The Practices Of Earnings Management

Understandably, there are a variety of ways in which a company can manage their earnings, and if accomplished successfully, the results can be highly profitable. Not all techniques are fraudulent, as effective earnings management is considered good for business and shareholders. Income smoothing is a specific example of permissible earnings management that involves controlling fluctuations in net income to make earnings less variable over a given period of time (Goel & Thakor, 2003). Smoothing is acceptable as long as it adheres to the restrictions of U.S. GAAP, which maintains that all revenues and expenses are accounted for in a defined fashion. There are a lot of incentives in figuring how to effectively smooth income, as substantial value can be created through the successful arrangement of financial transactions. Management is able to make more intelligent decisions with regards to the future of the firm if the earnings are able to match the forecasts. One instance this is seen is when management is faced with the decision to smooth total income or

Such an intense focus has been placed on quarterly earnings as an indication of a company’s success by everyone from analysts to executives that ethics have for the most part been thrown out the window, sacrificed to the all important number, i.e. earnings per share. This is the theory in Alex Berenson’s book “The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America.” This number has become part of a game to be played, a figure to be manipulated – beat the number and Wall Street all but throws a parade, miss it and a company’s stock may be abandoned. Take into account the incentives that executives have to beat the number and one can find plenty of reasons to manage earnings.

Companies often try to keep accounting earnings growing at a relatively steady pace in an effort to avoid large swings in earnings from period to period. They also try to manage earnings targets. Reflect on these practices and discuss the following in your discussion post.

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.

I included some information of earnings management first. Earnings management is managers’ accounting choices. Managers may use different accounting techniques to create some opportunities within the boundary of GAAP, so that they can make financial statements look better. I stated the top 5 techniques of earnings management and relevant examples:

This case study is the first of a two-part Earnings Management Case. The purpose of Part

Companies often are under pressure to meet or beat Wall Street earnings projections in order to increase stock prices and also to increase the value of stock options. Some resort to earnings management practices to artificially create desired results.

Earnings management is the use of accounting techniques, such as change in accounting policies and accounting estimates, with an objective to create an optimistic outlook (sometimes overly optimistic) of a company’s business activities and financial position. Although to some it may seem like it is earnings fraud, earnings management actually took benefit from the flexibility and the legitimateness (within the framework of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)) of accounting rules to manipulate revenue and expenses recognition.

Does it matter what your competitors are doing? Step back and consider management’s incentives and choices. What is the motivation to manage earnings?

prevent decrease in stock value, higher borrowing cost, evade corporate bankruptcy and non-financial motives are believed to be more powerful (p.286). Stallworth and Degregorio (2004) identified that most companies managed earnings for several reason, however the most common motivations is the pressure to meet the market and analyst expectations by prematurely or fictitiously recognizing revenue (p.55). Stallworth and Degregorio suggests that the internal auditor should be cautious of the indications to perform abusive earning management or motivation to commit fraud, such as personal benefits like prestige, extra compensation, bonuses, employee stock option and increased stock value as a reward when earning expectations are met or exceeded, while negative outcomes provide the same level of motivation like reputational damage or embarrassment, loss of employment, demotion or lowered compensation (p.56).

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

The results from this study ought to be useful in providing managers with some guidance as to the specific information analysts believe contributes most to high quality earnings. Given that higher quality earnings are likely to be attached a higher multiple by analysts for valuation purposes, this information should be particularly important for managers wishing to maximize the market value of their company's shares.

* With a focus on net income, managers could be incentivized to maximize ROE at the expense of other stakeholders, particularly bondholders. For instance, managers may fuel earnings growth by over-levering the company to benefit from tax shields in order to increase the value spread.  In addition, there are many other ways in which managers can manipulate earnings, for example, by slowing down depreciation charges or selling off assets to realize extraordinary gains.

Jim will appear to making less money than it actually did and therefore have to report fewer taxes. In other words, Jim is seeking for a tax saving. It can be explain by using the contracting perspective where manager will choose accounting techniques that will maximizes his or her utility at the expenses and also maximize bonuses. Furthermore, by creating LIFO inventory layer adjustment it will give lower reported earnings. If the company can avoid the inventory increase for the year and instead having a reduction, they can take a credit adjustment to cost of sale and increase their profit. Under literature Scott (2000), this proposal fall under opportunistic earning management where the management report earnings opportunistically to maximize own profit. Related study are Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) conclude that managers engage in earning management to avoid reporting losses or earning decline. Research show that there is negative relationship between unexpected discretionary accruals and stock returns around the earnings announcement date. This result indicates that the market views discretionary accruals as opportunistic.

“Management Earnings Forecasts: A Review and Framework” by D. E. Hirst, L. Koonce and S. Venkataraman explained the antecedents, characteristics and consequences interlinked with earnings forecasts. Antecedents are characteristics that are prevalent prior to the consequence such as the existing environment/firm specific characteristics; and consequence is the outcome from antecedents and characteristics. Characteristics are the choices the management has deciding on how the report will be issued. The article guides the reader giving explanations of why management decides to release earnings forecasts, interactions of the three variables and its findings and how these findings may impact one period to another. Studies