留学生作业:现代会计准则下的企业财务问题分析

会计准则通常指的是一系列阐明如何特殊将交易类型和事项反映在财务报告中的标准。在过去，国际会计准则委员会曾发布了国际会计准则。

从2001年以来，新一套的标准被称作国际财务报告准则，由国际会计准则理事会制定。

随着全球化进程的深入，资本市场在多方面觉醒，投资公众的规模也在迅速扩大。境外机构投资者们在进行着全球范围的投资活动，好几个公司也在通过可转让凭证和美国存托凭证进行相关工作。

会计准则的必要性——Need for accounting standards

在这种情况下，我们强烈要求通过立法来保证财务报表的一致性、合理性、可比性、透明度和适应性。这也就强调了在财务报表的准备和展示过程当中要财务严格标准的重要性。

国际会计准则的范围和应用——Scope and application of IAS

国际会计准则设计之初是只适用于财务报告中实物项目。在应用的未来展望当中，每个准则的最开头都会给出具体范围。

国际会计准则并不会推翻财务报表展示的原有法则，它集中关注要领，国际会计准则理事会试图传递这样的信息，我们被卷进了世界范围的大市场，任何国际都不例外。

Accounting standards generally refers to a set of standards stating how particular types of transactions and other events should be reflected in financial statements. In the past, international accounting standards (IAS) were issued by the Board of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC).

Since 2001, the new set of standards has been known as the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and has been issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

ALONG with the process of globalisation, the awareness of capital markets has increased manifold and the size of investing public is multiplying. Foreign institution investors (FIIs) are investing in a big way globally, as also are several companies through GDRs (global depository receipts) and ADRs (American depository receipts).

Need for accounting standards

In this situation, there is a strong need for legislation to bring about uniformity, rationalisation, comparability, transparency and adaptability in financial statements. And this underlines the need to have stringent norms for preparation and presentation of financial statements.

Scope and application of IAS

IASs are intended to be applicable only to material items in financial statements. Prospective in application, their scope is given at the beginning of each IAS.

The IASs do not override the law of the land on matters of financial presentations. They concentrate only on essentials and are so designed not to The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is among the signs that we have truly evolved into a world marketplace independent of any one country’s economy. For many years the Financial Accounting Standards Board of the United States was the top authority on business reporting standards. The purpose is to make business easier to conduct both between countries and for multinational corporations. IOSCO sees facilitating cross-border securities offerings and multiple listings without compromising the presentation often too complex to permit adaptation at the global level.

It is left to individual countries to actually prosecute corporations, individuals, and accounting professionals that validate these rules. When the IASB was created in 2001, it did so with the intention of changing its focus. The IASB's objective of having one single set of high-quality global standards to meet the worldwide aim of comprehensible, transparent and reliable financial statements would be rendered pointless if the auditing firms did not apply rigorous, high-quality global auditing standards to ensure that a fair presentation is given in these statements. The Securities and Exchange Committee played a large role in the creation of the new standards board in the hopes that it would be able to accept financial statements prepared under their rules. But there is still a very long way to go before we reach the world-wide accounting standards that the IASB was formed to create. After January 1, 2005, listed companies domiciled in those and other EU countries are required to use IFRS. In particular, its adoption by the European Union has made commerce more uniform throughout the world. The IASB is committed in its constitution to serving the public interest. Compliance with accounting standards is measured by accounting firms who perform independent audits on the companies. The Constitution reflects a commitment to convergence toward a global financial reporting framework" (Casabona & Shoaf, 2002). "It is evident that the concept of uniformity or standardization has outweighed the notion of harmonizing local reporting. Unfortunately the FASB and the IASB were not able to resolve all of the differences between them.

