International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences Vol. 4, No.1, January 2014, pp. 52–66 ISSN: 2225-8329 © 2014 HRMARS www.hrmars.com Attitudes towards e-Bookkeeping in Turkey: Initial Research Ayşe Yiğit ŞAKAR 1 Evren AYRANCI 2 1 Istanbul AREL University, Vocational School of Applied Sciences Turkoba Mahallesi Erguvan Sokak No:26 / K 34537, Tepekent – Buyukcekmece, Istanbul Turkey, 1 E-mail: aysesakar@arel.edu.tr (Corresponding author) 2 Istanbul AREL University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Turkey, 2 E-mail: evrenayranci@arel.edu.tr Abstract Accounting profession has evolved and with the use of computer technology, many concepts related to accounting have emerged. This study considers one of such, e-bookkeeping, and uncovers the attitudes of accounting professionals towards e-bookkeeping practice in Turkey. An important point is that this practice has not gone into effect at the time this study is prepared, thus these attitudes are preliminary. The results yield that accouŶtiŶg professioŶals’ attitudes depeŶd oŶ five factors aŶd these attitudes change solely according to the size of business. Key words E-bookkeeping, accounting, attitude, Turkey DOI: 10.6007/IJARAFMS/v4-i1/510 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARAFMS/v4-i1/510 1. Introduction Accounting has a long history. The literature points out that it dates back to 2000 BCs in the ancient Egypt and evidence proves the use of accounting in the Holy Roman Empire (Nigam, 1986). It is also striking that that the Sumerians, around 5000 BCs, used a recording method that resembles the prominent double- entry system of accounting (Samuelson, 1977). These mentioned roots since the ancient times have led to many variations of accounting today. Many sub-branches have been introduced, starting from more conventional ones such as financial (Bushman & Smith, 2001; Holthausen & Watts, 2001) and management (Haldma & Lääts, 2002; Scapens, 1994) accounting to interesting topics such as lean (Maskell, Baggaley, & Grasso, 2011; Solomon, 2003), and creative (de la Torre, 2009) accounting. Despite these variations, accounting systems are much institutionalized today. There are general accounting systems such as the United States-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US-GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) (Daske, 2004), with their variations including Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) (Perumpral, Evans, Agarwal, & Amenkhienan, 2009) and Turkish Financial Reporting System (TFRS) (Pekdemir, 2011). This institutionalization is not solely limited to accounting systems, but also includes auditing; Standard Audit File for Tax (SAF-T), which is suggested for OECD countries, as an example (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010). A focal point of this current study is related to the fact that accounting systems used to depend on manual methods before the use of personal computers in businesses widespread. In other words, accounting procedures depended on items such as calculators, typewriters and hardcopy ledgers (Tavakolian, 1995); but the introduction of computer technology, thanks to innovation and computer literacy (Doost, 1999), led to a rapid computerization in accounting area. This computerization, which focuses on business survival (Lohman, 2000), efficiency and speed (Allahverdi, 2012; Hotch, 1992), and the interest to catch non-financial information (Brecht & Martin, 1996) gives birth to many related subjects including accounting information system (Stefanou, 2006), digital accounting (e-accounting) (Rajagopalan & Deshmukh, 2005), e-billing (Potapenko, 2010) and e-bookkeeping (Amidu, Effah, & Abor, 2011). One of these subjects, e-bookkeeping, is included in this current study as it is found out to be an interesting subject for several reasons. It is, first of all, much rarely considered in international literature when compared with other subjects that fall into the umbrella of computerized accounting systems. A