The Balanced Scorecard Accounting as strategic tool for competitive financial management: a conceptual approach

Abstract

Research in the social sciences, and especially in the accounting area, has recently shown important changes in terms of the evolution of the research approach, especially taking into consideration the tendency to generate knowledge in view of the need for financial information of a global nature, but also with data that show business realities expressed in quantitative and qualitative terms. In this sense, the discussions on whether accounting is a science, a discipline or a process, has been left in the background; the issue today is the added value that
accounting information provides for a transparent, comparable, auditable financial management and above all, that denotes a sustainable financial administration; shielded by an internal control system that is integrated by solid
policies, standards, procedures, control elements and human resources that are capable of applying continuous improvement in a process as neuralgic as the accounting one. Under these premises, the purpose of this research
work was to analyze the theoretical conception of the Accounting Balanced Scorecard model as a strategic tool for the financial development of organizations. Within the methodological characteristics, this phase of the research
was framed within the qualitative studies, with a bibliographic, transversal and non-experimental design. In order to obtain the information, a systematic review of the bibliography was carried out. The results show that although the Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan and Norton (1992) has been a model created for the strategic management of organizations and the measurement of their performance in general terms, it can be adapted to different sub-processes of the business units and, therefore, to the accounting area. Designing a Balanced Scorecard for
Accounting (BSCC) means creating an information system that is capable of showing a broad and different view of accounting. A BSCC involves the creation of financial and non-financial indicators to measure the decisions made by management and that are susceptible to economic valuation. A BSCC may involve components and perspectives. The components will be the structural elements of the model and these in turn, interconnected with the organization’s financial objectives, key indicators (KPIs), goals and strategic actions. These components
involve the integral accounting process (traditional basic structure of accounting), the perspectives of the model, the control mechanisms for the management of the accounting process and the natural cycle of continuous improvement. In turn, the perspectives will be the dimensions that facilitate the analysis and measurement of the performance of the accounting process. Understanding the BSCC as a system that strengthens the competitiveness of financial management implies that it must be capable of generating value by contributing to the transformation of the financial information system, always in accordance with the business strategy. A BSCC must be aligned with accounting metrics and with each of the perspectives of the model. In the end, its purpose is to generate relevant
data and facilitate its analysis, enabling informed decision making for all financial data stakeholders, both internal and external.