Implementing a Digital Financial Management System and Simple Balance-Sheet Recording to Strengthen Financial Literacy among Culinary SMEs in City X

Abstract

This study examines how an integrated digital financial management system and simplified balance-sheet routine can strengthen financial literacy among culinary small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in City X. Because no primary interviews, observations, or enterprise records were supplied, the study adopts a qualitative documentary design rather than claiming a completed field intervention. The evidence corpus combines Indonesian regulatory and survey documents, accounting standards, international guidance, and recent empirical studies on digital accounting and SME finance. Directed qualitative content analysis was applied to identify mechanisms linking digital transaction capture, business–household fund separation, periodic reconciliation, and balance-sheet interpretation with financial knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour. The analysis identifies five mutually reinforcing mechanisms: transaction visibility, classification discipline, accounting-equation comprehension, evidence-based decision routines, and digital-risk awareness. National data also reveal that financial inclusion continues to exceed financial literacy, indicating that access to digital finance does not automatically generate managerial capability. A staged implementation model is proposed: diagnostic assessment, account separation, digital capture, weekly reconciliation, monthly statement preparation, and reflective review. The study contributes a context-sensitive framework that treats technology and simplified accounting as a combined learning infrastructure rather than isolated tools. Field-based multiple-case research is required before outcome claims can be made for City X.