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Revenue Recognition & Theories of Accounting

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Revenue Recognition & Theories of Accounting
The Joint Project
Revenue recognition requirements in US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) differ from those in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs); the former consists of broad concepts whereas IFRSs contain fewer standards, but applying the two main standards to complex transactions were difficult and needed improvement (Australian Accounting Standards Board, 2010). Accordingly, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) initiated a joint project to clarify the revenue recognising principles and to establish a common revenue standard that would: (a) remove inconsistencies in existing …show more content…

The CF is an example of a normative theory of accounting because it prescribes guidance such as the qualitative characteristics financial information should possess, as contrasted with positive theories, which seek to explain and/or predict particular phenomena (Deegan, 2009). Both theories are developed on the basis of deductive reasoning, which relies upon the use of logic to develop arguments and related theory. Although typically all research and theories are value-laden, the prescriptive nature of normative theories means more value judgement and social biasness is involved in its development, which may be a reason for the apparent functional failure of CFs. Raymond Chambers (1957) was a distinguished contributor to normative theory; he developed the Continuously Contemporary Accounting theory that describes how financial accounting should be undertaken, suggesting that the most useful information about an organisation’s assets for the purposes of economic decision-making is information about their ‘current cash equivalents’.
Alternatively, positive theories begin with some assumptions and, through logical deduction, enable explanations or predictions to be made, typically evaluated by considering how well these relate to actual observations. Watts and Zimmerman (1978) developed the Positive Accounting Theory, which seeks to predict and

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