Preface
As markets mature and standardize in China, more and more small business owners realize the benefits of using information and technology to gain competitive advantage. This situation is especially true in the first-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. However, with over 1.3 billion population, it is very hard to make regions develop evenly in China. Small businesses in the second and third-tier cities are still on a different pace in comparison to large cities. But given the speed of change, small business owners are being awakened by the urgency and necessity for information technology.
Financial Management Evolution for Chinese Small Business
With the acceleration of economic globalization, China is promoting compliance to global accounting standards. The Accounting Standards for Enterprises revised in 2006 brought Chinese accounting standards to 90–95% alignment with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). In order to regulate small business accounting recognition, measurement and reporting, in 2013, China customized and implemented Small Business Accounting Standards, with account titles, processes and financial statements specified.
Even with extensive adoption of accounting standards, for some small and micro businesses, they still continue to use methods that have been handed down from previous generations. Moreover, historically the usage of accounting for Chinese companies is much more for tax purpose than for management control. For many small businesses, tax is still the main reason of maintaining accounting, and financial management is more informal and blended into day-to-day operations management. Overall, there is the lack of deep understanding and utilization of accounting standard in Chinese small businesses.
However, as the breath of the adoption of standards builds, the depth of the adoption starts to become more apparent. As with many new developments in China, it is the first-tier cities that show the depth first. In cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou where resources gather, the majority of small businesses have already implemented accounting software, enforcing the compliance to national accounting standards. Business owners more and more use accounting information as a tool to measure the financial health of their companies, in addition to the tax purpose. The pressure to keep up with peers, the requirement of participating in the global market, and benefits of gaining knowledge from information to support decision making, are the key drivers behind the rapidly increasing utilization of technology and information.
As businesses learn to take advantage of technology and more structured financial management process, new tools based on predictive analytics will catch on and be a breakthrough for those who put it to use. Predictive analytics and financial dashboards can directly process and analyze the existing accounting data, and present the valuable information in a way that small businesses can easily understand their financial trends and their probable future performance. Like all breakthroughs, this will start small, and many people will think it is not relevant. Then in the near future everyone will wonder how they ever got by without accounting technology, business information systems, and indispensable analytical tools!
Translation in Simplified Chinese
随着经济全球化进程的加快，中国逐步推进与全球会计准则的靠拢。2006年出台的企业会计准则与国际财务报告准则的一致性已经达到90-95%。同时，为了规范小企业会计确认、计量和报告行为，财务部于2013开始实行《小企业会计准则》，明确了对小企业的会计科目、主要账务处理和财务报表的规范。
虽然会计准则得以广泛实施，还有很多小微企业仍在沿袭传统非规范化的记账方法。而且从历史来看，企业对会计的应用主要在于税收，而非对企业的管理与控制。即使在今天，很多小企业仍视报税为会计的主要目的与手段，很少去解读与应用财务信息，对财务的管理更多是在日常运营管理中实现的。总体来看，中国的小企业仍然缺乏对会计准则的深刻理解与应用。
量变引起质变，当标准的实施达到一定的广度，随之而来的便是深度上地变革。中国在很多发展问题上，最先看到成效的往往是一线城市等发达地区。在北京、上海、广州等资源聚集的地方，即便在小企业间也已经很少看到手工记账，大多有效应用了会计软件，会计软件最明显的好处便是强制了对会计准则的实施，同时也有越来越多的企业主将会计信息作为衡量财务状况的工具，而不仅仅用于报税。引起这些科技信息广泛应用的原因有很多，其中包括同行业间的压力，进入国际市场的需求，和从基于数据决策中获取的竞争优势。
随着企业更有效地利用技术与标准化的财务管理，基于预测分析的新工具也会随之得到推广，更将会为那些善于利用这些新工具的企业带来新的突破。预测分析工具与财务仪表板将财务软件中已有的财务数据进行挖掘，得出有价值的信息并有效展现，帮助小企业掌握财务走向和预测未来的趋势。和很多突破一样，这些技术的应用往往从小开始，并且很多人会认为与我无关，随后在不久的将来人们便开始猜疑，在没有会计技术，信息系统和不可或缺的分析工具的时代，大家都是怎么度过的。
Background about Me
I was born and raised in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, a second-tier city in China. My parents owned several small businesses at different times in the past 30 years. At the peak time, one business used to have 20-30 employees, and at the downtime, they themselves were the only ones in the company. Their businesses had ups and downs mainly influenced by the industry situations, China’s special regulation conditions, and their own management styles.
Yan Ren 