ANALYSIS OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN THE ERA OF DIGITALIZATION IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRMS

ANALYSIS OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN THE ERA OF

DIGITALIZATION IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRMS

Introduction

Like a daily staple, the reality of digitalization and real life today is truly inseparable.

Digitalization forces people locally and globally to quickly grasp what information

communication technology is, without any exceptions, such as the internet. All elements of

the current system This is used all over the world in a structured manner with guidelines and

ethical rules for digitization, especially if you remember that it seems to have no boundaries.

Many sectors of the world have been included with digitalization, one example is the

accounting sector profession. Digitalization in certain situations becomes a mandatory

requirement that must be used wisely and appropriately.

As a profession in the financial sector, accountants do work such as recording up to

financial reports as a form of cycle supporting the economic sector. In order for the quality

and character to be well maintained, in today's digitalization, people who work as

accountants are required to have behavioral attitudes and characters that are in line with the

true professional ethics, To understand professional ethics, an accountant must understand

the professional code of ethics that exists in the field of accounting professionally, these

rules are like the values and norms of the accounting scope. A person working in the field of

accounting is required to understand the attitudes and ethics of the profession that can be

understood by reason and can be absorbed as far as the understanding of the human mind.

understanding aims to improve training and mastery of expertise that is only used in the field

of accountants.

From the explanation above, it is hoped that digitization for the accounting

profession will run towards technology with big data entered into the system. The use of

accountant information system technology from automatic journaling to the creation of

digital financial reports. Disruption is closely related to the digital era, which makes a person

develop quickly, rapidly and endlessly, for this reason also to maintain global challenges,

human resources are required to survive flexibly with all forms of existing problems and a

wise attitude to get added value. From this attitude can be implemented in this digital world

through the ethics of the accounting profession.

To be able to survive the competition, an accountant is required to improve his skills,

broaden his horizons and hold and instill strong ethics and values in himself. To fulfill this

desire, the accounting profession must strive to adapt to technology so as to create a value

that aims at digital services. Nowadays it is very important for an accountant to understand

and carry out the role of ethics in the accounting field. Even today the value of standards for

the benefit of many people is really considered important. Even from digitalization, the hope

is now to prevent money laundering and corruption to process company structure.

In order to gain trust and be trusted by consumers or owners of capital, an accountant

not only tries to behave well but is required to be professional and regular. A professional

accountant must avoid fraud and maintain as much integrity as possible. An accountant is

also required to process the way of thinking and speaking in order to be able to simplify the

problems faced by clients and provide a solution. From the previous explanation,

accountants do not only process data such as records and reports. Maintaining consumer or

client trust is a mandatory task, for that an accountant must learn how to communicate well

with clients, to build that accountants can communicate with consumers through digital or

online media and social media or face to face. direct.

Responsibility, safeguarding client interests, professionalism, skillful rationality,

maintaining client secrets and implementing technical standards, all of which must be owned

by an accountant. In the past, an accounting professional only compiled and managed

finances, unlike accountants in this digital era. They are also required to be able to monitor

and understand risks and play a role in internal, external and required value creators. Of the

many skills that accountants have, accountants are also required to be leaders and

trustworthy professions in implementing good governance in every relationship with the

public. And of course everything in the accounting profession is inseparable from

professional ethics. Unlike this world that has no limits, an accountant still has limits in the

form of professional ethics that are useful for maintaining consumer or client secrets and

must continue to improve themselves so as not to lose competitiveness in the fast-moving

and broad digital era.

Based on the description of the phenomenon above, the researcher took the title of the

paper "Analysis of Professional Ethics in the Digitalization Era at the Public Accounting

Firm" to find out the ethics of the accounting profession in the digitalization era.

Literature Review

Providing community services with readiness and professional attitude is the

meaning of life ethics or can simply be interpreted as a form of life attitude (Lubis, 1994).

From this definition to be able to show the results of being a professional is evidenced by

some skill or expertise and being fully engaged. Ethics can be said to be like a principle. The

function of principles in a business is used as individual and group rules. For this reason,

professional ethics also influences accountants that professional ethics can show how

accountants act. Especially actions that occur in the real world against a person. Groups

usually have the same values and professional ethics but different ethics on individuals in a

group. (Muhfid, 2012).

