模拟财务报告的编报和监管

模拟财务信息的编报起源于上市公司发生或即将发生重大资产重组时，按照重组后的业务和资产架构“模拟”历史时期的财务报表，以对外提供与公司未来价值更相关的决策信息。如果公司是从原企业分离出来的，也应以现有主体的架构编报以前期间的模拟财务报表。 “新经济”时代来临后，模拟财务信息被美国上市公司创造性地运用于收益公报(earnings press releases)。席卷大洋彼岸的会计危机，使众多质疑的目光集聚到这个信息披露的特殊角……     

表外披露性质解读及其启示:剩余控制权视角

本文从剩余控制权视角对表外披露进行解读:从信息生产和提供来看,经营者会计信息的剩余控制权更多地体现在表外披露信息上;从市场监管来看,表外披露规定体现了各国证券监管机构对证券市场的剩余监管权。这对理解现行财务报告模式及其发展有重要的意义。     

Financial Statements Insurance

The fact that auditors are paid by the companies they audit creates an inherent conflict of interest. We analyze how the provision of financial statements insurance could eliminate this conflict of interest and properly align the incentives of auditors with those of shareholders. We first show that when the benefits to obtaining funding are sufficiently large, the existing legal and regulatory regime governing financial reporting (and auditing) results in low quality financial statements. Consequently, the financial statements of firms are misleading and firms that yield a low rate‐of‐return (low fundamental value) are over‐funded relative to firms characterized by a high rate‐of‐return (high fundamental value). We present a mechanism whereby companies would purchase financial statements insurance that provides coverage to investors against losses suffered as a result of misrepresentation in financial reports. The insurance premia that companies pay for the coverage would be publicized. The insurers appoint and pay the auditors who attest to the accuracy of the financial statements of the prospective insurance clients. For a given level of coverage firms announcing lower premia would distinguish themselves in the eyes of the investors as companies with higher quality financial statements relative to those with higher premia. Every company would be eager to pay lower premia (for a given level of coverage) resulting in a flight to high audit quality. As a result, when financial statements insurance is available and the insurer hires the auditor, capital is provided to the most efficient firms.     

The Changing Face of the Auditor's Report: Implications for Suppliers and Users of Financial Statements

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) recently finalised several significant and controversial reforms of the audit reporting model. The reforms are in response to long‐standing criticisms about the form and content of the existing audit report. This study critically examines the current audit report reforms and their implications. In particular, we investigate the perceptions of prominent stakeholders in respect of these reforms and then evaluate the implications of the reforms on the informational value of the audit report, audit quality and audit costs. The findings suggest that the changes to the audit report are of significant informational value to users, while the implications for audit quality are unclear. Indeed, the changes would increase audit costs and potentially the legal liability of auditors. This appraisal is timely given the efforts made by the IAASB in commissioning these reforms to enhance the relevance and informational value of the audit report.     

Simulation of Controlled Financial Statements

Many accounting and finance studies investigate the time-series properties of historical accounting records from corporate financial statements. Some of them have recognized the potential benefits of using disaggregated monthly accounting records. Disaggregated data are beneficial because one can use more data points within a relatively short period of time, thus reducing the chance of structural change. The added data points and reduction of the number of variables needed to accommodate potential structural changes can enhance the statistical power of any subsequent analysis. The use of disaggregated data may also improve the predictive ability of time-series analytic approaches. In order to systematically assess various financial indicators and investigate the effects of different organizational characteristics, a large number of monthly statements with certain predetermined characteristics are desirable. However, such statements are not readily available. At best, monthly statements can be obtained from a few volunteer companies. Under this circumstance, simulation of controlled financial statements seems to be a reasonable solution. This research explores a methodology for simulating complete monthly financial statements based on actual company quarterly financial statements. The methodology incorporates the interrelationships among accounting numbers and the effects of exogenous variables. To test the empirical validity and whether the monthly results derived from the quarterly data can accurately track the real monthly figures, we compare the results simulated by the proposed method and those generated by a naive random walk model. We test both complete financial statements for three companies and sales statistics from the retail industry. The results of both tests demonstrate the superiority of the method proposed by this study over a naive random walk model. The proposed simulation method provides an opportunity for researchers to examine the time-series properties of financial statement elements by using the monthly data of a large number of companies. In addition, the simulation approach allows researchers to perform cross sectional comparisons on companies with different characteristics (e.g., sales behavior patterns and degrees of stability) in their financial and economic activities. Moreover, it enables the researchers to manipulate some of these characteristics to test various hypotheses.     

财务会计报告编制中的目标导向

<企业会计准则一基本准则>第四条对财务会计报告的目标作出了规定.准则明确了财务会计报告是从企业财务状况、经营成果和现金流量三个方面提供能够反映企业管理层受托责任履行情况和有助于财务会计报告使用者作出经济决策的财务会计信息,这一目标无论是对财务会计报告编制还是注册会计师的财务会计报告鉴证,都起着核心指导作用.财务会计报告编制过程中大量的专业判断、编制形成的财务会计信息的信息质量保障以及注册会计师作为财务会计信息公允性鉴证者的鉴证风险控制,都需要以财务会计报告的目标为导向,始终不忘财务会计报告为使用者提供决策有用信息这一根本目标.     

Disclosure of Financial Commitments

A casualty of the transfer of disclosure rules from regulations to the Corporations Law to Australian Accounting Standards (and the later harmonisation of disclosure requirements with IFRS) has been the loss of a rule that required disclosure of off-balance sheet financial commitments and details of when those commitments would fall due.     

