Accounting, traditionally, had been caught up in understanding as a rational set of procedures for economic decision making (Williams & Ravenscroft, 2015; Staubus, 2000; Puxty & Laughlin, 1983). This approach is popular as the objective of the IASB framework. It has been accepted in many developing countries, including Indonesia which has fully adopted Western accounting practices (Mulawarman, 2011). Besides, a standard-setting board, the IAI (Institute of Indonesia Chartered Accountants), considers accounting to be neutral and applicable anywhere. Indonesian Islamic boarding schools, for example, have been forced to use conventional accounting. Even though, conventional accounting is irrelevant to apply in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools because it was created and used by capitalist Western societies (Kamla & Haque, 2017; Velayutham, 2014; Napier, 2007; Baydoun & Willett, 1995). We believe that the key to understanding accounting lies in the individual, namely "I" who implements accounting. Thus, to examine how the experiences of "I" shape their perceptions of accounting, this paper seeks to understand the meaning of "accounting" in a religious based organization: Indonesian Islamic Boarding Schools.

Keywords: Accounting, Indonesian Islamic Boarding Schools, Transcendental Phenomenology