...Principles-Based Versus Rules-Based Accounting Karla Law Liberty University Accounting 301-B07 Abstract Principles-based and rules-based accounting systems each have their advantages and disadvantages. When carefully examining these two accounting systems, it is clear to see that neither is better than the other. However, many individuals have the misconception that principle-based accounting is better. This is due to the fact that in recent years, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued several standards that are considered more principles-based than rule-based. Nonetheless, that does not mean that principles-based accounting is better. Therefore, this paper will examine the pros, cons, ethics and virtues of both rules-based accounting and principles-based accounting. Keywords: GAAP; FASB; SEC; Principles-Based Accounting; Rules-Based Accounting Introduction Accounting can be a very confusing and intimidating subject for many individuals. Reason being, is that accounting has its’ own language per say. It is imminent that one learns the key terms to this challenging subject in order to obtain a better understanding of the matter. For starters it is key that one learns the differences and similarities of principles-based accounting and rules-based accounting. Once gaining that knowledge it is important to know what the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are and what effect they have on principle-based and rules-based accounting. As...
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...Assignment Week 4 Code of Ethics Name Devry University Accounting 525 Veliota Drakopoulou, PhD 01/30/2016 Abstract The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has made a Code of Professional Conduct that establish an ethical standard for public accountants in the US. The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US. GAAP) wants to collaborate with IFAC in order to resettle the principle accounting standards, but the rules and the ethics for professional and the financial reporting statements make a big difference. According to the article “It's Time for Principles-Based Accounting Ethics”, the American Institute of certified public accountants (AICPA) established standards that public accountants in the United States need to follow. The article argues for this code of conduct to be replaced with a code of ethics, which the authors believe to be superior to the rules-based standards currently in place, and attempts to present a solution by centering the AICPA code rules around different virtues such as objectivity, integrity, inquisitiveness, loyalty, and trustworthiness and analyzing the rules-based standards. This paper will argue whether the authors are correct in stating that a code of ethics should do more than establish minimum acceptable standards; describe the five cardinal virtues of professional accountants; differentiate between the rules-based and principles-based accounting standards; and finally compare and contrast the AICPA’s code...
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...Ethics Paper HCS/405 December 12, 2011 Professor Ethics Paper When we talk about financial planning we have to take step back, look at the whole picture, and understand how it begins. Financial Management is the key essential in an organization when you plan financially. Financial Management is the building blocks for all accounting records and business transactions that occur. We cannot forget that decisions are based on the organizations fiscal objectives others are based on general accounting principles. So to better understand you must ask the question of “Is the financial management of the organization strong and how is the financial reporting records validity”? When we think of financial management we have to start with the basic framework of any accounting structure and that would be the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) is the hierarchy of accounting standards. As we look at these accounting standards, the GAAP has a long list that follows such as; standards, conventions and the rules of the organizations accounting follows when during summarizing all transactions for the financial statement. Then we have what is known as the third parties these should be free of any type of bias and inconsistency without debate or the GAAP standards will follow. With any organization the “general accepted accounting principles are guidelines precisely, are a group objectives and conventions that have been set up permanently over time to set how financial...
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...Ethics in Accounting Linh Pham University of Mount Olive Author Note This research paper was prepared for ACC483, taught by Professor Henry Singletary. Ethics in Accounting Ethics in Accounting has recently attracted a lot of attention in the field of business. Based on my knowledge, ethics in accounting are the behavior or actions that doesn’t allow for intentionally inaccurate and false in accounting practices. This is quite complex because we not only have to follow the accounting rules, but also need to make decisions based on the moral or ethics principles. However, ethics varies by cultures, individual perceptions, religion. For example, what seems about right in one country could be totally wrong in another country. Or what you think is right may actually be wrong. Therefore, it’s really difficult for us to follow the same ethics principle and apply those principles to ethics in accounting practices. In this paper, I will bring a thorough discussion of how to make accounting behaviors become more ethical. Ethics in Accounting is what we really need to take into our consideration in this era, especially after the financial and accounting failures of many big firms such as Enron, WorldCom, AOL, Global Crossing, Tyco, Lehman and AIG. As a matter of fact, experts and analysts are trying to find out the root causes of these failures. It is also significant to realize that more and more fraud cases are detected in this era. Therefore, there is a big question that...
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...Ethics Paper Health Care Financial Accounting HCS405 Ethics Paper Financial Management is an important part of today's health care finance plans. Several financial decisions are done on a daily basis for all accounting records and even the business transactions that occur. Some of these decisions are made according with the organiation's fiscal objectives (even if some are done following generally accepted accounting principles). The question I really like to ask then is "How good are the health care organizations' financial management and do they have accurate financial report records"? GAAP Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) usually are regarded as the set of guidelines for financial accounting and the jurisdiction of every accounting standards. Following these accounting guidelines the GAAP includes several things like conventions, standards and the different rules the organization's accountant must follow during a copy summarization of all the transactions and in doing the work in general like preparing all the financial statements. The third parties involved with these reports must rely on the stated information to be exempted from all inconsistency or bias without any debate. These could also ensure that all GAAP standards are being followed. All business currently states that, "the generally accepted accounting principles serves as guidelines precisely, a group of objectives...
