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International Accounting
 

Accounting for the costs of developing human capital as an independent management accounting item in the context of digital transformation

ISSUE 9, SEPTEMBER 2026

PDF  Article PDF Version

Received: 1 July 2026

Accepted: 11 September 2026

Available online: 30 September 2026

Subject Heading: MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING

JEL Classification: J24, M21, M41, O15

Pages: 37-57

https://doi.org/10.24891/kjuzxe

Dina A. L'VOVA Corresponding author, Saint-Petersburg State University (SPbSU), St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
d.lvova@spbu.ru

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0442-986X

Pavel R. ORLOV Saint-Petersburg State University (SPbSU), St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
pavel11032000@yandex.ru

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8217-9564

Subject. This article discusses the issues related to the costs of building an organization's human capital and the possibility of treating these costs as a separate item of management accounting in the context of digital transformation.
Objectives. The article aims to justify separating costs for human capital development as an item of managerial accounting, and develop their classification and distribution model without relying on balance-sheet recognition.
Methods. For the study, we used historical-theoretical and comparative analyses of the human capital concept and the regulatory requirements for asset recognition, as well as accounting-analytical modeling using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) and process analytics (process mining) to calibrate time equations based on digital traces from information systems (ATS, LMS, ERP).
Results. The article finds that neither IFRS nor Russian standards allow human capital to be recognized as an asset. The article suggests a two-pronged classification of costs for its formation – by stage of an employee's life cycle and by economic nature of the expenses – and a model for their distribution using the TDABC method.
Conclusions and Relevance. The costs of building human capital can be considered as a separate analytical item of management accounting, separate from current labor remuneration. This provides a basis for managing investments in personnel, identifying unused training capacity, and for reliable, verifiable disclosure of human capital in non-financial and integrated reporting.

Keywords: human capital, management accounting, formation costs, Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC), non-financial reporting

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