Accounting is one of the oldest social sciences disciplines whose development has been affected by a variety of historical, economic, social-cultural and institutional factors. In essence, although the discipline is currently harmonized across different nations, accounting systems have been influenced by different national traits, a factor that also influenced the differences in accounting systems at the international level. In general, the accounting systems in use in different countries have developed as a result of different influential factors in each jurisdiction. Regardless of the jurisdiction, however, a number of key factors are generally agreed to have influenced the development of the accounting discipline. The most common …show more content…
Some examples of nations with such accounting policies include Switzerland as well as Japan. Inflation Historical cost accounting is distorted by an increase in price levels in the economy and leads to understating of the value of assets or expenses while earnings are overstated. Prices changes must be included accounts for the countries that have high inflation. In the past, the US and UK have also used similar price level accounting policies to respond to high inflation rates. Such experiments were developed to report on the impact of inflation on accounting. Level of Economic Development In essence, the level of economic development affects the nature of business transactions that are conducted within an economy. In addition, economic development determines which business transactions are most prevalent. The types of transactions common in a jurisdiction, in turn, determine the accounting issues within such a jurisdiction and hence directly influence the growth and development of accounting. To illustrate, accounting aspects such as stock based executive compensation and asset securitization are more relevant in economies with developed capital markets compared to economies with underdeveloped capital markets (Wang, 2014). Political and Economic Ties Accounting ideas and technologies have traditionally developed through conquest and commerce among other similar forces. For
In the course of history and as per the needs and complexity of financial system, almost each and every country in the world developed their own accounting principles and financial reporting system in accordance to their rule, law, culture and social order. However, as the world moves more toward globalization, world market economy get close to each other, International investments spread out throughout the globe especially among countries with open economy. Thus, the diversity in accounting practices is not conducive for boosting international investments, and businesses in today’s market. For example, guess you invest in the international market and you are required to prepare a financial report in compliance with rule of that country and then you need to convert the report to where your company is originally resident. First of all, it is a hassle for the investing companies to report based on the host country rule and regulation. Second, it creates a lot extra costs which fall on investors to compare the result of the report with different countries and may not be able to make a good comparison anyway. Thus, it limited the effectiveness of the international capital markets as well as cross border investment. (International Accounting Pg, 65)
In 1853, first association of professional accountants, it also can be regarded as the beginning of the modern accounting profession. The UK accounting system is conducive to a principles-based approach rather than a rules-based approach to standard setting. Furthermore, the UK 's politic system is common law, which shows that accounting system in the UK has relatively fewer statutes, more interpretation and tends to be more flexible, adaptive and innovative, etc. Also, taxation does not have influence on accounting system, but Germany and Japan are in opposite Therefore, these all can have a significant influence on accounting system in the UK.
Management accounting is a political technology, constantly evolving to meet demands of stakeholders of a company and to facilitate competitive advantage. A management accountant acts as a tool to devise and implement strategies. Pre-1920, decision-making processes were executed using strictly financial instruments such as cost profit analysis. “The growth of modern corporation, between 1880 and 1925 provided stimulus for development in innovative management accounting practices” (Kaplan, 1984). Due to the prominence of the world trade organisation and international monetary fund, trade barriers have
The accounting system we use today started in Venice in renaissance period over 520 years ago. The trade business increased hugely during this time and all the financial recordings had to be written down to help people see how their business is doing. During that time in 1494 the first book about was published in accounting by Luca Paciolli and was called “The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and Proportionality”. He was called “The father of Accounting” and most of his described principles have been used up until this day.
When talking about accounting, the first thing we should know is the history of its development. Traditionally, the development is from inductive to deductive. Inductive theory assume what is done by the majority is the most appropriate practice. However, It did not seek to evaluate the logic or merit of
When determining and defending the use of a particular ethical system within the confines of a profession, it is important to evaluate the system in terms of the professional culture as well as the expected professional conduct laid out within the vocation itself. The accounting profession has been evolving for thousands of years. Early accounting records date business transactions back as far as third century B.C. (Schroeder, Clark, & Cathey, 2009). Early record keeping was for internal purposes and as societies and economies expanded, it became important to maintain records for external purposes as well. According to Schroeder, Clark & Cathey (2009), by the ninetheeth centruy, bookkeeing expanded into accounting (p. 3). From this time, it has been the duty of the accountant to serve the public interest and the profession has been culitvated into an organizational culture with professional norms and standards constantly taking shape in an effort to complete an all-inclusive conceptual framework.
