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No matter what your level of sophistication in accounting and budgeting concepts, you surely know about the Chart of Accounts. Just because the term is familiar, however, does not mean that it can be ignored or taken lightly. Managers need to understand the basics on which the Chart of Accounts rests, its applications, the opportunities to use it to their advantage and even the “politics” of the term. With sophisticated and computerized accounting systems, it can be a useful information tool for librarians. We have organized this review under several management themes. Our hope is to help the experienced manager rethink something normally taken for granted and the beginning manager understand the basics of account structures.

The present study seeks to refine the findings and theory on the impact that enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations have had on management accounting. Specifically, the purposes of this paper are to analyze the changes that ERP implementations have had on performance measures, management accounting techniques, activities of management accountants, and the use of non‐financial information.

The controllers of 13 major Canadian firms were interviewed as part of a multiple case study. Open‐ended questions were used.

The research assesses how ERP implementations through more computational power, relational databases, standardized state‐of‐the‐art transaction processing, and extended chart of accounts change management accounting. The enhanced computing power and overall standardization lead to more accurate and timely information. The standardized transaction processing and the charts of accounts have increased the availability of information from units and products previously deficient of information, and ensured a consistency of information across all units and products. The standardization and automation of transaction processing has reduced the amount of data entry done by management accountants. Performance measures have been standardized, expanded to more units and products, increased in accuracy, and produced more quickly. Management accounting techniques have become more efficient and effective. Management accountants are less involved with data entry, thus allowing them to undertake more analyses. Non‐financial information is more extensive.

This research provides new insights or contributions to understanding how ERP systems impact management accounting and management accountants. First, ERP system implementations affect management accounting. Second, the three part lens or conceptual framework – physical, transactional, and information – explicates the impact of ERP systems on management accounting and management accountants. Third, understanding the impact is further guided by recognizing the expanded chart of accounts inherent with ERP systems.

After some introductory words about the preeminence of German accounting research during the first half of the 20th century, the paper offers a survey of the most important theories of accounts classes that still prevailed during the first two decades or longer. Following World War I, the issue of hyperinflation in Austria and Germany stimulated a considerable amount of original accounting research. After the inflationary period, a series of competing Bilanztheorien, discussed in the text, dominated the scene. Two figures emerged supremely from this struggle. The first was Eugen Schmalenbach, with his “dynamic accounting”, a series of further important contributions to inflation accounting, to the master chart of accounts, to cost accounting, and to other areas of business economics. The other scholar was Fritz Schmidt, with his organic accounting theory that promoted replacement values and his emphasis on the profit and loss account, no less than the balance sheet. The gamut of further eminent personalities, listed in chronological order, contains the following names: Schär, Penndorf, Leitner, Gomberg, Nicklisch, Rieger, Prion, Osbahr, Passow, Dörfel, Sganzini, Walb, Calmes, Kalveram, Meithner, Lion, Töndury, Mahlberg, le Coutre, Geldmacher, Max Lehmann, Leopold Mayer, Karl Seidel, Alfred Isaac, Mellerowicz, Seyffert, Beste, Gutenberg, Käfer, Seischab, Kosiol, Münstermann, and others. Separate Sections or Sub‐Sections are devoted to charts and master charts of accounts in German accounting theory, as well as to cost accounting and the writing of accounting history.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to investigate why and how companies in voluntary networks engage in performance benchmarking; how requirements for a standardised chart of accounts are handled; and what the role of regulatory pressure is.

The paper is based on a longitudinal case study of an established group of six district-heating companies. The data sources are semi-structured interviews, observations and documents.

Both the forthcoming re-regulation of the district-heating sector and aims to improve efficiency were motivating the collaboration among the firms. An interpretation of common accounting rules can be negotiated in a collaborative network. The benchmarking model was embedded in routines internally in firms to facilitate learning and knowledge exchange, but it was also used to legitimise current operations.

As the paper is based on a case study of a specific project, the issues discussed in the paper should be further investigated in similar firms being exposed to regulation.

