Accounting is a multifaceted discipline. It is neither a dull profession nor a simple practice as how it has been viewed by lay people. This essay demonstrates the side of accounting that is complex and intriguing. It is structured in the following way: firstly, how my view of accounting is developed throughout this module will be explained. Next, the issue of what accounting profit is and whether it is a measure of true profit of an organisation will be tackled.
The first part of my essay is challenged in various ways. I stated that a true profit may be attained by including non-financial measures to accounting profit (Author, 2013). However, Hines (1988) explained that there is no truth in accounting as it is the outcome of naming and counting by the professionals who create the truth. For instance, what can be included in revenue and when to realise them is decided by accounting professionals, whereas ordinary people will accept this as they view the professionals as a legitimate body in the field. By reading his paper, I can conclude that there is no such thing as the true profit since there is no truth in accounting. Adding non-financial measures may give a better picture of an organisation, but there is no full picture as this is subjective (ibid.).
Accountants will make sure that they are operating within what is acceptable by the society to maintain their legitimacy in the profession and preserve the power they have, as in the legitimacy theory (Deegan and Unerman, 2011). It is important to note that being legitimate does not mean that someone is doing the right thing but he is doing what is perceived to be socially right (Suchman, 1995). The boundaries may change with time as in the case of pollution (Hines op.cit.). Pre...
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FIELDS, T.D., LYS, T.Z. and VINCENT, L. (2001) Empirical Research on Accounting Choice. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 31 (1–3), pp. 255-307.
HEALY, P.M. and PALEPU, K.G. (2003) The Fall of Enron. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17 (2), pp. 3-26.
HINES, R.D. (1988) Financial Accounting: In Communicating Reality, We Construct Reality. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13 (3), pp. 251-261.
LEFTWICH, R. (1980) Market Failure Fallacies and Accounting Information. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2(3), pp. 193-211.
SAMUELSON, P.A. (1954) The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure. Review of Economics and Statistics, pp. 387-389.
SUCHMAN, M.C. (1995) Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), pp. 571-610.
WATTS, R.L. and ZIMMERMAN, J.L. (1986) Positive Accounting Theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
It was my pleasure to be given the opportunity to attend the International Conference of Critical Accounting at Hunter College. At the conference, there were many professional international accountants, brilliant college and university professors, and many others who are expertise in the accounting field. All of these accountant professionals shared their experiences in the field, and their researches and findings. However, there was a unique session of this conference, a brief memorial of Abraham J. Briloff. He was an intelligent accountant and was a mentor for many in his field. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this assignment in memory of Briloff and his influences in the accounting field.
Johnson, H. & Kaplan, R (1987). Relevance Lost: the Rise and fall of Management Accounting, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Wolk, H., Dodd, J., & Tearney, M. (2003). Accounting Theory: Conceptual Issues in a Political and Economic Environment (6th edition ed.). South-Western College Pub.
Accounting is considered to be a Social and institutional practice, one which is constitutive and intrinsic to social relations (Hopwood, 1994, pg1). In case of (MA), internal users like managers are provided with (MA) information (Seal, 2009, pg4). This information focuses on both human performance and product services costs. It also gives the responsibility to managers to take measures according to the planning, directing and motivating and controlling of the business (Young, 2003, chapter5). Modern managerially-run enterprises was first established by Chandler in the United States between ‘1830 to 1860’(Chandler, 1977, pg3).It makes possible the world of oligopolies, which brings imperfect competition and misallocation of resources. It is...
Hines, R. D. (1991). The FASB’s conceptual framework, financial accounting and the maintenance of the social world. Accounting organizations and society, 16(4), 313-331.
According to Marshall (2004), "accounting is the process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic information about an organization for the purpose of making decisions and informed judgements" (p. 3). Specifically, financial accounting "refers to the process that results in the preparation and reporting of financial statements for an entity" (Marshall, McManus, & Viele, p. 5). While many entities prepare their own financial statements, firms can also contract with a public accounting firm or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to perform services such as reviewing or compiling statements. (A CPA is a professional designation granted by individual states.) Entities that are publicly traded or complex in nature contract for auditing services. The provider of the auditing service will test the compliance of the entity's financial reporting against generally accepted accounting principles as issued by the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The provider will also ensure that the company, if publicly traded, complies with requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the regulations of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCOAB). This paper briefly explains the principles of financial accounting and how the deviation from ethical and legal obligations led to greater government oversight and the need for ethics training of future accounting professionals.
Management accounting in organisation is very important for decision-making and to make the business more efficient and therefore increasing its profits. Is the process of preparing accounts that can help managers to make day-to-day and short-term decisions, by providing them with accurate and timely key financial and statistical information...
Jackson, S., Sawyers, R., & Jenkins, J. (2009). Managerial Accounting (5th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers.
Accounting is a way to provide information that” identifies, records and communicates the economic events of an organization”(Weygandt, J., Kimmel, P., & Kieso, D., 2012). In order to ensure that businesses and accountants produce similar financial statements, they are held to generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP standards (Weygandt, et.al. 2012). In addition to GAAP standards, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was passed by Congress to help reduce unethical behavior by large businesses (Weygandt, et. al., 2012). The combination of the two provides reassurance to stakeholders or interested parties that the financial statements are uniform and provide reliable data. This is of the utmost importance for a business to be successful.
Wilson, A. C., & Key, K. G. (2012). Enron: A Case of Deception and Unethical Behavior. Feature Edition, 2012(1), 88-97.
Thomas, C.W. (April, 2002). The rise and fall of enron. When a company looks too good to be true, it usually is. Journal of Accountancy, Retrieved June 15, 2011, from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2002/Apr/TheRiseAndFallOfEnron.htm
Marshall, M.H., McManus, W.W., Viele, V.F. (2003). Accounting: What the Numbers Mean. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
At a glance, accounting might appear as a repetitive cycle of preparing and examining financial statements. However, a brief exposure to accounting has taught me how chaotic it can be for accountants. An accountant captures and represents the information of businesses. By reviewing financial operations, an accountant helps a business run efficiently. This profession can be intellectually stimulating and rewarding. After learning about accounting, I cannot help but be interested and desire to work toward a degree in accountancy. In my studies, I have learned accountants require a plethora of qualities to be successful. And to mature from a student to a professional, I must resolve to strengthen my weaknesses. There is much I must learn and achieve, but a degree in accounting is well worth the time spent.
Accounting is the language of business. Accounting records and processes financial information into an accessible format that can be understood by anybody in the business world. It is defined in business that accounting is “the recording, measurement, and interpretation of financial information.” (Ferrell, Hirt, Ferrell, 2016, p. 286). Companies uses accounting tools to evaluate organizational operations. Accountants summarize the information from a firm’s business transactions in various financial statements for a variety of stockholders. There is a lot of business failures that happen because of information that is “hidden” in the financial statements. Cash flow is the greatest concern of management. For businesses to succeed, they need
The history of accounting I feel is important in the learning, understanding, and developing of my foundation for my accounting career. In this report you will learn about the development of accounting. You will learn about the people who influenced accounting the most throughout the years. You will learn how accounting came about and how it was used in the ancient times. You will learn about the invention of the double-entry bookkeeping processes. You will learn how things were done before the birth of the double-entry bookkeeping process. You will learn about Luca Pacioli and the Summa. You will also learn about modern accounting and ACAUS.