Understanding the Nature of Accounts Using Comprehensive Tools to Understand Financial Statements

Accounting is an integral part of the financial and economic activity of economic entities, regardless of the type of activity and industry in which the enterprise operates. This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments in the scientific discussion regarding the nature of accounts in accounting practice. The purpose of the study is to deepen the analysis of European financial accounting practices, in particular in the context of the use of methodological support for the classification of the nature of accounts

Blockchain, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and accounting information systems (AIS):Research on e-procurement and system integration

Accounting information systems (AISs), the core module of any enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, are usually designed as centralised systems. Nowadays, the continuous development and applications of blockchain, or more broadly—distributed ledger technology (DLT), can change the architecture, overcome and improve some limitations of centralised systems, most notably security and privacy. An increasing number of authors are suggesting the application of blockchain technologies in management, accounting and ERPs. This paper aims to examine the emerging literature on this field, and an immediate result is that blockchain applications can have significant benefits. The paper’s innovative contribution and considerable objective are to examine if blockchain can be successfully integrated with AIS and ERPs. We find that blockchain can facilitate integration at multiple levels and better serve various purposes as auditing compliance. To demonstrate that, we analyse e-procurement systems and operations using case study research methodology. The findings suggest that DLT, decentralised finance (DeFI), and financial technology (FinTech) applications can facilitate integrating AISs and ERP systems and yield significant benefits for efficiency, productivity and security

Mandatory ESG Reporting and XBRL Taxonomies Combination: ESG Ratings and Income Statement, a Sustainable Value-Added Disclosure

Corporate financial statements address multiple stakeholders’ needs. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), among others, allow two different classifications, “by function of expense” and “by nature of expense”, for the statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income for the period (from now on, also identified in short as “Income Statement”, or “IS”). XBRL standards ensure compliance and consistency in financial statements’ drafting and filing. XBRL taxonomies reflect the Income Statement IFRS disclosure requirement in the {310000} and {320000} codifications, respectively. Given the recent EU enhanced regulations that proposed extend mandatory ESG reporting to SMEs, this study aims to design and recommend an additional Income Statement to embed structured Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure. A restatement of the IS is organised following an adjusted Value-Added perspective to fit the purpose of sustainability disclosure. The above-mentioned Income Statement should be suitable and adaptable for entities of any size and operating in any industry. This goal can be achieved through customised input weighting. Therefore, this applied research can fill a current financial ESG disclosure gap, ensuring financial statements’ comparability and encouraging additional mandatory disclosures through standardisation. Two more items in the XBRL (IFRS-based) structure are suggested, leading to the introduction of one fully structured statement “{330000}—Statement of comprehensive income, profit or loss, by Added Value, ESG based” and a semi-structured “{814000}—Notes—ESG Ratings and Reporting” to better discuss and disclose the assumptions and results of the ESG Statement

Online Banking in Italy. “Widiba Bank” Case Study, PESTLE and DEA Analysis

Given the great interest and impact generated by the previous article on the “Widiba Bank” case study published in this journal, the authors intend now to provide more insights on the analysis of the current Italian framework. A PESTLE analysis is therefore carried out to identify the main financial and environmental alternative strategies