A comparative analysis of expectations and satisfactions in accounting services: A field research on accounting professionals and customers in Sakarya

In the accounting profession, those who generally provide this service are called accountants, and those who demand it are called customers (taxpayers). It is essential to examine the expectations and problems in accountant-customer relations and measure satisfaction based on data to assess accounting service quality. This study aims to identify the problems that arise within the scope of the professional relations of the independent accountants in Sakarya with their customers and to reveal their satisfaction and expectations levels mutually. Thus, it will be possible to discuss the opportunities to increase service quality and satisfaction by meeting expectations and developing solutions based on data. For this purpose, two separate questionnaires were applied to accountants and customers in Sakarya. 117 of 504 independent professional accountants registered with Sakarya CPA Chamber were contacted by e-mail, messages, and face-to-face, but 112 questionnaires were analyzed. At the same time, 209 out of 41670 customers in various sectors and business branches that are service recipients were contacted by e-mail, message, and face-to-face for questionnaires, and 208 were analyzed. The data from the questionnaires completed in 2021 were analyzed using the SPSS 25 by descriptive and relational analysis. Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for comparison analyses. According to the analysis results, it has been observed that the personal relations between accountants and customers in Sakarya are generally good. However, this situation is not reflected in the same level of respect shown to the accounting profession. It has been determined that while accountants have a below-average satisfaction in their relations with their customers, customers have above-average satisfaction. Although both groups stated that they fulfilled their duties, accountants expressed dissatisfaction, especially with the heavy workload, low service tariffs, and collection problems. On the other hand, customers do not think that their expectations are fully met in terms of consulting in managerial decisions, providing timely information on issues related to legislation, reporting debts and receivables in detail, and calculating profits and losses correctly. Customer needs and requests show that accounting services should get out of the tax area and evolve into specializations that build corporate solutions-systems-models specific to business lines and sectors and expand into financial and managerial consultancy and auditing. In addition to the continuous training of accountants, training to increase customers' knowledge and awareness levels should be planned, and their participation should be encouraged. It is evident that the increase in service quality is related to the increase in customer quality and accountant quality. All these results show that it is essential to find solutions to alleviate the workload of accountants and to increase wage collection and satisfaction, to take measures to increase satisfaction, belonging, and motivation, to specialize in the profession, and to incorporate. It is also vital that KGK, TÜRMOB, accounting chambers, all stakeholders, and relevant authorities should deal with the problems of the profession together.