trends in Taxation and Corporate Governance

Thursday, 16 September 2021 | 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m (GMT+7)        

Speaker 1: Mohd Rizal Palil (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)

Speaker 2: Nor Balkish Zakaria (Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia)

Moderator: Dr. Santi Novita (Universitas Airlangga)

 

Public Lecture #1: Mixed Method Research in Accounting: Opportunities and Challenges

Tuesday, 7 September 2021 | 09:00 a.m – 10:30 a.m. (GMT+7)            

Speaker: David Gilchrist (Professor of Accounting, University of Western Australia) 

Moderator: Alfiyatul Qomariyah, Ph.D (Assistant Professor of Accounting, Universitas Airlangga)

 

Public Lecture #2: Qualitative Research Design and Method in Accounting

Monday, 18 October 2021 | 15:30 p.m – 17:00 p.m. (GMT+7)

Speaker: Philip Linsley (Professor of Accounting and Risk Management, University of York). 

Moderator: Basuki, Ph.D (Professor of Accounting, Universitas Airlangga)

 

Public Lecture #3: Experimental Research Design and Method in Accounting

Tuesday, 2 November 2021 | 15:30 p.m – 17:00 p.m. (GMT+7)

Speaker: Victor Mass (Professor of Accounting, University of Amsterdam) 

Moderator : Dr. Sc. (Acc.) Damai Nasution (Assistant Professor of Accounting, Universitas Airlangga)

 

Venue: Zoom and Youtube
Registration Link: http//bit.ly/accountingua2021b
CP: 085707559788 or 081335199218

*e-certificate will be given if participant attends for minimum 3 (three) events of the series

Apa yang saya lakukan sebenarnya relatif sama dengan yang teman-teman lakukan. Yang membuat berbeda adalah bagaimana selama belajar ini saya mengenal arti kata painful. Saya orang yang mau bersusah payah dalam belajar. Sesulit apapun materinya, saya selalu berupaya untuk belajar semaksimal mungkin…”

Semangat belajar Gery Lusiano Firmansyah berhasil mengantarkan lelaki kelahiran Ngawi tersebut pada titik kesuksesan di akhir masa kuliahnya, yaitu dinobatkan sebagai Wisudawan Terbaik FEB periode Juni 2021.

Menurut Gery yang kini telah lulus dari jurusan Akuntansi, ia tidak memiliki kiat khusus dalam belajar, malah Gery mengaku bahwa apa yang dirinya lakukan sebenarnya relatif sama dengan yang teman-temannya lakukan. Hanya saja, Gery merasa bahwa yang membuatnya berbeda adalah bagaimana ia mengenal arti kata painful selama melaksanakan proses pembelajaran di kampus. “Saya orang yang mau bersusah payah dalam belajar. Sesulit apapun materinya, saya selalu berupaya untuk belajar semaksimal mungkin, bertanya kepada teman, meminta masukan dari kakak tingkat. Dan yang paling penting adalah mau membaca mau belajar sendiri,” ungkap Gery. Menurut wisudawan tersebut, kesulitan yang harus ia lalui yang kemudian akan membentuk mental dan karakter pejuang dalam dirinya.

Memiliki IPK 4.00/4.00, pria yang hobinya bermain sepak bola tersebut merasa bahwa IPK sempurna yang ia miliki lebih dari sekadar angka, Gery merasa di dalam angka tersebut terkandung perjuangan, rasa sakit, lelah, keringat, kekhawatiran, dan hal-hal lain yang tidak ternilai. Gery juga menjelaskan bahwa IPK sempurna tersebut merupakan tanggung jawab untuk memberikan arti atau value bagi masyarakat sekitar tentang bagaimana dirinya mampu menyampaikan ilmu yang diperoleh sehingga bermanfaat bagi orang lain dalam memberikan pencerahan.

