Adoption and Use of Digital Accounting: A Perception of Accounting Organizations

Abstract

Given the technological advances that have taken place over the last few decades, the search for reliable and timely information by companies has increased, mainly influenced by the fact that organizations need to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment. In this sense, digital accounting emerges with the promise of being a great differential in the generation of fast and reliable information for users. Thus, the aim of the study was to analyze the perception of accounting office management in relation to the adoption of digital accounting. For this, a study of multiple cases was applied with four accounting organizations, three of them that adopt the digital accounting model for more than a year and one that adopts the traditional accounting model. The analyzed companies operate in the Midwest and South of Brazil. The combined views of the four companies supported a view of the phenomenon studied in order to present perceptions about the adoption, utility, advantages and disadvantages of the digital model from the perspective of both models, traditional and digital. The findings found indicate that the analyzed companies implemented digital accounting, but without leaving traditional accounting aside. Three models of action were found in the cases: i. traditional; ii. traditional and digital; and iii. digital. It is concluded, from the perception of managers, that it is not yet feasible to adopt an accounting model that fully uses digital accounting, and its implementation depends on bottlenecks that prevent the viable integration of the accounting office routines and the client company.