According to Istanto (2009) there are various principles of professional ethics. These

principles will be mentioned and explained as follows:

 Principle of responsibility

All professionals in their respective fields are required to apply and understand what work

they do and do. The responsibility of an accountant or other field is not only when working

or on duty, but also responsible for the results of his work. As someone who is considered a

professional must be ready to have integrity and be ready to take responsibility. The

responsibility that professionals carry, for example, is to accept well and responsibly from

decisions as well as the responsibility of the overall work made and the responsibility of the

work carried out if it is related to the lives of other people and the lives of other

communities.

 Principle of fairness

Under the principle of fairness, professionals are required to prioritize fairness over work.

The element of fairness must always be present for every action performed. His work done

for others is required to be given. Especially if the professional is working with a service

relationship towards someone. Such as the profession of an officer in charge, a doctor to a

patient, a teacher to a student and other professions that serve others.

 Principle of autonomy

The meaning of this autonomy is. That a professional still has a proportion of freedom at

work. They have rights and obligations that are obtained according to the portion of their

work. This autonomy is carried out whether or not based on one's professional code of

ethics.

 Principle of moral integrity

Professional ethics includes what is called moral integrity. Integrity is a description and

cause of the level of value of a quality of honesty and as a professional moral principle

towards all work. There are several results that professionals must remember in starting their

work, it is to remember that to protect themselves, the profession and protect the public

interest. Everything described is the definition of the principle of integrity.

According to Kunurniawan (2019), there are benefits for both professionals and

business owners when applicable ethics are implemented in a wise and correct manner. An

example of positive benefits for workers or employees is the sense of a comfortable

atmosphere when working in an office environment. The benefits are not only that but there

are several benefits of professional ethics that are done well. Among them are the following:

 Increase work productivity

Professionals will get lessons from ethics and respect for the profession and responsibility.

Someone will feel responsible by implementing the professional ethics that have been

applied. This can result in timeliness in completing existing tasks and employees are more

productive.

 Enhanced brand branding

When employees instill environmental values and responsibilities, they will avoid dumping

hazardous waste in the community. By doing so, there will be trust from the community.

People will sympathize and assume that the company holds environmentally friendly

principles. This form of trust can improve the company's brand image in the eyes of

prospective consumers, consumers and customers.

 Adapting to change

An ethical employee is one form of success in a company. This is because they can become

a team that is trustworthy, reliable and responsible. In addition, they will be ready for the

changes that occur in the work environment. This will also make it easier for the company to

decide on business direction. Because, the employees will always appreciate and support

any decision from the company, as long as it is a good thing.

 Work environment free from problems

Someone who works without instilling ethical values will work without direction. They will

also not think of others. From this, a crime can arise in the work environment. Examples

such as sexual harassment, corruption, work that is not in accordance with SOPs and so on.

The opposite will also happen. Employees who instill ethics in their work will actually avoid

any deviations that may occur. It will make the work environment even better.

Research Methods

A method is a way of working that can be used to obtain something. Meanwhile, the

research method can be interpreted as a procedure for working in the research process, both

in searching for data or disclosing existing phenomena (Zulkarnaen, W., et al., 2020). This

study uses the Helianto & Rekan Public Accounting Firm as the object. Descriptive

qualitative is the type of research using the library. The library itself is used to focus the

research results and explain them. Researchers use secondary data obtained from other

individuals or not directly obtained. Data obtained from other parties in the form of archives

in which records or reports are arranged. Secondary data in the study is the Company Profile

of the Heliantono & Rekan Public Accounting Firm, the methods used are as follows:

 Secondary data collection is a method of retrieving PAF Heliantono & Rekan data from

an official website heliantonorekan.com

 Literature study

Observation is the method used by researchers but before that researchers work on

collecting data that will be used from many books and literature that have a relationship

with the Analysis of Professional Ethics in the era of digitization and looking for

Company Profiles of Public Accounting Firms.

Results And Discussion

Analysis of Professional Ethics in the Digitalization Era at the Public Accounting Firm

July 11, 1996 the Public Accounting Firm was formed, the beginning of the formation

of PAF was filled by professional workers who walked and were selected in the fields of

taxation, management, insurance, finance and insurance. In 2001, PAF Heliantono and

Partners successfully established a relationship with the British Public Accounting Agency

and successfully renewed the business license from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic

of United States, precisely all of that happened on May 3. April 26, 2006 was the

establishment of PAF office branches in Bandung, West Java and in Semarang December

12, 2012 & 2013 PAF Herliantono and Partners have successfully established branches in

other major areas such as Surabaya and Sidoarjo, East Java. Resources: 41 partners, 28

managers, 62 seniors, 174 juniors, and 39 supports.