Sebagai Wisudawan Terbaik periode Juni 2021, Gery tidak hanya cemerlang dalam akademik, namun juga aktif dalam organisasi, kerap menjadi delegasi, sering mengikuti lomba dan suka berpartisipasi dalam kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat. Gery merupakan Wakil Ketua Moslem Students Association of Faculty Economics and Business (MOSAIC) pada tahun 2018 dan pernah memegang posisi Sekretaris Jendral atau Presiden Kongres Nasional Mahasiswa Akuntansi Indonesia 2020. Gery juga pernah beberapa kali menjadi delegasi, salah satunya menjadi delegasi Indonesia pada event International Social Business Summer Program (ISBSP) Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Selain itu, Gery juga membuktikan kemampuan bersaingnya dengan memenangkan total 14 perlombaan atau event baik skala lokal, nasional maupun internasional. Berpedoman pada tri dharma perguruan tinggi, Gery juga aktif mengikuti pengabdian masyarakat, salah satunya adalah program kerja Pengembangan Produk Desa (PRODES) HIMA Akuntansi UNAIR di desa Pujon Malang tahun 2018.

Berbicara tentang masa depan, Gery sudah mempersiapkan dirinya sebelum memasuki dunia kerja karena menurut Wisudawan Terbaik tersebut, diperlukan persiapan yang matang untuk masuk ke dunia kerja, dan dirinya sudah melakukan persiapan tersebut dengan mengambil program magang di PT Berkah Multi Cargo Logistics yang merupakan salah satu bagian dari PT PELINDO 3 Group selama 6 bulan. Selain ingin menjadi seorang professional accountant, Gery juga memiliki cita-cita untuk mengembangkan kompetensi dengan melanjutkan pendidikan ke jenjang S2 dan S3 serta kembali ke dunia kampus dan mengabdikan dirinya untuk menjadi dosen suatu hari nanti.

Setelah melewati perjalanan kuliah yang begitu mengesankan, Gery memberi pesan kepada mahasiswa lain bahwa memang IPK merupakan hal yang penting, namun IPK bukanlah segalanya. Gery menyarankan agar mahasiswa dapat menggunakan kesempatan di perkuliahan untuk mengembangkan diri semaksimal mungkin, sebaiknya ambil segala kesempatan dan jadilah mahasiswa yang mengambil peran. “IPK hanya konsekuensi dari sebuah totalitas perjuangan,” ungkap Wisudawan Terbaik tersebut. (BLQ)

Pada hari Senin 5 Juli 2021, BAKI (Berkala Akuntansi dan Keuangan Indonesia) Peer-Reviewed Journal yang berada di bawah Departemen Akuntansi mengadakan Webinar Edisi Spesial dengan Tema BIsnis di Tengah Pandemi. Webinar ini menghadirkan delapan penyaji yang artikelnya direkomendasikan untuk dipublikasi di Jurnal BAKI. Delapan artikel tersebut yaitu:

  1. Pandemi COVID-19: Dampaknya Pada Eksistensi Pelaku Usaha Di Pasar Tradisional
  2. Pengaruh Sektor Pariwisata terhadap Pertumbuhan Ekonomi dan Dampaknya kepada Usaha Mikro Kecil (UMK) di Yogyakarta
  3. How is the Gamification Strategy in Facing the New Normal Era in the UMKM Business?
  4. Usaha Herbal dan Jamu Dalam Badai Pandemi COVID-19 (Studi Kasus Pada Penjual Jamu SB di Kota Samarinda)
  5. Makna Kualitas Pembelajaran Akuntansi Di Masa Pandemi Covid-19 (Studi Interpretif pada Kaprodi Akuntansi PTN di Indonesia)
  6. Accounting Standards for Fixed Assets of U.S. GAAP and IFRS: COVID-19 Pandemic and Earnings Management Perspectives
  7. Kinerja Bank Go Public Indonesia: Sebelum dan Selama Covid-19
  8. Covid-19 dan Variabilitas Kinerja Keuangan

Masing-masing penyaji memaparkan hasil penelitiannya dan dikomentari oleh para reviewer. Harapannya dengan penyelenggaraan webinar ini para peserta saling berbagi ilmu terkait pandemic Covid-19 yang tidak hanya berdampak pada sektor keuangan dan bisnis namun juga ke ranah pendidikan dan UMKM.

