Establishing management accounting system for an agricultural enterprise

This action research aimed to address the need for a structured management accounting system in a small family business in the Philippines engaged in agricultural operations. Through co-inquiry, root-cause analysis, and collaborations, we discussed an array of issues caused and affected by the absence of a structured management accounting system. The farm business management accounting model was used to establish the system designed to generate reports in a timely and cost-efficient manner and provide information to the Owners for decision-making backed by analysis and data. The action research tools, such as the first, second, and third practices, were applied throughout the research together with Kurt Lewin’s change model embedded with force-field analysis and the concept of group dynamics. Guided by the farm business management accounting model, we established the management accounting system with key stages of collecting and organizing data, recording and processing data, organizing and reporting, and analysis and decision making. The assessment from the first cycle was used to develop and improve reports on the second cycle. Reports generated were enriched based on the attributes of fundamental and enhancing qualitative characteristics of quality reports as provided by the conceptual framework for financial reporting. The intervention developed will continuously add value, guide management in their decision-making and future strategies for the farm, and meet stakeholder information needs