From Accounting Records to Actionable Insights: Developing Business Analytics Capability in Small Enterprises

Abstract

Small enterprises may possess accounting records and digital dashboards without a reliable process for converting information into business decisions. This article examines that conversion through a focused narrative review of nine research and institutional sources concerning financial practices, analytics adoption, organisational capability and analytical reasoning. The synthesis distinguishes experimental effects from observational associations, policy evidence and stakeholder perceptions. It proposes an accounting to action framework linking a defined decision, dependable records, purpose appropriate analysis, understandable interpretation, documented action and subsequent review. The central proposition is that interpretation and review should be assessed alongside technology access: owners should be able to explain what an output supports, what it leaves uncertain and why a particular action follows. A worked hypothetical example demonstrates how revenue growth can coexist with a cash constraint. Implications for Bangladesh emphasise locally adapted instruction and evaluation rather than assumed transfer of foreign results. The framework is conceptual, not empirically validated. Its contribution is an operational account of how accounting discipline and learning routines can support business analytics, together with testable propositions and a design for evaluating decision quality separately from enterprise performance.Keywords: accounting information; business analytics; small enterprises; digital transformation; decision quality; Bangladesh