Accrual Accounting and Budgeting Systems Issues in Australian Governments

Much confusion has resulted from the adoption of two accrual accounting and budgeting systems by Australian governments — the Government Finance Statistics system and the Australian Accounting Standards system — as each reports vastly different results. Which set of results should be believed and approved by parliament? Further, termination of the former cash accounting system has deprived governments of important information. The systems are examined here, and use of an enhanced GFS system, which incorporates the cash system, is recommended.     

我国政府预算与会计引入权责发生制的思考

我国政府预算管理与政府会计引入权责发生制适应了市场经济体制下政府职能转变多方面的要求，有利于建立一个健全透明的政府预算和会计体系，进而达到实现公共资源优化配置、控制财政支出、有效评价政府绩效、防范财政风险和提高政府持续发展能力的目标。     

Accrual Output-Based Budgeting Systems in Australia — A Great Leap Backwards?

The widespread and increasing adoption of accrual output-based budgeting (AOBB) systems has often been preceded by considerable rhetorical fanfare. However, little convincing evidence has been produced to support claims made in favour of this budgeting technique. This paper argues that idealised portrayals of AOBB systems are unlikely to reflect operational reality, and that there are grounds for concern that in some jurisdictions what is painted as a reform may in fact be a retrograde step.     

On the Stewardship and Valuation Implications of Accrual Accounting Systems

In this paper we explore the role of accruals in determining “earnings quality” from both a stewardship and a valuation perspective. We show that the valuation and stewardship qualities of accrual accounting are maximized by either an “aggressive” or a “conservative” accrual strategy. Furthermore, accrual strategy choices can be delegated to management as it does not benefit by implementing a strategy that is not in the best interests of the shareholders. We also investigate the implications of accrual strategies for standard empirical measures of “earnings quality”: regression coefficients and R²s from price‐earnings and market‐to‐book regressions. We show that such measures respond differently, and in some cases adversely, to the kind of strategies that make accounting constructs more correlated with the underlying economic activities of firms.     

Application of Accrual Accounting in the Australian Public Sector – Rhetoric or Reality

This paper presents a contextual. historical analysis of recent accrual accounting developments in the Australian Public Sector (APS). It takes a critical stance in that it questions the accrual accounting developments on a number of grounds. The paper examines changes in public sector financial management and accountability in four distinct settings, being: accrual financial reporting, accrual management systems, whole of government reporting, and accrual based budgeting. The findings show that already in Australia accrual accounting has made significant encroachments into some areas of annual financial and budget reporting. This influx has meant that terms such as 'deficit', 'debt', 'liabilities', 'operating results', 'assets', etc. have begun to change in meaning, which it is argued has important implications for the current process of transformation of aspects of the APS.     

Accrual Accounting for Performance Evaluation

This paper examines alternative accrual accounting rules from an incentive and control perspective. For a range of common production, financing and investment decisions we consider alternative asset valuation rules. The criterion for distinguishing among these rules is that the corresponding performance measure should provide managers with robust incentives to make present value maximizing decisions. Such goal congruence is shown to require intertemporal matching of revenues and expenses, though the specific form of matching needed for control purposes generally differs from GAAP. The practitioner oriented literature on economic profit plans (EPP) has made various, and at times conflicting, recommendations regarding adjustments to the accounting rules used for external financial reporting. Our goal congruence approach provides a framework for comparing and evaluating these recommendations.     

Accrual Output‐Based Budgeting Systems in Australia — A Great Leap Backwards?

The widespread and increasing adoption of accrual output-based budgeting (AOBB) systems has often been preceded by considerable rhetorical fanfare. However, little convincing evidence has been produced to support claims made in favour of this budgeting technique. This paper argues that idealised portrayals of AOBB systems are unlikely to reflect operational reality, and that there are grounds for concern that in some jurisdictions what is painted as a reform may in fact be a retrograde step.     

