Digital accounting – our future or not ?
We live in a world where technology is evolving rapidly and probably soon there are no professions that do not require digital competences. Lennart Meri (1929-2006: Estonian writer, producer, diplomat, and politician, President of Estonia 1992–2001) has said:“In a changing world a winner is whoever walks a litte bit faster than the world, gets ahead of the world and anticipates the problems, questions and solutions that life throws at it.“
A few decades ago technological changes began to take place in Estonia. Almost 30 years ago was the first time it was possible to connect to the Internet and about 25 years ago the first mobile phone arrived here. Also 15 years ago the first youtube video was uploaded.
Technology and technological opportunities are constantly evolving and offer new and more efficient solutions in various fields, including accounting. Many companies (but there are still companies that have not) have taken advantage of new technological solutions and made classical accounting digital.
Digital accounting.
Digital accounting means that all documents (purchase invoices, sales invoices, various expense documents), business transactions, contracts and data are received, transferred and stored electronically and are located in digital business software or in another cloud environment
Accounting involves a lot of documents that were previously stored on paper - printed out and delivered by hand. However, storing paper documents generates a huge amount of waste. In society there is a great deal of emphasis on environmentally friendly behavior, and paperless accounting contributes greatly to this. Using less paper saves wood, helps to keep the water clean (pollution) and reduces the use of other chemicals that are harmful to the environment.
Advantages of digital accounting.
Today - in the digital age, where information moves quickly - printing and delivering documents is very time consuming than a tedious job. In most cases, however, invoices are sent to e-mail, and the question arises, why print them if the technological possibilities could be used - to keep the documents in digital form? That is why paperless accounting allows:
- Speeds up the information flow sharing and retrieving documents and files is just a click away,
- Safety the paper may turn yellow and be destroyed by water or fire. This does not happen with digitally stored information
- Access to accounting data anytime, on any device, in any location, on every device, in any location - quick access to anyone who has the right to do so. Everyone is always up to date with the necessary information because the information is gathered in one environment and can be found quickly.
- In addition, it is environmentally friendly environmental friendliness makes every company more desirable for consumers. This shows that the company is aware of the problem and cares about our common world.
Disadvantages of digital accounting:
In the case of digital accounting, the most negative thing is that sometimes the systems do not work properly and there are doubts about the security of the servers. The most worrying thing about servers is that users don't have complete control over security.
Raamatupidamise paberivabaks muutmise võimalused
So far, paper documents have played a very important role in the company's operations. If You are interested in the transition from paper documents to digital documents, it is important to think about how the various functions performed by paper documents can now be performed in electronic form (Tallberg, 1997).
The transition to digital accounting first requires a specific plan. It is necessary to think about exactly what information needs to be digitized in the company - sales invoices, purchase invoices, deeds, contracts, expense checks, etc. It is also necessary to determine the date from which accounting is to be digitalized. In addition, one has to ask oneself in what ways the information will be handled, because there are many possibilities and the most suitable one has to be chosen based on the company. And, of course, the issue of storing information, because that is also an important point of thought. (Jiménes, 2015)
It is possible to scan all business-related documents to a computer and also create document folders so that everything is sorted on the computer. It is now possible to electronically sign documents or use a digital stamp to validate documents leaving the company. Unfortunately, it must be bear in mind that not all suppliers and customers want electronic communication and that such systems do not work with them. A leader who wants to make an organization digital must understand that all partners and the company's own employees must also accept the new system and adapt to the transition, seeing it as a new positive way of doing business.
Kokkuvõtvalt võib öelda, et paberivaba raamatupidamine on tehnoloogia ja tehnoloogiliste võimaluste kiire arengu tõttu meie tulevik. Paberivaba raamatupidamine tagab kiire informatsiooni liikumise, turvalisuse, ligipääsu raamatupidamisandmetele igal ajal, igas kohas, igas seadmes. Lisaks on see keskkonnasäästlik näidates, et ettevõte on teadlik probleemist ja hoolib meie ühisest maailmast. Digitaalsele raamatupidamisele üleminekuks on vaja konkreetset plaani. ning samuti tuleb paika panna, mis kuupäevast alates soovitakse raamatupidamisega digitaalseks minna. Lisaks tuleb endalt küsida, milliste viisidega hakatakse informatsiooni käsitlema, sest neid võimalusi on väga palju ja lähtuvalt ettevõttest tuleb valida sobivaim. Ja muidugi ka informatsiooni talletamise küsimus, sest ka see on oluline mõttekoht.
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