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Why accountants study ethics
Ethical issues encountered by accountants
The benefit of accounting ethics to the profession
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1. What is the accounting problem that the Linbarger Company faces? In order to be able to know what problems a company is facing, look at the financial statements and how the balance sheet is looking like. Thereafter you can now state in particular the problems that the company could be facing. 2. Who will suffer negative effects if you do not comply with Lisa Infante instructions? Who will suffer if you do comply? You: the assistant controller may suffer the effect if you do not comply with the instructions. If you do not comply then the business will be forced to close down and all employees will be out of work. If you do comply and are caught, you could definitely be fired and possibly jailed for cooking the books. Maybe Lisa Infante will be fired as well …show more content…
An accountant frequently encounters ethical issues regardless of the industry and must remain continually vigilant to reduce the chances of outside forces manipulating financial records, which could lead to both ethical and criminal violations. Pressure from Management The burden for public companies to succeed at high levels may place undue stress and pressure on accountants creating balance sheets and financial statements. The ethical issue for these accountants becomes maintaining true reporting of company assets, liabilities and profits without giving in to the pressure placed on them by management or corporate officers. Unethical accountants could easily alter company financial records and maneuver numbers to paint false pictures of company successes. This may lead to short-term prosperity, but altered financial records will ultimately spell the downfall of companies when the Securities and Exchange Commission discovers the
Ethics plays a vital role in developing accurate and high quality financial statements for management, financial institutions, and investors. As management utilizes financial statements to make decisions regarding the operations of the business, it is necessary to review accurate financial statements to make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. Investors and financial institutions require accurate financial statements to make informed decisions upon whether to invest funds into the organization or the wisdom of lending funds to said organization.
The managerial accounting system at Bridgeton, as it is presented, seems to be lacking detail necessary for efficient analysis. The sections used are sales, direct material, direct labor and overhead by account number, each divided into individual accounts and summed to find totals. There is no separation of fixed and variable costs in any of the accounts, making it difficult to analyze exactly where operations are costing money and, therefore, how they could possibly be improved. The presentation of the information groups all sales together and the different categories of costs together and does not provide for individual product analysis. The products are analyzed (categorized into classes) based on their costs, with no consideration to revenues associated with these products, and no real understanding of the overhead applied to each product. The overhead costs are applied to accounts based on labor and materials of the company as a whole, rather than using considerations associated with the individual products.
First, the Code of Professional Conduct encourages accountants to behave ethically. Encouraging accountants to behavior ethically is a strength because it helps create customer loyalty, positive work environments, and dedicated employees, which helps avoids legal issues. Accounting professionals have to behave ethically just because of the profession they are in. Accountants need to behave ethically because the investors, creditors, and rest of the public rely on an accountant’s professional judgment to make
Before becoming a successful dentist in Brighton, Massachusetts, Lennox Lin learned the science of dentistry at Tufts University. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1999, Lin was accepted to the institutions School of Dental Medicine. In 2003, he graduated with a Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.). While attending Tufts University for his doctorate, Lennox Lin spent time as a research assistant for the university 's Department of Oral Medicine. In the years following his graduation, he worked in dental offices in and around the Brighton area. In 2010, he opened his own practice, Brighton Dental Associates, in Brighton, Massachusetts. Lin attributes much of his success
Throughout the past several years major corporate scandals have rocked the economy and hurt investor confidence. The largest bankruptcies in history have resulted from greedy executives that “cook the books” to gain the numbers they want. These scandals typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of assets or underreporting of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations (Medura 1-3). In response to the increasing number of scandals the US government amended the Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 to mitigate these problems. Sarbanes Oxley has extensive regulations that hold the CEO and top executives responsible for the numbers they report but problems still occur. To ensure proper accounting standards have been used Sarbanes Oxley also requires that public companies be audited by accounting firms (Livingstone). The problem is that the accounting firms are also public companies that also have to look after their bottom line while still remaining objective with the corporations they audit. When an accounting firm is hired the company that hired them has the power in the relationship. When the company has the power they can bully the firm into doing what they tell them to do. The accounting firm then loses its objectivity and independence making their job ineffective and not accomplishing their goal of honest accounting (Gerard). Their have been 379 convictions of fraud to date, and 3 to 6 new cases opening per month. The problem has clearly not been solved (Ulinski).
