From Conformity to Excellence – Study on Quality of Services in Accounting Profession in Romania
Author:Costin Daniel Avram, Greti Daniela Ţogoe and Alexandru Avram
JEL:M41, M49
DOI:
Keywords:conformity, quality, professional body, excellence, quality classes, quality
standards.
Abstract:
Professional bodies that manage distinct segments of the accounting profession in Romania,
respectively CECCAR, CAFR, CCF and ANEVAR are focused on the public interest and
expectations of the business environment.
The quality of services specific to accounting profession is primarily aimed at compliance with
the ethical and professional standards, without depending only on regulatory and monitoring
activities exercised by professional bodies but being determined by the mentality of
professionals and their ability to meet customer expectations and assess their future needs. In our
research we analysed the evolution of quality classes obtained within each professional body
during 2009-2014, by ranking the performance of entities that were submitted to quality audit.
Though we found an upward trend for promotion in the higher quality classes, we consider
that supervision only seeks the degree of compliance with professional and ethical
standards in the field. Competition requirements in the accounting profession in the digital
era, together with the globalization of markets and standardization of financial
communication at regional and global level, are demanding from the professional
accountant far more than compliance with existing standards. To study the potential for
shifting from compliance to excellence in the accounting profession we conducted an
empirical study using survey as a quantitative research method. The survey results revealed
that the vast majority of those surveyed are organized in private offices and do not have
quality control procedures and only a small proportion of respondents considered necessary
to implement a quality management system.
We deepened our researches and identified a compliance of professional standards with the
requirements of a quality management system based on PEVA cycle and we concluded that
the decisive step from compliance to excellence can be achieved by an effect of size,
brought along by the association of professional accountants in small and medium entities
and assumption of a quality culture in the companies providing accounting services.