Cloud Accounting: A New Business Model in a Challenging Context

Accounting has been assisting every commercial activity ever since the beginning of trade, as simplified as it was at that time. Due to the need to efficiently and accurately translate the economic reality into figures, accounting has been continuously improving. Furthermore, the information technology expansion and the emergence of the internet have also shaped this art of recording. In fact, the 21st century has been marked by several stages in the process of IT enhancement and we have witnessed the rapid spread of these solutions in our daily activities, thus improving our lives. One of the most rapidly adopted paradigms was cloud computing that had a major impact on the business environment considering its various benefits. Simultaneously, the ongoing challenging context compels all participants in the economic field to be competitive, dynamic and proactive. Therefore, companies need to stay in touch with the de facto state and duly adapt. On the other hand, accounting, as a means to issue relevant and specific information for all stakeholders, has embraced cloud computing solutions. The result is cloud accounting – a new business model that supports the accounting profession. Based upon the most recent studies and practitioners’ technical reports, this paper is focusing on the impact of cloud accounting on each actor in the entire business area.