Kunjungi Kanal Youtube Departemen Akuntansi untuk menyaksikan kembali webinar ini

Pada tanggal 24 Juni 2021 Departemen telah mengadakan kegiatan Pembekalan Wisudawan Periode Juni 2021. Kegiatan ini dihadiri sekitar 119 Wisudawan tingkat Sarjana, Magister dan Doktor. Pembekalan wisuda ini ditujukan untuk memberi bekal bagi para wisudawan agar siap masuk ke dunia kerja. Untuk memenuhi tujuan acara ini, maka Departemen Akuntansi mengundang dua orang Alumni yang berbagi pengalaman mereka yaitu Nursakti Niko Rosandy, Finance Business Partner PT Telkomsel dan Gustav Fierdaus, Associate Manager – Procurement and Supply Chain Michael Page International Indonesia.

Departemen Akuntansi mengadakan Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guna membahas pengembangan kurikulum berbasis revolusi industri 4.0 pada Sabtu (19/6/2021). FGD ini dilaksanakan secara hybrid melalui platform Zoom dan luring di aula KRMT Fadjar Notonegoro. Tema Forum Industri Dunia Usaha – Dunia Kerja dan Pengembangan Kurikulum Berbasis Revolusi Industri 4.0, Outcome Based Education (OBE) dan Merdeka Belajar – Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) diusung dalam kegiatan itu.

FGD5

FGD tersebut dihadiri para praktisi, akademisi, dan professional yang mewakili tiga program studi (Prodi) di bawah Departemen Akuntansi yaitu Prodi S1 Akuntansi, Prodi S2 Akuntansi, dan Prodi S3 Akuntansi. Diharapkan dari kegiatan FGD ini dapat memberikan masukan terkait dengan profil lulusan, capaian pembelajaran (CPL), dan kurikulum ke depan yang berbasis revolusi industri 4.0.

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(DNH)

Professor of Accounting in The University of Western Australia, David Gilchrist, argued that Professional Skepticism is more than a state of mind and it is important to be done by people in organizations during the 5th Guest Lecture session with the theme: Professional Scepticism in Public Sector Finance Governance and Audit on 21st June 2021. The session was moderated by one of the lecturers of Accounting in Universitas Airlangga, Dina Heriyati.

Professional skepticism is crucial and professional ethics is the subset of professional skepticism. Fundamental principles of professional ethics. professional skepticism, such as maintaining integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behavior.

He mentioned the difference between professional judgement and professional skepticism. Professional judgement involves the application of relevant training, knowledge and experience in making informed decisions about appropriate courses of action. On the other hand, professional skepticism is an attitude that includes a questioning mind, being alert to conditions indicating possible misstatement and critically assessing audit evidence.

“Professional skepticism is about maintaining a questioning mind. We try to get one evidence, but then we also compare it to other evidence to make sure that makes sense.” Said David. “It also means not taking things at face value, just because you say this to me, it doesn’t mean that I take everything you say as being absolutely correct, it also doesn’t mean you are trying to mislead me, but it means we as humans need to be aware that we all make mistakes and therefore I need to make sure that there is some efficacy in the information.” He added. He also said that employing your experience and knowledge effectively is important in professional skepticism, because we can see more of what is going on. The final point is making sure for yourself.

He emphasized that professional skepticism is not being antagonistic, it is not about disrespecting clients or colleagues, but it is about having a questioning mind. It is also not about being aloof or aggressive and it is not about disbelieving, it is about trying to make sure you feel comfortable with the evidence or information you have. It is important for employers to understand professional skepticism because it is part of being professional, part of acting ethically. “It is important for you and your colleagues to understand, and also crucial within the accounting teaching framework, because accounting lecturers always encounter student assessments in various forms, they need to make sure these students are doing the right thing.” He explained.

He stated that professional skepticism relies on the understanding of entity and environment, the assessment of business risk and inherent risk, materiality, experience gained from various situations, source and reliability of information available and persuasiveness of information. The reliability of information is influenced by nature and source: information from sources outside an entity is more reliable than evidence obtained solely from within the entity, informations generated internally is more reliable when the internal control structures are effective, informations obtained directly is more reliable than evidence obtained from client, information in the form of documents or written representations is more reliable than oral representations and informations provided by original documents is more reliable than evidence provided by photocopies or facsimiles.