Climate‐related Risk and Financial Statements: Implications for Regulators,Preparers, Auditors and Users

Interest among investors in understanding climate‐related risk from companies’ management has increased in recent years. Despite this, climate‐related risks are currently predominantly discussed outside the financial statements, if at all. However, as set out in the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB)/International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) Practice Statement 2 Making Materiality Judgements (APS/PS 2), qualitative external factors such as the industry in which the entity operates and investor expectations may make such risks ‘material’ and warrant disclosures when preparing financial statements, regardless of their numerical impact. The AASB and the AUASB expect that directors, preparers and auditors will be considering APS/PS 2 when preparing and auditing financial statements. This paper provides an outline of the guidance and motivation behind the issuance of the bulletin on climate‐related risk disclosures, key takeaways and recommendations, and the AASB's and AUASB's suggestions on the type of evidence that would be useful for standard setters.     

Information Quality of Interim Financial Statements

Expressing concern about the Canadian capital market environment, Boritz (2006) suggested that the accounting and auditing profession may be paying limited attention to quarterly reports. This study investigates whether fourth‐quarter adjustments are significantly different from the previous three, thereby limiting the reliability or faithful representation of the firms' results for each quarter. This study includes four years (2003–2006) of quarterly financial information of 353 Canadian public companies. Our results indicate that the volatility of net income in each of the first three quarters is considerably lower than in the final quarter. While lower volatility can improve predictability, the resulting relevance may be limited. The low volatility of reported earnings in the first three quarters suggests that either earnings management is taking place or that management may not be exercising sufficient care at the end of each of the first three quarters on the measurements that generally accepted accounting principles call for and readers of financial statements expect. This could result in quarterly financial statements that do not faithfully represent the underlying resources and obligations of the reporting firms at the end of the quarter, or the firm's performance during the quarter. Our findings support Boritz's proposition for increased audit requirements for interim reports and changes in the approach to the annual audit to integrate it more closely with interim financial reporting.     

Assisting Inexperienced Accountants in Developing Financial Statements

Finnish accounting regulation allows firms a lot of discretion in affecting net profit, e.g. via tax depreciation on fixed assets and changes in untaxed reserves. The Tax Authorities use the net profit as a basis when calculating taxes for the period. This means that tax planning plays a central role in developing financial statements. The planning requires a lot of expertise and is often a difficult and time-consuming task, especially for less experienced accountants. The author has built a knowledge-based system to aid in developing the financial statements for limited companies. The usability of the system for inexperienced accountants has been tested and the system and the test conducted is described. The results of the test show that the system is of considerable help for inexperienced accountants.     

对会计报表附注信息披露制度的探讨

本文在分析会计报表附注信息披露制度建设现状的基础上 ,对会计报表附注信息披露制度的统一和完整 ;会计报表附注信息披露中企业性质的特殊考虑、成本与效益、公开与保密 ;以及会计报表附注信息披露制度的改革等问题提出了若干建议。     

Failing Faithful Representations of Financial Statements: Issues in Reporting Financial Instruments

Both the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the codified accounting standards (ASC) for the US GAAP categorize hedging relationships as falling into several buckets. The two buckets of relevance in this paper are (i) hedging the volatility of fair values, and (ii) hedging the volatility of future cash flow. In this paper, I argue that at least three accounting treatments of derivatives and hedging lead to creating serious distortion of reporting actual transactions, to combining hard and plastic valuations, and to violating adherence to the principle of ‘faithful representation’. The three accounting treatments are as follows: (1) creating the fictional Hypothetical Derivatives Method; (2) allowing for the establishment of purely discretionary valuation adjustments for all over-the-counter derivative assets (Credit Valuation Adjustment) and liabilities (Debt Valuation Adjustment) without any guides or constraints; (3) requiring subjective metaphysical separation of embedded derivatives with the main guide being the management's own perception of the instrument's embodiment of unrelated value and risk generators. To remedy the resulting distortion in financial reporting, significant revisions of certain accounting standards are sorely needed.     

合并会计报表若干理论问题探讨

作为财务会计三大难题之一 ,合并会计报表理论最近几年经历了重大变化。继美国财务会计准则委员会(FASB) 1995年颁布《合并财务报表———政策与程序》征求意见稿拟以主体观念取代母公司观念之后 ,其他发达国家的会计准则制定机构也纷纷对合并报表的编制观念进行反思。我国关于合并报表的规定也面临着修订和完善。基于此 ,本文拟从理论渊源、合并理念两个角度 ,论述合并报表的三种基本观念———所有者观、主体观、母公司观 ,并进行必要的评述。以此为基础 ,本文还将对我国合并会计报表的理论选择进行探讨。     

合并会计报表编制的两个问题

编制合并会计报表是为了综合反映母公司和子公司形成的企业集团的经营成果、财务状况及其变动情况,满足投资者、债权人、政府部门和其他相关报表使用者的需要。笔者就编制合并会计报表实际工作中遇到的两个问题予以探讨。子公司超额亏损在合并会计报表中的处理1.对于子公司经营不善已资不抵债,并且不具有持续经营能力的情况根据财政部《合并会计报表暂行规定》(财会字[1995]11号)和《关于合并会计报表合并范围请示的复函》(财会字[1996]2号)的相关规定,不具有持续经营能力的子公司不纳入公司合并会计报表范围,在这种情况下不存在合并会计报…     

超额亏损在合并会计报表中的会计处理

本文试图对已经资不抵债但仍继续经营的子公司的合并报表问题作一探索 ,以解决目前已经较为普遍存在的这类问题。该文首先分析了企业的现状、合并报表中存在的问题 ,针对不同情况下母公司对这类子公司承担责任的不同 ,提出了母公司对资不抵债子公司不同的合并处理方法