It is essential that users of financial reports or investment decision makers be supplied with relevant and standard financial reports which have been regulated and hence standardized. For example, a company which wants to attract investment finance can not make the necessary judgment of how much information is necessary and what form it need take so, it couldn't take the actions necessary to attract investors and may bankrupt. The first one is "Comparability"; financial statements must allow people to compare one company with another one and evaluate the management's performance without spending time and money adjusting them to a common format and common accounting treatments. So , when there is a need for a change in accounting standard the ASB prepare and publish a draft standard called the FRED (Financial Reporting Exposure Draft). Because all this standards and regulations exist accountants have to treat every company in the same way. If the accountancy profession permitted companies experiencing similar events to produce financial reports that disclosed markedly different results simply because of a freedom to select different accounting policies they would lose all of their credibility. After the publishing of these drafts the comments from the public is invited and in the light of these comments the FRED is changed (or unchanged). The last thing that the standards have to supply is "discipline". Standards are for general-purpose and sometimes they fail to respond to user's and the firm's needs. The second and the most important regulatory body is the accounting profession. If all accounting methods were standardized, two organizations which began the year with same balance sheets and which made the same transactions during the year, they would report the same balance sheets and the same profit and loss account at the end of the year.

Standards and regulations

Different countries have developed their own accounting principles over time, making international comparisons of companies difficult. To ensure uniformity and comparability between financial statements prepared by different companies, a set of guidelines and rules are used. Commonly referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), these set of guidelines provide the basis in the preparation of financial statements.

Recently there has been a push towards standardizing accounting rules made by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB"). IASB develops International Financial Reporting Standards that have been adopted by Australia, Canada and the European Union (for publicly quoted companies only), are under consideration in South Africa and other countries. The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board has made a commitment to converge the U.S. GAAP and IFRS over time.

财务报告的目的——Purpose of financial statements

"The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions." Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable. Reported assets, liabilities and equity are directly related to an organization's financial position. Reported income and expenses are directly related to an organization's financial performance.

Financial statements are intended to be understandable by readers who have "a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and who are willing to study the information diligently." Financial statements may be used by users for different purposes:

Owners and managers require financial statements to make importantbusiness decisions that affect its continued operations. Financial analysis is then performed on these statements to provide management with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are also used as part of management's annual report to the stockholders.

Employees also need these reports in making collective bargaining agreements (CBA) with the management, in the case of labour unions or for individuals in discussing their compensation, promotion and rankings.

Prospective investors make use of financial statements to assess the viability of investing in a business. Financial analyses are often used by investors and are prepared by professionals (financial analysts), thus providing them with the basis for making investment decisions.

Financial institutions (banks and other lending companies) use them to decide whether to grant a company with fresh working capital or extend debt securities (such as a long-term bank loan or debentures) to finance expansion and other significant expenditures.

Government entities (tax authorities) need financial statements to ascertain the propriety and accuracy of taxes and other duties declared and paid by a company.

Vendors who extend credit to a business require financial statements to assess the creditworthiness of the business.

Media and the general public are also interested in financial statements for a variety of reasons.

Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities of a business, person, or other entity. In British English, including United Kingdom company law, financial statements are often referred to as accounts, although the term financial statements is also used, particularly by accountants.

Financial statements provide an overview of a business or person's financial condition in both short and long term. All the relevant financial information of a business enterprise, presented in a structured manner and in a form easy to understand, are called the financial statements. There are four basic financial statements:

Balance sheet: also referred to as statement of financial position or condition, reports on a company's assets, liabilities, and Ownership equity at a given point in time.

Income statement: also referred to as Profit and Loss statement (or a "P&L"), reports on a company's income, expenses, and profits over a period of time. Profit & Loss account provide information on the operation of the enterprise. These include sale and the various expenses incurred during the processing state.

Statement of retained earnings: explains thechanges in a company's retained earnings over the reporting period.

Statement of cash flows: reports on a company's cash flow activities, particularly its operating, investing and financing activities.

For large corporations, these statements are often complex and may include an extensive set of notes to the financial statements and management discussion and analysis. The notes typically describe each item on the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement in further detail. Notes to financial statements are considered an integral part of the financial statements.

Conclusions

In the present global market it is extremely important to have global standard on accounting to establish uniformity, comparability and transparency in financial statements from different firms from different countries.