He also explained that there are indicators and signs of information where we need to implement professional skepticism. The first one is in terms of integrity of management, we need to look at reputation, prior disputes, legal issues, limitation to access to records and pressure to reduce fees. In terms of management experience, knowledge and changes during this period, there are poor business decisions that have been made, inappropriate accounting policies, lack of proper review, lack of internal controls, slow identification of business risks/opportunities and impact on corporate governance. In terms of unusual pressure on management, there are remuneration linked to performance, meet or beat analysts forecasts, impact on share prices, procurement of additional capital, meet bank covenants and slowing industry/declining demand and others. There are also financial indicators such as heavy reliance on short term borrowings, denial of trade credit by suppliers and negative operating cash flows. There are also operational indicators that need to be checked.

This guest lecture is available on the Departemen Akuntansi's YouTube Channel

(BLQ/DNH)

Professor of Accounting and Risk at the University of York, UK, Dr. Philip Linsey started off with two questions on the 4th Guest Lecture session that carries the theme: Understanding risk debates through Mary Douglas on 14 June 2021 and was moderated by one of the lecturers of Accounting in Universitas Airlangga, Dr. La Ode Sabaruddin.The questions are: why do different perspectives arise on difficult risk issues and why when the world is confronted with a number of catastrophic risks, does action not swiftly follow? He emphasizes that organizations need to be aware of the risks that they are facing.

At the beginning, he explained quite detailed information about the theory that was initiated by Mary Douglas, who was an anthropologist based in the UK. The theory had different names and different people like Michael Thompson and other researchers had shed more light on it. However, Dr. Philip prefers to call it the Neo-Durkheimian Institutional Theory. This theory raised 2 particular questions: why do different perspectives arise on difficult risk issues and why when the world is confronted with a number of potentially catastrophic risks, action does not swiftly follow.

He explained further that this theory can be applied to various fields like accounting regulations and other different ways. The basic idea of the theory is that we all have selective attention to risk, and what we mean by that is if i were to ask 1 to 5 top lists of risks that worry you most, you could write out those risks, and those risks they proposed could be different from one another. Mary Douglas was interested in how people see risks in different ways and how risks have different levels of concern, and how people don’t prioritize risk in the same way. She then created the foundation of theory: we are social beings, we want to live with people. Therefore, the risks we think are the most important are those that threaten the current pattern of social relations.

Risk is dependent on patterns of social relations, how we relate to one another. Hence, Mary Douglas created two dimensions in order to understand the theory. They are the group dimension which focuses on the degree of communication to other people in the community and the grid dimension which focuses on the amount of social regulation. Low or weak group has little commitment to others and your own aims are more important than the aims of the group, while a low or weak grid is when it is free to select your role in society as there is little social regulation.

Furthermore, he showed a diagram of a grid-group model from the theory. The diagram is divided into two squares: fatalist, hierarchists, individualist and egalitarian. It is then measured with how high or low the grid group they are. Mary Douglas argued within the society or group, you will get one of these two, this is a way of understanding the world. The high grid high group is hierarchist and the low grid low group is the individualist. Starting from fatalist, the characteristics are social roles confined, no sense of belonging, and the world is in an unpredictable situation. The next one, a hierarchist has the characteristics of strong external boundaries, clear internal boundaries and authority and traditions and rules are respected. Individualism has the characteristics of free to transact with whoever you want, self regulation preferred and failure are seen as a weakness of the individual. The last one, egalitarian, is when there is a strong external boundary, anyone disloyal to the group will be punished or expelled and it identifies the outside world as bad or unjust or unequal.

He also explained that these four factors impact on risk management. If you have to do risk management in your work or assignments or any tasks, the way you see the world can affect the way you handle risk management. For the fatalist, what they say is that they look to keep options open and adapt strategies as uncertainties arise and all risk management systems will eventually be found to be inadequate. Hierarchist on the other hand prefer to carefully balance risk and reward, and have the preference for comprehensive risk management systems developed by experts. Individualists prefer to not be in favor of comprehensive risk management systems as they impede innovation and risk-taking while egalitarians look to avoid losses. He showed many examples of views that can be seen from these four perspectives such as the poverty debates view, nature view and even Covid-19 view.

