On August 31, 2022, at the Faculty of Economics and Management, a meeting of stakeholders of Specialties 071 Accounting and Taxation and 072 Finance, Banking and Insurance was held within the scope of the activities of the educational and scientific laboratory “CONSULTING LAB”. The topic is more than relevant were the search for alternative options for professional accounting programmes for use in the educational process. Chief enterprise accountants, specialists in development and support and masters participated in the discussion.
Why, according to stakeholders, is the rejection of russian programs still “unimportant”? The first reason is the lack of a clearly defined legislative mechanism. There is a decision of the National Security Council to ban the activities of russian enterprises in Ukraine, including the developers of 1C, and the use of russian software in budget institutions. However, even now, the law to appoint the controlling authority has not been adopted, a clear inspection mechanism has not been defined, responsibility or the amount of fines has not been established. In addition to the unfinished legislative mechanism, the stakeholders singled out the main reasons for refusing to switch to alternative software. Russian 1C is an ERP system, that is, a multifunctional programme designed not only for displaying and processing accounting information, but also for modifying it to meet the needs of all users. Over a long period of work, 90 % of Ukrainian enterprises spent material and intellectual resources to improve the programme and automate processes. It is also difficult to refuse from because, under the conditions of martial law, most business entities do not have the opportunity to spend money on replacing what “already works well”.
There are neither analogues of 1C, nor alternatives, among which enterprises and institutions of higher education need to choose a programme with the basic configuration ensuring the performance of the necessary functions and high-quality support.
The main question for the stakeholders, which interested the organizers of the event, is whether the introduction of new professional programmes into the educational process will affect the competitiveness of faculty graduates on the labour market. After all, one of the main indicators of the relevance of the educational programme is the employed students. And potential employers, who rather reluctant to abandon 1C, need employees with the skills to work with this particular product. On the other hand, banning the use of a russian product in budget institutions is more than clearly spelled out. And even in the absence of such normative act in the Ukrainian legal field under wartime conditions, we are not morally entitled to build the process of teaching applied educational components on russian (1C) or related (BAS) programmes.
In any case, Ukrainian business must abandon russian software, and the role of educational institutions in this complex process is great. In our opinion, the graduates of the Faculty of Economics and Management should learn the principle of operation of more than one professional programme.
We strive for our students to acquire the skills to quickly master and fully work with any software complex, and this result can be achieved by introducing several products into the educational process.
That is why Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University concluded cooperation agreements with the providers of professional software complexes “B-Jet”, “Master: Accounting” and “Debit-plus”. Due to these steps, the students have the opportunity to compare the principles of work, identify strengths and weaknesses, form their own approach, and determine evaluation criteria not only for accounting, but also for any professional software product.
Yuliya GRUDZEVYCH,
Associate Professor of the Department of Accounting
and Taxation, Head of “CONSULTING LAB”
