Contractual and accounting controls in outsourcing agreements: evidence from the Australian home loan industry

The objective of the article is to examine the contract-accounting control relationship in an outsourcing context and, specifically, issues such as the extent to which contracts and accounting are jointly implemented and integrated in managing supplier relationships. Through an exploratory analysis of outsourcing arrangements in the Australian home loan industry, the study finds that the contracts examined provided a broad relationship frame rather than controls that could be utilised to manage the relationship. Also, accounting controls were only implemented once the outsourcing relationship was underway. Finally, accounting controls operated independently of the contract in two of the three cases examined.