O perfil da relação profissional entre as empresas de serviços contábeis (ESC) e a micro e a pequena empresa (MPE)

Abstract

The work involves theoretical references, concerning MPEs (Small and Medium Businesses) concepts, classifications and accounting, and includes a field research in the city of Unaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research tried to identify main characteristics of professional relationship between ESCs (accounting companies) and MPEs, determining how information generated by ESCs can be better used by MPEs management. The resulting sample confirmed MPEs individual feature, i.e., most tasks are generally centralized and performed by the owner. Another MPEs feature is that most partners and owners have only high school education. However, the average life of such companies is fairly high according to Brazilian standards. Also, the research revealed the use of SIMPLES (Unified System for the Payment of Taxes and Contributions by Small Businesses) as the primary taxation form. For these companies, accounting services are mainly rendered by third-party accounting companies. The accounting companies´ structure is also small, with few employees, and a significant percentage of owners having only a technical degree on accounting. Although MPEs and ESCs have stated that accounting information are useful for management, and that all records are worth entering, in some cases records are not complete, negatively affecting information quality. As a result, these information do not reflect company's reality. Therefore, besides record omission, the level of MPEs accounting information generated by Corporate Accounting is low, due to some evaluation criteria used for inventory and assets, which may not reflect company's reality. This shows how low is the usefulness of accounting information generated by ESCs as an aid to MPEs management. Another point worth mentioning is that in general MPEs receive from ESCs only those information that just try to fulfill tax legislation requirements, and ultimately are not useful to management. Concerning statements that MPEs and ESCs believe should be generated, the research shows that they contain detailed information that would contribute for company's management. However, MPEs reported the lack of need as the main reason why these statements are not used. The use of accounting support was reported as something good or excellent by MPEs, but most of them informed that accountant professionals are not prepared to help them managing the company. Nonetheless, most MPEs are willing to pay an extra fee to obtain better services and reports from accountants. In summary, contributions for MPEs management are necessary, but also require development from involved parties, in order to generate information that may reflect the company's economic, financial and equity reality, showing amounts that provide a future-focused analysis. In this aspect, the Balanço Perguntado (Asked Balance Sheet) is a tool to help obtaining more realistic information for the company. In addition to management information, both owners and accounting professionals need a good knowledge of Finance and their business segment, allowing the analysis of investment risk and return rates.