Global interdependence and the existence of large multinational enterprises create a need for global accounting. Multinational corporations are companies that carry out business in more than one country other than their home. Companies go global for many reasons: to increase sales, improve profits and innovation. Decentralization is essential for the creation of large firms, because CEOs are otherwise constrained in the number of decisions they can make directly -- it is therefore critical for enabling productive firms to grow large and to take market share from unproductive ones. Because trust is strongly linked with more decentralization, it in turn affects productivity. The absence of trust, in developing countries like Brazil, China, and India, explains why productive firms do not grow large and drive out unproductive firms from the market place. Decentralization presents problems within itself. With this, Management accounting is a system of measuring and providing operational and financial information that drives management’s actions in areas of actions and behavior. Unlike financial, managements accounting generates reports for personnel inside the organization, not stakeholders. It’s purpose is to an organization reach its strategic objectives. Internationally the primary strategic goals of managerial accounting are global efficiency, multinational flexibility and worldwide learning. This initiates emphasis on planning and control.
International accounting, a term given birth by modern society, is a concept which encompasses all function areas of various accounting principles and practices followed by every nation in the world. The international accounting consists of three different levels. First level is the supranational level which signifies principles, standards and guidelines of accounting, auditing and taxation issued by supranational organizations such as UN, OECD and IFA (International accounting, Timothy and Hector, 2011, P1). The second level is the company level which denotes the principles and techniques that people follow to report transactions and evaluate foreign companies’ performance. The third level, the broadest one, can be viewed as the
1. The description of key factors in national accounting systems and the suggestion of factors influencing development;
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 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.
Accounting is the art of measuring and communicating financial information. To maintain uniformity and consistency in preparing and maintaining books of accounts, certain rules or principles have been evolved. These rules or principles are classified as concepts and conventions. One of the important concept in accounting is “Measurement” (Mattessich, 1977)
Accounting is the language of business. It is a profession that is being guided by principles, concepts, conventions, laws, etc. All these fundamental building blocks serve as common and general compasses to all practitioners of the profession. In some cases, they are nation-wide tailored, while in other cases, they are universally tailored. Accounting as a living, practical, dynamic and realistic profession covers so many areas of social, economic (business), and governmental activities. Surely, any endeavour that involves monetary and material activities create a room for the services of Accounting. Many of the human endeavours for which the accounting profession plays significant (some times inevitable) roles include; Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Farming Contracting, Oil and Gas, Mining, Transportation (Air, Land and Sea), Educational Institutions, Churches, Ministries, ICT, Hire Purchase, Local Government Authorities, Estate Businesses, Export and Import Businesses, Bill of Exchange Transactions, Royalties Transactions, Consignment Transactions, Stock Market Transactions, Sports, Entertainment, Hospitals and Hospitality Industry, etc.
Generally, the accounting professionals calling in the United States as well as in the whole world seemed to be focused on the readiness and examining of money related articulations. Many people consider Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and different experts of accounting while saying financial accounting. In any case, in different parts of the world, management accounting order is a division of the accounting field (Sahi and Dua 2012). Management accounting and financial accounting are two distinct callings in such locales. Administration accounting, as a sub control, manages money related and non-monetary data to bolster a scope of administrative choices. Then again, money related accounting focuses on monetary information just to bolster both loan bosses' and financial specialists' choices on capital allotment (Kinney and Raiborn 2008). Management accounting fundamentally concentrates on enhancing business execution yet not guaranteeing that the business complies with the set measures. From this perspective, it is evident that monetary accounting dominates management
The Burns and Scapens framework for analyzing managerial accounting change was built on the study of old institutional economics, which sees "economics as a process of social provision, subject to multiple and cumulative causation." This view culminates in a model that argues that the managerial accounting practices at institutions are subject to a process of constant change, influenced by routines and rules. The institutions contribute to these routines and rules, but so do actions on the part of managers within the institutions. By combining multiple influences over time, we arrive at modern managerial accounting practice. In other words, Burns and Scapens tells us that managerial accounting practice changes over time, influenced by a number of factors including rules, routines and actions.