Process Automation Enabled Accounting: The Changing Controller Role
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Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Accounting
Language
en
Pages
84 + 5
Series
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of process automation on the controller role and to provide a new perspective on the shift towards hybrid accountancy. This research views the phenomenon as a management accounting change in organizational context. The study examined a global technology company, utilizing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) within its Financial function, along with future Artificial Intelligence (AI) objectives. The findings of the study are drawn from a qualitative case study. The empirical evidence was collected from eleven semi-structured interviews, conducted at the headquarters of the case company. The aim of this thesis is to establish a description of the controller role within a process automation enabled Finance function and to provide a rich explanation of the related changes. The research findings indicated that process automation is altering the means of management accounting. While the study showed a slow management accounting change, with moderate impacts of process automation on the controller role itself. The findings of the case study then indicated that the controller role was unintentionally implicated by a managerial initiative to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the Finance function. More precisely, an authoritarian approach, delegating controllers to generate process enhancements may restrict human attitudes to a merely passive responses. Thus, the findings implied varying individual drives to automate the accounting procedures. The findings of the study showed that the shallow IT rigor of RPA might accelerate swift enhancements in accounting, but the lack of standardization of the processes may substantially reduce the number of potential development opportunities. Finally, the RPA replicated financial accounting activities seemed to restructure the controller practices in an overarching context, while the specific controller responsibilities were viewed as better facilitated by AI and limited in the context of RPA. These findings are subject to a few theoretical and empirical limitations. This study only considers two main streams of process automation; RPA and AI. In addition, the case study only analyses the evolving controller role from the aspect of technological advancements and not holistically. Then the case study has also aimed a theoretical generalization to model the drivers and barriers of the controller role towards hybrid accountancy, which are open for circumstantial interpretation. This study contributes to the controller role and the digitalized accounting literature streams in management accounting research. In addition, it may contribute to the management accounting change hypothesis to explain the circumstances of the evolving controller role.Description
Thesis advisor
Vaivio, JuhaniKeywords
management accounting change, RPA, AI, controller role, bean-counter, hybrid accountant