Accounting: Revision of the Subject and Profession's Title

The purpose of the article is to justify the appropriateness of revision of the accounting subject and profession's title, bringing their content in line with the inevitable social, professional and scientific development of this field of activity, taking into account the current trends of digital economy and sustainable development. The discrepancy between theoretical and practical ideas about the mission, subject and title of accountants was investigated. The accounting theories were grouped according to their interpretation of the content of the accounting subject. Based on the chain “theory – subject – profession's title”, the basic relationship of these categories in accounting theory was established. Based on the chain “mission – objective functionality – profession's title”, was established that the perception of categories “subject” and “accountant's title” in practice is differ from theoretical representations. The dialectical progression of the development of accounting science and practice was discovered. It was determined that the reflection of the facts of economic activity as a subject of accounting in regulatory theories corresponds to a low level of involvement in the management of specialists under the name of “accountant”. The active participation of accountants in management is characteristic of positivistic theories, in which the nature and socio-economic consequences of the professional choice of methods for reflecting the facts of economic activity is the subject of accounting. The digital economy generates new requirements for accounting, focusing on the nature of the formation and use of the accounting data as an asset and product. Therefore, the profession's title should be changed to the “information broker” or “accounting broker”. Based on the laws of philosophy, it was proved that the institutional understanding of accounting is the pinnacle of understanding the essence of accounting. According to the institutional theory, the nature of accounting and information support for trust and manageability in the socio-economic space is the accounting subject. This theory, like modern practice, justifies the need to review the subject and profession's title, defines the key place of its representatives as “accounting guarantors” in the digital economy of sustainable development. Prospects for further research are proposed to be considered on the philosophical platforms of “accounting engineering” and “accounting imperialism”.