A long-standing research relationship with IMA, and how that work connects to enterprise AI transformation today.
EasyFinance has maintained a long-standing research relationship with IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), one of the world's leading professional associations for management accountants and financial professionals. This collaboration has produced published research, formal institutional recognition, and a shared commitment to advancing management accounting practice across China's enterprise landscape.
This page documents that research history and connects it to EasyFinance's current work in enterprise AI transformation.
In 2018, IMA published a report documenting the progress of management accounting practices in Chinese enterprises — recognizing EasyFinance's role in this advancement. The report, accessible on IMA's official website, describes the collaboration and the work done to build research infrastructure and practical application of management accounting in China.
This collaboration included work to establish a formal research center focused on management accounting application in Chinese enterprises — bridging academic research and real-world business practice.
EasyFinance's research approach has always been grounded in how management accounting actually functions inside Chinese enterprises — not as a compliance discipline, but as a decision-making tool.
These questions remain the foundation of EasyFinance's work — now applied to a new context: enterprise AI.
The management accounting frameworks developed and refined over two decades of research have become directly relevant to enterprise AI implementation. As companies deploy Finance AI Agents and Business AI Agents, they encounter the same fundamental challenge that management accounting has always addressed: how do you define what good performance looks like, and how do you build the measurement and decision logic to track it?
These are management accounting questions. The difference today is that AI agents can apply the answers continuously and at scale — but only if the answers have been clearly defined.
EasyFinance is currently conducting research on how management accounting methodology enables AI transformation, including work on the conditions under which Finance AI Agents and Business AI Agents create lasting operational value versus remaining point solutions.
Relevant IMA background research: “Next-Gen Controllership: Harnessing AI and
Emerging Technologies to Transform Finance and Accounting”
Read it on imanet.org →
EasyFinance's active research focuses on three connected areas.
For research collaboration inquiries, please contact EasyFinance through the main website.
EasyFinance has maintained a long-standing research relationship with IMA (Institute of Management Accountants). In 2018, IMA published a report documenting the progress of management accounting practices in Chinese enterprises and recognising EasyFinance’s role in this advancement. The collaboration also included work to establish a formal research center focused on management accounting application in Chinese enterprises.
The core questions are: how Chinese enterprises translate strategy into measurable operational targets; how companies should design their budget and performance management systems; what the right relationship is between financial reporting and business decision-making; and how management accounting frameworks enable better resource allocation, cost control, and profit improvement.
Three connected areas: management logic as the prerequisite for enterprise AI; how enterprises extend from Finance AI Agents to Business AI Agents; and AI-native organization design — what organizational changes are necessary, and in what sequence, when AI agents become stable participants in core business processes.
For international inquiries, research collaboration, or enterprise engagements, contact us directly.