FINIZ – International Scientific Conference

In accordance with the current epidemiological situation in the country and the world, International scientific conference FINIZ 2021 was held online, via Microsoft Teams platform.

FINIZ 2021 conference was opened with a plenary session. Chairperson and the plenary speakers reviewed the results achieved in the current calendar year. At the end of the plenary session, each chairperson introduced their parallel session. The conference continued in two blocks of 5 parallel sessions.

Session titled “In Step With Changes in The Business Environment” was organized in collaboration with the Association of Internal Auditors of Serbia (UIRS). The session discussed the ways in which the pandemic has influenced the change of business philosophy and the organization of life in general. It was concluded that the pandemic will affect the way of life and the organization of business activities in the future. As far as the organization of work in companies is concerned, the new circumstances have imposed a new philosophy of organizing work. This inevitably led to a change in the internal audit process – that auditors generally organize their work from home. In this regard, the speakers reminded us of some important topics and issues that are the basis of our work and which in changed circumstances can be neglected, while the foundations of the profession must not collapse.

Topic of the accounting session was “Electronic Invoices as an Obligatory Step Towards Business Digitalization”. The following topics were discussed: 1) What are electronic invoices? 2)Why are we obliged to transfer to the system of electronic invoicing? 3) How can we do this and improve our business? The main conclusion of the session is that the process of introducing electronic invoicing will enhance further digitalization of businesses, reduce the costs of doing business, accelerate business, and raise the fiscal discipline in the country. Additionally, it was concluded that the accounting filed should not wait for these changes to be imposed but rather should embrace the changes and initiate the modernisation of its procedures.

FINIZ 2021 conference hosted two parallel sessions in the area of tax titled “Experience-sharing of Visegrad countries to tax avoidance activity” financed by the International Visegrad Fund grant (project No. 22010083) which ends on 31 March 2022. The first part of the session involved discussion of open questions in theory and practice regarding: 1. International collaboration with the aim of reducing tax evasion and 2. The Minister of Finance’s views regarding the choice of legal or illegal options leading to legal uncertainty. Regarding the international collaboration with the aim of reducing tax evasion the focus was on: OECD/G20 inclusive framework for implementing BEPS project, 15 actions by BEPS, collaboration in the field of tax, collaborative agreements – MAP, multilateral convention – MLI, transfer prices, and especially the impact of the COVID-19 on transfer prices. In the second part of the discussion the focus was on specific examples regarding covering the expenses of employee’s travel to work, reimbursement of using server abroad, and royalty taxation; catering services during the making of a film, series, commercials; costs of obligors regarding providing free drinks and snacks to the service users with the aim of increasing the revenue based on doing business in the fields of gambling and betting are all accepted as tax purpose, etc. The result of the discussion was the suggested instruments for better taxation and optimization of taxation.

The challenges regarding communication and collaboration in the current circumstances were addressed in the marketing session, titled “Communication and Collaboration in the Center of Marketing Problems in the Post-Covid Era”. It was concluded that the current crisis initiated the accelerated process of digital transformations in all areas of work. The outcomes include the raising speed of technological adoption, using the full capacity of available software, and the changes in employees’ and customers’ behavior. Digital communication and collaboration enabled: the optimization of business processes, optimization of time, more ways to connect and successful communication for companies which are fully digitally and strategically prepared. In most cases, the combined, hybrid model (online and in person) proved to be acceptable and motivating for all acters on the market who whish to be competitive and do business effectively.

Conclusions of session titled “FINTECH in the era of COVID” (as a part of COST CA 19130 project) include: being ethical in financial industry, permanent learning and development of competencies, high-quality database and areas in which artificial intelligence will be applicable are some of the challenges in the finance sector.

Participants in the session titled “Challenges of new normal in forensic investigation” discussed several interesting topics such as using Beneish model for frauds in financial reports, the role of Data Science in investigating credit frauds, as well as money laundering techniques in the banking sector. All participants in the session concluded that methods and techniques of fraudulent activities have changed following the crisis, that it is harder to determine the profile of the fraudsters. Additionally, the consequences of changed circumstances in the industry involve the emergence of numerous “red flags” which point at high risks of frauds in the post-COVID period.

The session devoted to valuation procedures considered the triple effect and consequences of the new EU environmental regulation on the organization and valuation procedures of immobility, plants, machinery, equipment, and businesses. Key speakers concluded that the effect of the aforementioned regulation on valuation procedures of immobility, plants, machinery, equipment, and businesses is complex both from the aspect of considering basic assumptions in the procedure as well as from the aspect of information which will be used as input in the valuation procedure. Suggestion is that the industry should follow professional regulations regarding valuation procedures which is already harmonized to a certain degree. That is, which are going to be harmonized with the EU environmental regulation.

“Human Resources” session at FINIZ 2021 conference was devoted to human resources management through continuous business improvement. Three speakers elaborated on this paradigm through various dimension of this process:

• Systems of continuous improvements in business operations, mr Aleksadar Protic, Factory Manager, Al Dahra,
• Burnout syndrome, from stress to diagnosis, dr Branko Andjelkovic, Marketing Manager, Galenika a.d,
• The future of work, dr Sonja Jovanovic, HR Associate Director, EY-CESA Organizational Development

Attendance, questions and reactions of the audience justified the choice of topics. The public was introduced to some of the most current trends in wellbeing and development of human resources in organizations.

At this year’s FINIZ 2021 conference 16 papers were presented in “Scientific Papers” session. The presented papers were in the fields of: internal audit, corporate finance, evaluation and risk, business finance, banking, insurance, forensics, marketing and management and human resource Management. Eight papers were invited to be published in The European Journal of Applied Economics (M51).