Ethical Issues Involving Information Accounting

Financial reporting practices and ethics have manifested an ocean of literature. This has mainly come from organization theorists that address accounting practices. These theorists and professionals have given fresh accountability measures. Their ideals give this industry the tools needed to survive, grow and prosper. The way an organization prepares and reports its financial information and handles its daily operations is in essence financial practices, and in the way it accomplishes this reveals their ethical standards to which they adhere to. This paper will discuss the financial practices, ethical standards, and

“ In order to prevent fraudulent financial reports and statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) has created ethical standards” (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011). These standards aim to make financial professionals accountable for their accounting practices. This includes the integrity of financial reporting and ensuring financial reporting is done fairly and factually. Financial accountants and professionals should maintain professional integrity, objectivity, and independence to reduce the risk of resulting legal action, loss of profits, and a poor reputation if improper financial reporting is done (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011).

Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the

There are procedures set in place for the purchasing of goods/services in an organization. The process involves any action or data handling associated with the buying and paying of goods or services. Departments work interdependently to produce information that can later be used in the preparation of financial records and reports; these documents are used by decision makers to evaluate how well a business is doing. Businesses are becoming more complex and it has become increasingly more important to keep up with the demand to provide quality accounting records. One way for stakeholders to measure how true and fair a company’s statements is by enlisting the expertise of auditors. Auditors are called upon to comment on the accounting methods used and truthfulness in the reporting of financial activities; internal auditors are especially interested in detecting mistakes and fraud that can be costly for the company if exposed. Businesses are becoming more complex and it has become increasingly more important to keep up with the demand to provide quality accounting records. For that reason firms install accounting information systems to assist in the management of business practices.

For as long as businesses have existed, so has accounting. With time, it has become more complicated and detailed, but it is still a process of keeping financial accounts in order. Through accounting, or financial reporting, a system is set up to keep track of, maintain and audit the financial proceedings. Because accounting and financial reporting of a business is so important for its accuracy and in general, a lot of ethical, technological and legal concerns are involved. In this paper, we will look identify and explore the concerns of each of these.

Ethics are crucial to the accounting profession and the business world, so choosing an ethics system to base your moral decisions on is extremely important. Accountants and all business professionals will be confronted with moral dilemmas on a daily basis. Being strong in your faith and knowing what you believe in will help you to always make the right decision. Based on this reasoning, this essay will explain why deontology is the best ethics system for the accounting profession.

Ethics in any industry is important, but for Accounting professionals and those in need of their services, it is a particularly stressed element. Information provided by accountants is used to make major decisions, including investing, downsizing, expanding, etc, so accountants are expected to be competent, reliable, and have a high degree of professional integrity. Because of these high expectations, the professional accountancy industry, like many other professions, has adopted professional codes of ethics (Woelfel, 1986). These ethical codes go above and beyond the requirements for state or federal laws and regulations. There are several professional organizations within the

Businesses, investors, creditors rely on accounting ethics. The accounting profession requires honesty, consistency with industry standards, and compliance with laws and regulations. The ethics increase the responsibility and integrity of accounting professionals, and public trust. The ethical requirements influence the management behavior and decision-making. The financial scandal of Enron and Arthur Anderson demonstrates the failure of fundamental ethical framework, such as off-balance sheet transactions, misrepresentation of financial statements, inaccurate disclosure, manipulations with earnings, etc. The confronted accounting profession and concern for ethics in businesses forced regulators to revise the conceptual framework of accounting processes.

The chief accountant of an organization has the tremendous responsibility of establishing and administering accurate, transparent, fraud-free accounting reports. To successfully fulfill the duty, the chief accountant must be ethical and knowledgeable. The chief accountant must be knowledgeable of the managerial account as well as the financial account. Since the accounting reports of an organization are of interests to so many entities, the media with its reporters will want to make sure that there are accuracy and integrity with the details. A good understanding of the managerial account is of crucial importance for the chief accountant. According to Hitzig (2004), and Edmonds et al. (2011), the integrity of the staff will be challenged to bring effective, efficient and useful data if the chief accountant is not savvy in financial and managerial accounting.

Ethical issues have greatly transformed in our lives since the great Enron, Xerox and other huge corporations proposed big profits showing earnings of billions of dollars and yet in reality facing bankruptcy. These corporations faced great trouble with the federals and state for manipulating financial statements. But not only corporations can be blamed on this, accounting firms were involved in this as much as the corporations were. With the business stand point, ethics comprises of principles and standards that guide behavior. Investors, traders, customers, and legal system determine whether a specific action is ethical or unethical. Ethical issue is a vast subject, but we will look at the niche

Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of

Introduction. The author studies accounting methods, earnings management, and financial reporting to examine the ethicalness of judgments. Management’s ethics play a key role in earnings management activities and financial reporting. The researcher questions if the accounting profession and businesses build the line of tolerable and prohibited earnings management practices (pp. 285 -286). The main objective of research is to examine ethically related judgments through earning management activities. Management plays different ethical roles to achieve expectations. The author raises concern on changes in ethical concepts when management has personal interest in company earnings. The study is important because it investigates the role of management and stakeholders in earnings management processes, and situations, under which the judgement becomes more favorable (pp. 286 -287). The author considers two problems: 1) unethical accounting activities lead to fraud, and 2) complexity of ethical decisions due to personal gain.

Traditional accounting system is hard to adopt today’s dynamic and turbulent business environment as the changing business has much more data which needs to be analyzed than before. A dynamic AIS is important for today’s business especially large enterprises because it can help cut costs, control risks and better plan resources (Prasad, A. and Green, P. 2015, p. 124). Under this circumstance, technology plays an essential role on making AIS possible to response to internal and external business changes. This paper will critically discuss how technology affects the role and function of AIS. The structure of the paper is as follows. First, effects of technology on AIS, followed by identifying and describing two key skills or capabilities that accountants should have in the future. Then, examining two key ethical implications. Last, a conclusion will be presented.

In today’s business society, the accounting technology whether it be software or hardware is a vital part of just about every major business. Many people overlook the importance of the role of accounting technology in business and in the accounting profession. The fact is technology such as accounting information systems can make or break a business.

Accountants are also responsible for developing, implementing and modifying recordkeeping and accounting systems, they need to be able to use up to date technology to make their jobs much more sufficient.