Amanah-Based Financial Governance: Readiness for Digital Accountability among Pesantren in the Former Banyumas Residency

Introduction: Pesantren managed educational fees, philanthropic funds, government assistance, and business-unit revenues with distinct mandates, beneficiaries, and accountability obligations; however, previous studies tended to separate amanah as an ethical principle from digitalisation as a technical issue. This study aimed to explain how amanah was institutionalised in financial governance and how it shaped institutional readiness for digital accountability among four pesantren in the former Banyumas Residency. Methods: The study employed a post-positivist qualitative approach and a collective case-study design. Cases were purposively selected to maximise governance variation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, limited observation, and document review, then analysed thematically through within-case, cross-case, and normative-empirical analyses. Results: The findings revealed three governance configurations: centralised leadership, treasurer-based management, and collective governance. Institutional readiness was stronger where fund status and purposes were explicit, authority was clearly allocated, transaction records were traceable, and reporting was integrated; it remained limited where recordkeeping and application use were partial and fragmented. Conclusion and suggestion: The study concluded that readiness for digital accountability depended primarily on institutionalising amanah rather than merely adopting technology. It contributed to Islamic financial governance scholarship by offering an amanah-based analytical framework linking Islamic ethics to the institutional capacities required for digital accountability in pesantren.