O impacto da transformação digital na contabilidade

: o caso do grupo Nors

Abstract

“Accounting” is presented in the literature as the main information source supporting an organization's decision-making processes and management control. However, the information which Accounting provides to the Management still involves a lot of traditional tasks with no added value to the business. The so-called “Digital Transformation” has been considered as having a positive impact on the resolution of this problem. The purpose of this study is to analyze the contribution of the companies’ Digital Transformation processes to a more efficient accounting role so that can act in “partnership” with the Management. This means the present paper intends to contribute to a wider perception of how the automatization of accounting processes may allow Accounting to influence the decision-making processes in a more meaningful way, enabling a broader capacity for information analysis, not only its recording and processing. This paper focuses on the research of the presented theme in Portugal, by studying the case of Grupo Nors, one of the most influential business groups providing transportation solutions and construction/agriculture equipment. The internship in the Accounting Department of the Group, the interviews, and the artifacts, allowed to conclude the current interest in Digital Transformation by companies – by implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – as being essential to the evolution of their teams and, consequently, of the Group itself. The research developed indicated that the adoption of information technologies impacts positively resource-saving, which can be assigned to analytical tasks with high strategic value. Therefore, when Accounting is entirely devoted to understanding what “numbers” are trying to say, and not only focused on recording and processing information, it seems to acquire a greater ability to influence the decision-making processes.

Date of Award	6 Jul 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Luís Marques (Supervisor)