With every business activity come opportunities for fraudulent behavior which leads to a greater demand for auditors with unscathed ethics. Nowadays, auditors are faced with a multitude of ethical issues, and it is even more problematic when the auditors fail to adhere to the standards of professional conducts as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The objective of this paper is to analyze the auditors’ compliance with the code of professional conduct in the way it relates to the effectiveness of their audits.
The main problems that are affecting the company were the high level of labour turnover, below target production rates, high levels of scrap, the employees had little input in the decision making, therefore resulting in low motivation and job satisfaction, and didn't have enough feedback on there performance. Added to this was the conflict between the supervisors and employees in the production and packing areas, and the grading and payment levels wasn't satisfactory to the employees.
What does ethics have to do with accounting? Everything, since there have been some recent financial accounting scandals; a few examples being Xerox, WorldCom, Enron, which have generated much unwanted and unfavorable publicity for CPA's, including those working as controllers or chief financial officers for organizations.
One of the oldest and steadiest forms of real estate investing known is to buy and hold real estate. This method of investing has been around for years and has created untold millions in wealth to its participants. Langfield & Co. is a small real estate holding company focused on purchasing, improving and owing income producing real estate rental properties.
Accounting ethics has been difficult to control as accountants and auditors must keep in mind the interest of the public while that they remain employed by the company they are auditing. The accountants should take into account how to best apply accounting standards when company faces issues related financial loss. The role of accountant is crucial to society. They serve as financial reporters to owe their primary constraint to public interest. The information provided is critical in aiding managers, investors and others in making crucial economic decisions. An accountant is responsible for any fraudulent financial reporting. Some examples of fraudulent reporting are:
The Tyco accounting scandal is an ideal illustration of how individuals who hold key positions in an organization are able to manipulate accounting practices and financial reports for personal gain. The few key individuals involved in the Tyco Scandal (CEO Kozlowski and CFO Swartz), used a number of clever and unique tactics in order to accomplish what they did; including spring loading, manipulating their ‘key-employee loan’ program, and multiple ‘hush money’ payouts.
The aim of this paper is to provide the framework of the current professional accounting code of ethics. What are the ethics and how we define them? In this report we try to determine the main ethical principles that will establish the right and
An accountant makes sure that the Nation’s firms are run efficiently, the public records are kept accurately, and that taxes are paid properly and on time (“Accountants and Auditors”). Accounting is the study of how a business tracks their income, assets, expenses, and many other things for a period of time. They also do many other things like quality management, tax strategy, and health care benefits management (“Welcome to Careers in Accounting”). An accountant is crucial to the success of a business, without one the business tends to fail.
4) . One of the largest bankruptcies in history was enabled by accountants hiding debt and destroying the evidence to avoid implication (Buckstein, part 2 pgs. 1, 2, and 3). These unfortunate events led to the need for increased scrutiny and regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). This legislation inspired the creation of the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). These changes have led to an increased awareness of the need for auditor independence as well as higher standards for accounting and business in general (Buckstein, part 3 pg 1). While these measures have helped to reassure the public, there is still the question of why Accountancy is not a protected
The evolution of auditing is a complicated history that has always been changing through historical events. Auditing always changed to meet the needs of the business environment of that day. Auditing has been around since the beginning of human civilization, focusing mainly, at first, on finding efraud. As the United States grew, the business world grew, and auditing began to play more important roles. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people began to invest money into large corporations. The Stock Market crash of 1929 and various scandals made auditors realize that their roles in society were very important. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed, and became easier with the use of internal controls. These controls introduced the need for testing; not an in-depth detailed audit. Auditing jobs would have to change to meet the changing business world. The invention of computers impacted the auditors’ world by making their job at times easier and at times making their job more difficult. Finally, the auditors’ job of certifying and testing companies’ financial statements is the backbone of the business world.