Harmonisation of accounting data are of immense importance when benchmarking performance, but discretion in interpretations of data and results must be handled. Co-existence with existing rules and procedures should be allowed.

The paper contributes to research understanding the role of collaboration in voluntary networks when benchmarking is implemented.

This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to renowned French authors of past centuries, it deals first with historical accounting research (Dupont, de Roover, Gomberg, Vlaemminck, etc). Then come publications in financial accounting theory and its application (Faure, Dumarchey, Delaporte, Penglaou, de Fages de Latour, etc.), followed by a section on cost accounting and managerial control (Julhiet, de Fage de Latour, Detoeuf, Satet, Bournisien, Brunei, Sauvegrai, etc.). Alarger Section is devoted to inflationary problems (Delavelle, Raffegeau and Lacout, Bayard, Léger, Faure, Thomas, Bisson, Dumarchey, Durand, Beaupère, Ratier, etc.). Another large section refers to charts of accounts and public supervision (Otlet, Faure, Blairon, Detoeuf, Caujolle, Fourastié, Gabriel, Chardonnet, Gamier, etc.). The paper closes with a concise general conclusion about this period of transition from a mainly traditional agricultural to an industrial society with its costing problems, its organizational control, and its greater service orientation.

During the first half of the nineties, many accounting innovations and reforms have been introduced in Spanish governmental accounting. In this context, the purposes of this paper are, on the one hand, to present the main features of local financial reporting legal requirements, which are very close to the central state accounting regulations, as well as real accountability and quality of reported information. On the other hand, this paper looks for an analysis of the main differences and similarities of accounting regulation among Spanish regional governments, identifying practices and users' expectations, as the result of a survey developed by the authors.. Also presented are some proposals concerned with a possible harmonised accounting and reporting common framework, in order to maintain the traditional homogeneity that has characterised the past governmental accounting system in Spain.

This paper examines accounting practice and its environment in one European country, Belgium, whose capital is home to the European Union (EU). Belgium's national accounting system has witnessed dramatic improvements in the last two decades as it has moved toward a highly standardized accounting system similar to France. This article traces what one author calls “the Belgian accounting revolution,” based on professional literature and personal interviews with senior partners of major accounting firms and academics in Belgium. Little is known in North America about accounting in Belgium. This article intends to fill this gap and provides some insights on accounting in this vital European country.

This paper aims to show how our understanding of the effects of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on management accounting are influenced through “nudging” by researchers in their preamble before interviews begin.

There were two groups of comparable respondents. Each group received a different preamble to the same questions. The differences in group responses were analyzed.

When the impact of ERP implementation on the physical, transactional and information flows within the firm were nudged, the responses focused on how the chart of accounts had to be expanded to account for the additional data introduced by transaction processing. When the IT and ERP system knowledge and skills were nudged, the responses tended to emphasize analyses or the use of new information through the use of drill down functionality. This research provides new insights and contributions to understanding how nudging affects or directs respondent assessments of the impact of ERP systems on management accounting.

The research is limited by the relatively small samples and by the fact that these were different research projects.

Nudging has an obvious impact on research that should not be ignored.

Unintentional nudging should be considered with all research projects.

This paper makes explicit that nudging occurs in research whether intentional or unintentional.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive yet concise review of changes which have occurred in Vietnamese accounting regulations and practices since the mid‐1980s, and an analysis of prospective developments.

A combination of analytical review and synthesis of information available from diverse sources, and analysis of information obtained from interviews with 20 middle‐to‐senior practicing accountants.

Over the past two decades, as Vietnam implemented economic liberalization and developed closer links with Western economies, its accounting system has changed accordingly. The current system is a mixture of conceptual and formal elements taken from Western accounting and some basic features and practices retained from the old (Soviet‐style and French‐influenced) system. Further convergence toward international practices is likely to be slow, especially in the SME sector and in large enterprises that do not attract capital from foreign sources. Developments in management accounting and the accounting profession are also reviewed.

The paper contributes to the literature by providing structured and consistent information about a country which is reported only infrequently in the international literature, and considering both the pros and cons of harmonizing with IAS/IFRS in a developing‐country context.