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...Accounting ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics and is part ofbusiness ethics and human ethics, the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. It is an example of professional ethics. Accounting introduced by Luca Pacioli, and later expanded by government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. Ethics are taught in accounting courses at higher education institutions as well as by companies training accountants and auditors. Due to the diverse range of accounting services and recent corporate collapses, attention has been drawn to ethical standards accepted within the accounting profession.[2] These collapses have resulted in a widespread disregard for the reputation of the accounting profession.[3] To combat the criticism and prevent fraudulent accounting, various accounting organizations and governments have developed regulations and remedies for improved ethics among the accounting profession. ------------------------------------------------- Importance of ethics The nature of the work carried out by accountants and auditors requires a high level of ethics. Shareholders, potential shareholders, and other users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company as they can use this information to make an informed decision about investment.[4] They rely on the opinion of the accountants who prepared the statements, as well as the auditors that verified it, to present a true and fair...
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...Ethics Paper Ethics Paper Financial Management is one important part of health care financial planning. Many financial decisions are made on a day to day basis from all the accounting records and all the business transactions which occur. Some are the decisions made according to the organizations fiscal objectives although some are made on generally accepted accounting principles). So the question I would ask is this “How good is the financial management of our health care organizations and do they hold a good financial reporting records”? GAAP The generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are considered as the framework of guidelines for the financial accounting and jurisdiction of all accounting standards. With these accounting standards the GAAP includes such things like standards, conventions and the rules the organization accountant follows when during a copy and summarizing all the transactions when doing the work on preparing the financial statements. All third parties that are involved with the reports must then rely on the information to be free from all bias and inconsistency without debate or not so GAAP standards are followed. All business states that, “generally accepted accounting principles are guidelines precisely, are a group objectives and conventions that have been set...
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...Ethics is more than simply the pursuit of goods; is also about fidelity to ethically acceptable relationships. A crucial relationship is that of a professional towards his or her client. Because accounting is a skill that demands expertise, and because accountants have clients’ who depend on that expertise, accounting can be included among the professions. Accounting ethics in the field of accounting refers to the guidelines (consisting of judgments and moral values) that a professional needs to follow while practicing accounting. People using the service of accounting professionals rely on their professional competency to take decisions and in the process also relies on the ethics followed by them. Roles an Accountant can fulfill Although accountant’s primary purpose is to present a picture of an organization’s financial affairs, accountants play many other roles: 1) Auditing- the most important role is the role of an independent accountant (auditor). The auditors function is that the organizations estimate are based on formulas and those formulas are applied consistently year to year- thus to ensure reasonable and consistent application. 2) Managerial Accounting- In house role of accountant is to give most accurate picture of the organizations economic state so that company can flourish. The account’s main responsibility is to the company, but if the companies’ board, managers and share-holders are at cross purpose, the accountant is conflicted. This conflict forms the ground...
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...Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility Introduction Corporate Responsibility or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a term coined in the previous century in order to define the social responsibilities of corporate heads and their corporations in securing the trust of its community by determining and fulfilling its roles towards the betterment of society. Simply following the rules set down by legislation would not do; corporate authorities and workers alike were demanded to be ethically inclined and considerate of how their actions affect society in general, both as residents and providers within their immediate communities. But both ethics and responsibility are vague terms, and prior to the 19th to 20th centuries, neither of them has been attached to business entities like corporations. Business ethics and corporate responsibilities, then, are much vaguer terms in that they entail more than simple and faithful provision of goods and services to people; some may even think that corporate giants and ethics do not exactly go together, or even share a superficial partnership. But these revolutionary concepts have played a major role in redefining corporations in the 21st century; these conceptual standards remain strong factors towards corporate determination of company action and assessment of overall company performance today. This paper will discuss business ethics and corporate responsibilities as sister terms, but also as discrete concepts, both of which...
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...Reporting Practices and Ethics Paper January 28, 2013 HCS405 Robert Hammer Financial management is very important to today’s healthcare financial plans. Companies are not able to function without proper financial planning. It is important that all the accounting records are kept up to date so they follow specific guidelines. This helps keep track of how a company is doing to make sure that they are aware of where their money is going so that they know if they have a profit or a loss. This can allow them to change things around so that they are not losing money. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) is a set of financial guidelines used for financial accounting. The GAAP sets guidelines for preparing financial statements, setting standards for organizations accountants. Third party accountants can use these statements and to determine how a company is doing. The third party is used to prevent any bias. According to All Business "the generally accepted accounting principles serves as guidelines precisely, a group of objectives and verified conventions that were permanently set up over time to standardize how financial statements must be prepared or presented” (FASAB, 2010). There will always be differences among organizations so normally a corporate behavior would be based on the ethics implemented by the organization or corporation. Most organizations focuses on the organization's surroundings, human and social rights...
