Accountants call it standard costing but there is nothing standard about it at all! Standard signifies something common, but only the methodology remains standard. Accountants agree on more than one standard without agreement on how many. Some accounting textbooks say there are two types of standard, others three, and a few up to five and…
IAS1 [1] tries to describe users of financial statements but fails. They explain three types of user that are not quite identical. This makes the definition unclear. The IAS hides the most precise user in paragraph 7 as part of the definition of ‘material’, a place where one would not search for it. He or…
The very first sentence of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting [1] is clear: “The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (Conceptual Framework) describes the objective of, and the concepts for, general purpose financial reporting.” But Conceptual Framework only states three rather obscure ‘concepts’. Concepts of Capital, Concepts of Capital Maintenance and Measurement Concepts. That’s all!…
The IASB issued an 86 page document in 2010 called Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting [1] which describes the objectives and concepts for general purpose financial reporting. In the second paragraph complication begins: ‘The Conceptual Framework is not a Standard. Nothing in the Conceptual Framework overrides any Standard or any requirement in a Standard.’ Or…
Would you believe that accountants, in an attempt to be open and honest, have had to define exactly what they consider to be a close member of the family? All this is part of what they call a related party. Now of course this has nothing to do with a party in the sense of…