This guest lecture is available on the Departemen Akuntansi's YouTube Channel

(BLQ/DNH)

Digitization will not change the nature of the ethos embedded in an accounting approach, what digitization offers is more avenues to engage in more things that appeal to us on a more spiritual level. Accountants need to understand the wider concept of digitization, accountants need to open up accounting to non-accounting conditioning elements and influences.

Professor of Management Accounting and the Founding Director of ‘LSE Entrepreneurship’ at the London School of Economics (LSE), Dr. Alnoor started the third Guest Lecture session that carries the theme: Accounting Disrupted: The Impact of Digitalization by quoting a line from Bob Kaplan’s research paper, that is: “We have to engage in operational aspects of organizations in order to better our accounting approaches.” He also then stated that all these years management accounting has been trying to catch up with the development of technologies. This session was held on 10th June 2021, moderated by the Assistant Professor of Accounting in Universitas Airlangga, AA Gde Satia Utama.

He made a poll for the audience to see how the audience think of the percentage of how digitization will change accounting in the future and it results as how he expected, most of the audience are aware that a major change in accounting is coming and it is because of digitalization. He explained that from the 1960s, organizations are growing very quickly because the demand was there, and when organizations grow very quickly, they tend to focus on the top line, the revenues, and the bottom line tends to have a correlation with accounting.

He explained that there are some forces that are very important for accountants to understand because they imply changes for accounting. One of them is the demographics and easternization. Many countries are changing their demographics, he mentioned how China has a three-child policy to control demographics because it affects the economy. And there will be a shift from westernization to easternization. The economic axis of the globe is also shifting towards developing countries and these countries have many young populations that were born digital, they are the ones that are technologically savvy. Next one is the rise of generation Z, people born after the year 1995. This generation has a different mindset, different way of communicating, operating, and organizations in the future will be filled with them: the digital born generation. This will impact the accounting system in a big way.

He mentioned that accounting has a definition of a process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information so users of this information can make informed judgements and decisions, but in the current situation, it has a different meaning for information and data, the users are also changing. “I think this definition is extremely problematic in the age of digital.” He implies. “Right now we have data, not just information. Data is both structured and unstructured. Accountants have been focused on structured information, but now a greater focus is needed in unstructured information, we are not focusing on the past economic transactions anymore. We are looking at accounting and tell what could happen rather than what has happened, a predictive analysis.” He added. However, to make informed judgments about the future requires information that says something about the potential future, and accounting has not caught up with that yet.

He also explained how accounting drives decisions in organizations, it starts from economic transactions, then to accounting data and lastly it leads to financial information. For example when an organization buys raw materials from a supplier or makes a sale, there will be an entry in the journal, the economic transaction then captured as accounting data. Then the accounting data is converted into financial information like income statement, balance sheet and so on. He said that there is something missing and that is what happens before the economic transaction, what sort of data an accountant can seek that is the antecedent of the economic transaction. If an accountant can have that data and can give that to the right decision makers, then it will power the organization into the future. So basically, economic transactions cannot be divorced from predictive data that precedes them.

Dr. Alnoor also showed the planning and control cycle that serves as an executive action in digitalizing enterprises. Before digitalization, accountants work from data that will be converted into financial insights and executive decisions are made from there. However, with the current digitalization, accountants move into the other side of the cycle where machine analysis and machine action will be implemented. He also showed a theoretical framework of Michael Porter, and explained how in a digitalized environment, organizations are required to focus on both differentiation and low cost, and it affects the accounting information organizations need. In the BCG framework, he also stated that there is a difference in the BCG framework if it is in a digitalized environment. He also mentioned theories that will still be relevant in the digitalized environment for accountants, such as the value based costing and activity based costing. He stated that today organizations are focused more on how data generated by machines enables learning and enables action which produces more data. The more data organizations have, the more learning and actions can be made. With this digitalization, a lot of aspects in accounting like costing and reporting, performance evaluation and others will be going through a change. There are some issues to ponder for accountants, such as: costing will be different, and revenues and expenses come from different places, product/services embedded systems, learning needs unlearning of what we have learning before, strategy couple with operations, digital makes accounting about what is not seen, qualitative issues are crucial, and so forth.

