Accounting Conceptual Frameworks

The financial statements need to meet two qualitative characteristics, namely, relevance and reliability. The statements must be relevant to the decision making process of the users and make an impact on the economic decisions by making comparison with the past, present or future occurrences. For the information to be useful, it must be reliable too. This means the statements should be free from material errors and also contain all the necessary explanations and

Boundless (2015) said that a Conceptual Framework can be defined as a system of concepts and purposes that guide to the creation of a constant set of regulations and standards. Especially in accounting, the rule and standards set by the nature, function and limit of financial accounting and financial statements. IFRS(2015) stated that the purpose of the Conceptual framework is to enhance financial reporting and objective of accounting by offering a more accomplish, clear and updated set of concepts or guidelines. In Conceptual Framework, it will form a basis for define how transactions should be calculated (historical value or market value) and reported in financial report like how they are presented or communicated to internal or external users. To carry out this, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is establishing on the currently existing Conceptual Framework updating it, enhancing it and padding it in the disparity instead of essentially reconsidering all respects of the Conceptual Framework.

Financial statements are very important for decision makers in the business world. They inform the firm’s owners, lenders and managers of the performance of the company and their employees. Standardized financial statements make for financial transparency between all businesses and sectors of business. Financial statements are important to companies not only to measure performance but to obtain capital through debt and equity. The main financial statements used by all companies, private and public, are the balance sheet, income statement (profit and loss statement), and statement of cash flows. Companies also use financial ratios to determine if they are performing to standards and are determine if they are increasing revenues sufficiently with the amount of expenses and debt taken on.

Since the three statements offer three different kinds of information, sometimes it is useful to look at each in the context of the others, and to look at specific items in the larger context. This is the purpose of financial statement analysis: creating comparisons and contexts to gain a better understanding of

Comparability allows users to compare similar companies in the same industry group and to make comparisons of performance over time. Reliability of information is truthful, accurate, and complete, capable of verification (e.g., by a potential investor) with nothing significant missed. Objectivity of accounting information is not biased toward a particular user group or investment at stake.

The definition of accounting theory according to Coetsee (2010) is described in two different ways. The first philosophy concludes that accounting theory is a set of general principles that guide the evolution of accounting practice. The other philosophy describes accounting theory as activity of explaining and predicting accounting practice. What the viewer can see from the statement of the first philosophy is that the accounting theory exists before accounting practices meanwhile the latter states that the accounting practice exists before the theory. Since there are many arguments about this matter, many academic researchers have concluded that accounting theory can be divided into two categories which are positive and normative theory.

“The objective of general purpose financial reporting is to provide financial information about the reporting entity that is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors in making decisions about providing resources to the entity.”

When organizations present financial statements for review, the information contained in the statements should be appropriate and clear enough as to enable evaluators or auditors of the information to make accurate estimations of the presenting organization’s financial status.

The information reflected in the financial statements actually is expected to be of high quality and useful to support the quality decision-making of market stakeholders due to the far-reaching and very costly consequences. It is important in this context to properly identify and discuss the user needs and thereby we refer to the actual requirements of all information users amongst them the management, which uses the financial information to steer, regulate and co-ordinate the business.

Understanding of the information contained in the financial statements is necessary because of its significance to the users. If the accounting dealing concerned and disclosures associated aspects of presentation is very complicated for the user to understand despite the presence of sufficient knowledge of the entity and accounting in general, this would undermine the credibility of the whole financial statements because the forced users to base economic decisions on a non-reliable information (understandability,

Each user of the financial statements interprets the information in a different manor. They use the information to determine their interactions with the organization. Management, investors, and employees use the same information from the financial statements but for different purposes. These four basic statements are the fundamentals of accounting which can be much more detail and complex. They do not need to be more complex for the users of the information; these basic statements have all the information needed to make

To over view the knowledge we learnt from accounting theory and practice, the main thing I can conclude that is the tendency of accounting will shift away from technical way to people’s behaviour way. By understanding what should do, we should ask why and how we could improve and change it into a better way. This essay aims to explain how the theoretical material that we learn in lectures can be developed under a real practical manner.

It has been become an issue of great concern that the accounting profession must find a common theory in order to address and put the issue at rest. This therefore, has called for the study of this topic under review “the demand for and supply of accounting theories: the market for excuses. As a result of this several questions have been raised. For instance, the question of why accounting theories are predominantly normative has been put forward by this article? Secondly, why no single theory in accounting profession that is generally or widely accepted? It has been argued that the financial accounting theories have been found to be ineffective most especially in the area of impacting accounting practice and policy, though, this has been

The major accounting principles that guide accounting practices are endorsed on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This is an international guidelines that all the companies and organizations are expected to apply in their operations. These principles are further classified into assumption and constraints. The assumption principles include business entity, going concern, monetary unit and time period assumption principles (Hendrick, 2011). Other principles listed in the GAAP include historical cost, revenue recognition principle, and matching, and full disclose principles. On the other hand, constraints are also divided into objectivity principle, materiality principle, consistency principle, and conservatism principle (Weygandt J. J., 2012). Disney Company adhered to these concepts while preparing its financial reports to present fair information to the users is recommended in the International Financial Reporting Standards. This research work dwells on the analysis of the various principles and constraints with regards to Walt Disney Company.

Financial accounting statements can help a user to make future decisions by showing the concerned business’s health. It shows where money is being generated, spent and lost, depicting the financial performance and financial position. The statements can also help in situations such as raising fresh capital in the form of a loan, e.g. a bank will most likely require these statements to show the business’s credibility or worthiness. The statements help influence managerial decisions on which direction the business needs to head, and how to best maximize profit.