Future work process for the preparation of financial statements

This research aims to develop a better and applicable work process for the preparation of financial statements, in Dutch called; ‘de Samenstelpraktijk’. This preparation activity is one of the most performed activities, by financial intermediaries (read accountants), for small to medium sized businesses in The Netherlands. Several experts argue that some inevitable upcoming changes require the financial intermediary to rethink its current processes regarding this preparation activity. This research therefore tries to assist the financial intermediary in the development of such a new design. For our new proposed design we looked at other fields of study. We found similarities with the scientific field of ‘Production and Logistics’. The upcoming changes, concerning the preparation activity, were therefore compared to the changes that already took place within ‘Production and Logistics’. We observed that, to some extent, the field of ‘Production and Logistics’ already coped with the same changes the financial intermediaries are currently facing now. Based on this observation the appropriate underlying theories from the field of ‘Production and Logistics’ were selected and translated to the practice of Accountancy, read the practice of preparing financial statements. Important additions from ‘Production and Logistics’ are; the use of a Customer Order Decoupling Point and the appliance of direct modularity, read re-usage. The appliance of these theories resulted in a process design which can combine flexibility with low costs. The proposed design can cope with custom information needs while enabling low cost preparation and even decreases throughput time. This is primarily done by dividing the preparation process in two different and somehow independent processes with their own objectives. One continuous process is aimed at efficiency, while another order driven process is aimed at effectiveness. XBRL has an enabling role in this design. To support an actual implementation, a classification model was developed. This model helps in dividing current activities between these two processes. The new process design was also empirically validated with the use of field experts. The empirical validation showed that our connection between ‘Production and Logistics’ and Accountancy was accepted, however additional points require further research.