Professional ethics is an attitude of willingness to provide professional services to the

community.

Professional ethics contained in the public accounting firm Heliantono & Partners is

one of the ethics and attitudes that must be owned by every partner and staff, by applying

good professional ethics, PAF Heliantono and Partners will be able to maintain their

integrity, independence and professionalism, not only that with professional ethics that are

always maintained, PAF Heliantono and Partners will be able to also provide professional

services to the community. The following are professional services offered by PAF

Heliantono and Partners

 Insurance services which include audit of financial statements, review of financial

statements, assurance on financial information and other criteria, compliance test on

criteria including due diligence, and True Sale Opinion.

 Management services that include business consulting, internal audit, accounting

information system, bookkeeping and payroll.

 Taxation services covering personal tax, corporate tax, international tax and tax

disputes.

To maintain professional ethics and the professionalism of its staff and partners, PAF

Heliantono and Partners always conduct continuing professional education to maintain

professionalism, continuing professional education at PAF Heliantono and Partners includes

PSAK updates, code of ethics and independence, SPM, Year and reminder and tax updates.

Electronics in the 21st century are becoming a common item that seems to be inseparable

from today's digitalization. It is common in this era that technology can help speed up

getting work done. Because digitalization is very rapidly developing, it also has an impact

on the increase in accounting science and the accounting profession.

Various groups are facilitated in accessing information through many ways and can enjoy

the facilities of digital technology freely and under control (Setiawan, 2017). The use of

information technology in the accounting field, including the accounting profession, has

become important in supporting the reliability, relevance and accuracy of data and the

resulting output. Every individual and group with easy access to free and controlled

technological information (Setiawan, 2017). Currently, technology for the purposes of

accountants is very important, especially in using it to solve problems that are being faced.

The emergence of Artificial and large storage such as Cloud and the existence of big

data which is included in high technology makes auditors in this 4.0 era very helpful in

completing work and increasing auditor performance. Another reason auditor accountants

rely heavily on digital technology today is because it can process large data very quickly and

there is much less risk of problems when compared to what humans do.

In the era of digitalization as it is today, the development of increasingly complete and

integrated paper is also one that can help the auditor's performance become faster and more

efficient. Atlas working paper is an audit working paper that has been integrated with the

internal control system and its risks. There is a system used to process audits, process results

and store them as opinions, that system is the Audit tool and Linked Archive System

(ATLAS).

How and who is involved in this creation, ATLAS was founded by 2 groups, the 2 groups

are PPPK and IAPI. The beginning of the existence of ATLAS is 2017 in November until

2019 in March ATLAS has gone through various stages of improvement. This system was

built with a function as a helper in managing audits of small companies to MSMEs that have

the same level of financial standards as clients. General SAK IFRS Convergence, SAK

ETAP, and SAK EMKM are the 3 financial standard options contained in ATLAS.

PAF Heliantono and Partners have also used the ATLAS application to support audit

procedures, with the Atlas Application can help improve audit quality. There are other

expectations from the existence of this audit system for professional accountants in the audit

and non-practical fields, so that the results are obtained in the form of an easy understanding

of an audit in the existence of risks based on international standards that have been raised.

Conclusion

Professional ethics is an attitude of willingness to provide professional services to

the community. Professional ethics contained in the public accounting firm Heliantono &

Partners is an attitude that must be possessed by every partner and staff, by applying good

professional ethics, PAF Heliantono and Partners will be able to maintain their integrity,

independence and professionalism, not only that with professional ethics that are always

maintained, PAF Heliantono and Partners will also be able to provide professional services

to the community. To keep maintaining professional ethics and the professionalism of the

staff and partners of PAF Heliantono and Partners, PAF Heliantono and Partners always

conducts continuing professional education to maintain professionalism, continuing

professional education at PAF Heliantono and Partners includes PSAK updates, codes of

ethics and independence, SPM, Year and reminder and tax updates.

Humans individually or in groups can use all information technology very easily to

help speed up tasks and work. Similar to other fields, accountants get good professional

improvement and development from the existence of technology in this century. Auditor

performance in the 4.0 era is a very rapid increase in a good direction, it's all because it has

to do with technology such as AI, Cload storage, big data etc.