Following the financial crisis of 2007, the confidence of economic actors in certain institutions has been shaken, and the accounting sector has been hit by a cascade effect.
Managing ethics and liability issues has become essential for all product and service companies.
Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services are no exception to the rule and the importance of ethics has become predominant in the field.
According to a study conducted in 2017 — An Investigation of Ethical Environments of CPAs: Public Accounting versus Industry published by the American Accounting Association — accountants working for Big 4 companies rate their ethical environment more highly than other accountants.
This finding is explained by the importance of reputation in this sector which is based on the quality of the services offered.
The standards are high, and the corporate culture must reflect this high level of ethics. For the largest accounting firms, ethics play an even more important role due to the potential impact of litigation on a large company’s finances.
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