This guest lecture is available on the Departemen Akuntansi's YouTube Channel

(BLQ/DNH)

 

Professor of Accounting at the University of Amsterdam, Victor Mass, argued that transparency is important for organizations and that management accounting and control systems play a big role in organizations because they determine the horizontal transparency in organizations which play a big role in how people see their own situation and how they decide to behave on the job. He pointed out that people prefer to conform to social norms and need to work together and transparency facilitates these. Transparency will determine the effort people put into their job. He stated this in the 2nd session of the Guest Lecture with the theme: Transparency in Organizations: How Management Accounting Systems Affect Who Knows What, and Why That Matters on Monday, 31st May 2021. The session was moderated by one of the lecturers of Accounting in Universitas Airlangga, Wulandari F. Ekasari., M.Sc., CA.

He started off by stating several questions about the transparency of an organization, then proceeded in explaining that transparency in organizations is important because it determines how organizations work and how management accounting and control systems are one of the factors that define how transparent organizations are. Management accounting and control is about how people higher up the organization want people lower down in the organization to do and all the mechanisms that they have to get these people to do that, and also getting information about the lower levels up to higher hierarchy of the organization to know what the organization needs to do, hence, management accounting and control deals a lot with vertical transparency, but because of that focus on vertical transparency, horizontal transparency has largely been ignored, until recently in the literature that by having a certain accounting and control system, is also influencing how people at the same hierarchical level know about each other’s situation. There is also diagonal transparency where it shows how a worker knows about their colleagues’ managers and vice versa. These types of transparency play a big role in how someone sees their situation.

“In many countries right now, people have been working at home and that gives them less transparency because they are just staying at home and don’t see what their colleagues are doing on a daily basis. However, working while seeing your colleagues on a screen actually gives people ideas on what their colleagues are doing and it gives strong incentives to people to also expose themselves and show that they are good employees by always being online.” Said Victor when telling about the current situation. “And I think technological advancements such as Zoom actually changed how transparent organizations can be.” He added.

He explained that there are some things that need to be transparent in organizations such as decisions, performance, ability, effort, (good or bad) luck, risks taken, local environment conditions, working conditions, performance evaluations, salaries, variable pay, etc. He believes that organizations have the choice to be transparent, for example in the middle of the work from home situation with a lot of technological advancements, if there is a company with various sales people in several different countries, the company can choose to left them in the dark of what other salesperson is doing or held a weekly online meeting where they can meet each other to share their working conditions and experiences with each other.

Furthermore, he explained that there are three mechanisms that organizations can use to achieve horizontal transparency, the first one is all sorts of deliberate information policies, such as performance reports, budgets, contracts, newsletters, etc. These are things to make organizations more transparent. “When I was a department head at my own university, I typically got to see all the financial results, not only from the accounting department where I was the head of, but I can also see the other departments. But there are departments that are slightly different in location, so I didn’t get to see the financial figures of those departments so that made my relationship with those people different because I didn’t know what they were doing.” Said Victor about his personal experience as the head of the accounting department at the University of Amsterdam.

He continued explaining the second mechanism, which is the physical and organizational barriers such as office layouts, working from home policy, access to databases, etc, which contributes to how much employees know each other. The third and last one is aggregation such as segment reportings, cost categories, etc. He also stated that transparency is on a continuum from organizations that actively try to restrict access to information so deliberately intransparent to on the other side of continuum which organizations that try to actively focus on the attention of people to information.

He emphasized that if organizations increase transparency, there are two things that will happen: you know more about your colleagues but they also know more about you. Together, they can create complex responses. Behavioral economics/psychology literature points out a much wider range on why transparency matters, there are 4 of them: social norms, facilitation of cooperation, reference point shifting, and status incentives and image concerns. He also showed graphs on how transparency affects how organizations work.

