Use of management accounting information in SMEs - role of service provider relationships

Auditors and accountants play an essential role in increasing the financial awareness of owner-managers of small firms. Unfortunately the current demand for the accountants' services is often driven solely by statutory requirements. Owner-managers derive little benefit from the outputs of statutory financial accounts and mostly they do not understand the information they contain. We build hypotheses about the use of accounting information in small firms, and its relationship with outsourcing accounting services. The empirical data were drawn from a mail survey and financial statements. We aim to contribute to the existing knowledge of management accounting practices in small firms: firstly, are there differences in the use of accounting information between firms with internally organised accounting and firms using outsourced accounting services. Secondly, if accounting services are outsourced, the nature and the quality of relationship with the accounting and auditing service providers will be a significant predictor of information use.