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...INTRODUCTION For more than a decade now, there has been a movement around the world to develop a common set of high-quality accounting standards that can be applied globally. Comparable accounting around the world, if high standards are instilled and application was consistent, would make markets more efficient by letting investors compare companies from different countries. In particular, the issue of American adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is of importance because IFRS standards are used by companies in many countries around the world, including all the countries in the European Union, and some say that the best hope for assuring that the international standards are uniformly followed would be having The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), responsible for deciding what accounting rules apply in the United States, involved in enforcing them (Norris, 2012). But, efforts have been under way for years to accomplish this convergence and in a number of areas they have been unable to reach agreements. Because of the expansion of commerce worldwide by many businesses, other issues have arose in this process, such as the need for common global regulation of banks and a need for a global set of ethical standards. In the 1970s, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FPCA) sent a chill throughout the business community by criminalizing the act of making payments outside the US in pursuit of contracts (George, 2008). Making payments to obtain business is...
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...Review of Accounting Ethics Kelvin Darden Strayer University ACC 557 Darren Tennyuk May 5, 2013 Assignment 1: Review of Accounting Ethics The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accounts (NZICA) represents over 33,000 members in New Zealand and overseas. The organization audits private companies and public companies that are members of the organization (Graham, 1960). In October 2012, the organization was found to be practicing breaches of accounting with its members when an employee of the organization was found investing in different companies using client’s money. The loans were supposed to be short-term loans but it turned out they were not, this was discovered after complaints from clients. 1. Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior. Provide support for your answer. In recent times the NZICA has faced several cases of accounting ethical breaches. There were unpredictable increases and collapses of chartered accountants. From every corner, voices rose demanding accountability, demanding tighter regulation and unethical practices to be brought to justice. Clearly, those at fault should have been punished. However, in order for ethical principles to apply it must be shown that the institution is inherently moral or ethically responsible (Graham, 1960). Secondly, an adequate discussion of what accounting ethics...
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...Malaysia ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: CONTRIBUTION OF THE ISLAMIC PRINCIPLE OF MAêLAîAH Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (e-mail: abdulrahim@iiu.edu.my) ABSTRACT There is a growing concern over the apparently low moral standards of some accountants and an increasing number of academics who suggest that the education system should bear some of the blame. Ethical components in accounting education have been found to be insufficient and there is a lack of emphasis on humanizing accountants. The objective of this paper is firstly to address the importance of ethics in accounting education and evaluate the development of literature in this area. Secondly, the paper argues for the direction of accounting education to focus on religious ethical development and values in developing accounting ethics. The paper argues that the Islamic worldview and ethics perspective can provide some insights into the process of developing a more humanized and ethical accountant. This paper proposes the Islamic legal principle of ma§laúah as an ethical filtering mechanism to be taught as part of the ethical accounting education process. This is aimed at providing awareness to accounting students and accountants on the process to resolve ethical conflicts. The study of Islamic worldview and ethics provides ...
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...Reporting Practices and Ethics Paper Teresa Lucas HCS/405 04-13-2015 Elizabeth Caissie The key to understanding finance is learning the four elements of financial management and their relationship to one another. It is important that all financial records are up to date because this helps keep track of how an organization, so they know if they have a profit or a loss. There are four elements of financial management are planning, controlling, organizing and decision making. The first one is planning it allows an organization to set goals and guidelines to ensure success and accomplishments in set goals. The second element of financial management is controlling. Controlling allows an organization to ensure that all rules and regulations within the organization are being followed. The third element of financial management is organizing. Organization is important because it guarantees that the organization is working at its best and it is organized while directing the medical office to work and fix problems that may come. The last element of financial management is decision making. All decision relies on information, and evaluation. Decision making works along with the planning, controlling and organizing...
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...Reporting Practices and Ethics Megan HCS/405 30 June, 2014 Reporting Practices and Ethics The accounting staff is a very large part of the healthcare industry. Accounting staff code and bill products and different services that are offered at that location and maintaining an ethical culture is imperative. There are accounting principles and standards and procedures that are part of the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The GAAP principles have four key elements: Planning, Controlling, Organizing and Directing and Decision Making. Ethical Components and GAAP Accounting is the backbone of any medical organization because of it enormous impact on running as a cost effective organization. Every organization runs on its own set of principles and goals, but most are certainly guided by different federal, state, and government laws. There are accounting principles and standards and procedures that are part of the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The GAAP principles have four key elements: Planning, Controlling, Organizing and Directing and Decision Making. The GAAP principle of Planning includes ways of setting goals and guidelines for the future of the organization. The principle of Controlling involves ensuring that planned goals are on track with previous goals and also that there is room to fix any issues that may arise. Organization and directing is to make sure that the organizations full potential is being provided...
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