 

This guest lecture is available on the Departemen Akuntansi's YouTube Channel

(BLQ/DNH)

 

Under uncertainty, there will be mismatching between the expenses and the revenues. This mismatching is inevitable because it is a reaction to uncertainty. Accountants need to be aware of uncertainty and mismatching, they need to be prudent and implement the right method in handling the mismatching carefully while evaluating the income statement. Professor of Financial Accounting, Columbia University, Stephen Penman, argued that uncertainty results in mismatching, and it is inevitable.

He mentioned it during the 1st Guest Lecture session with the theme: Accounting for Uncertainty on 24 May, 2021. The Guest Lecture session was moderated by the Assistant Professor of Accounting in Universitas Airlangga, Novrys Suhardianto, Ph.D.

“I once took a number of accounting courses back in University of Chicago and the first course was called “Principles of Accounting”. The professor in the course he attended explained on how accountants will use the matching principle where they match the expense and revenue, and it will be written in the income statement only when there is a customer. This is where Stephen Penman did not agree and thus started out his research on Accounting for Uncertainty. He found that under uncertainty, many accounting results in mismatching of the expenses. For example, the expenses of Research and Development in firms, the expenses are not to generate current revenues but future revenues. This may result in mismatching because the firm doesn’t know if it will be successful or not.

He explained that in Accounting for Uncertainty, there are two aspects of the implementation: the first one is earnings are revenues minus expenses in the income statement, but the revenue needs to be based on the realization principle. He mentioned that under FASB ASC 606 and IFRS 15, accountants can’t recognize earning until there’s been a satisfaction of a contract from both parties: the firm and customer, and also, receipt of cash needs to be “highly certain”, the firm needs to get a customer that shows high probability that they are going to pay. As an investor, we anticipate expected earnings but as an accountant, in facing uncertainty, we will not recognize earnings until there is realization, even when accountants have confirmed orders in the order book, because before it gets to that point of realization, earnings are deemed to be at risk. Secondly, accountants need to expense investment such as RnD expenses to the income statement if the outcome is highly uncertain.

He recalled the time when the professor in the course he attended explained on how accountants will use the matching principle where they match the expense and revenue, and it will be written in the income statement only when there is a customer. This is where  Penman did not agree and thus started out his research on Accounting for Uncertainty. He found that under uncertainty, many accounting results in mismatching of the expenses. For example, the expenses of Research and Development in firms, the expenses are not to generate current revenues but future revenues. This may result in mismatching because the firm doesn’t know if it will be successful or not. He mentioned several expensed investments, such as: research & development, advertising, human capital investments, software investments and expenditures on customer loyalty programs, distribution and supply chain development, and organizational structure.

Furthermore, he mentioned that from the investor side, there will be a question about whether this is a price risk or not. But according to asset pricing theory, the risk that investors price is a risk that cannot be diversified away in a portfolio, or a systematic risk. The revenue recognition principle and conservative accounting for investments he mentioned before informs about the discount factor in general, no-arbitrage asset pricing model.

He explained that in handling mismatching, instead of matching the expenses and the current revenues, accountants need to have the expenses investments he mentioned before incurred to get general revenue or future revenue match to current revenue, and this needs to be handled carefully.

He also mentioned that the common proposal to remedy the mismatching is to capitalize the investments and book them for the balance sheet, and treat tangible as well as intangible assets the same. But there is an objection to capitalization, because by capitalizing expenses investments, it will lead to losing information about uncertainty. When accountants capitalize assets to the balance sheet, it must then be amortized, and then an amortization schedule needs to be established. Unfortunately, poor amortization creates mismatching. So, booking an asset to the balance sheet that was supposed to avoid mismatching can actually create mismatching, then the information of the earnings will be destroyed. He also explained that it is fine to have mismatching now because it avoids mismatching up-front, conveying risk.

He showed some examples from Twitter, Amazon and Facebook in how they had huge expenses but the expenses investments were being expensed directly to the income statement even when these investments were uncertain, because the customers have yet to be realized. This shows how important it is to recognize revenues only after there is a realization.

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This guest lecture is available on the Departemen Akuntansi's YouTube Channel

(BLQ/DNH)