Accrual accounting and Australian fiscal policy

Australian governments have recently moved from cash accounting to accrual accounting. Accrual accounting has been accompanied at the national government level by the introduction of a new key fiscal policy measure: the ‘fiscal balance’. This paper explains and evaluates this new fiscal measure. It concludes that, given the present fiscal policy of the Australian government, fiscal balance is a superior fiscal policy measure to the ‘cash’ budget balance measure which it replaced. However, from the alternative ‘golden rule’ policy standpoint, fiscal balance is not a meaningful fiscal policy measure — although its stock counterpart, net financial liabilities, certainly is.     

The Changing Landscape of Accrual Accounting

A fundamental property of accrual accounting is to smooth temporary timing fluctuations in operating cash flows, indicating an inherent negative correlation between accruals and cash flows. We show that the overall correlation between accruals and cash flows has dramatically declined in magnitude over the past half century and has largely disappeared in more recent years. The adjusted R ² from regressing (changes in) accruals on (changes in) cash flows drops from about 70% (90%) in the 1960s to near zero (under 20%) in more recent years. In exploring potential reasons for the observed attenuation, we find that increases in non‐timing‐related accrual recognition, as proxied by one‐time and nonoperating items and the frequency of loss firm‐years, explain the majority of the overall decline. On the other hand, temporal changes in the matching between revenues and expenses, and the growth of intangible‐intensive industries play only a limited role in explaining the observed attenuation. Finally, the relative decline of the timing role of accruals does not appear to be associated with an increase in the asymmetrically timely loss recognition role.     

National Accounting, Government Budgeting and the Accounting Discipline

National accounting and government budgeting include two kinds of financial reporting that are not influenced by, but have an increasing influence on, the accounting discipline. The government budget has changed, over the last sixty years, from a financial statement that was recognisably part of the accounting discipline to one in which national accounting and government budgeting have the dominant influence. There were early attempts to reconcile national accounting and the discipline but these have largely disappeared. Although the three forms of accounting measure the same phenomena, each is different in fundamental ways, in terms of both relevance and reliability.     

我国政府会计权责制改革初探

随着“新公共管理运动”的兴起,改革政府会计引入权责发生制逐渐成为世界上许多国家的共识.而我国经过30多年的改革开放,市场经济环境已经发生了巨大变化,尤其是政府职能的转换、公共财政体制的改革、政府绩效评价制度的建设等,均对反映政府经济活动的政府会计信息提出了更高的要求,实行政府会计改革、引入权责制的呼声也日益高涨.本文从...     

Developing an Accounting Information Systems Course in Australian Tertiary Institutions

The objectives of this exploratory study are: (1) to ascertain the views of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) practitioners and academics from tertiary institutions in Australia as to which topics should be included in an AIS course, and (2) to attempt to identify a common core of topics as the basis for the design of an AIS course. The study was based on an expert opinion survey covering all tertiary institutions and all the “Big Eight” chartered accounting firms in Australia. The results of our survey provide a useful basis for drawing up the contents of an AIS course, and a benchmark against which the appropriateness of the topics in an existing AIS course may be verified.     

权责发生制在企业会计核算中的应用状况及其分析

<正>企业单位以权责发生制为基础进行会计核算似乎是一个很简单的事实。大多数企业单位会计人员也都知道在会计核算时应该遵循这项基本会计原则,但现实中,根据我们的观察,权责发生制在企业会计核算中的应用状况却并不理想,大部分企业,尤其中小企业在会计核算过程中没有严格遵循权责发生制原则,有的甚至因此而严重影响到提供会计报表的质量。有些财务人员并不认为,没有按照权责发生制开展会计核算工作是一个严重问题。是什么原因导致企业在会计核算过程中偏离了权责发生制原则?本文拟就工作过程中的一些体会来谈谈此问题。     

Accrual Accounting,Informational Sufficiency,and Equity Valuation

This paper studies accrual accounting and equity valuation in the context of a firm that makes repeated and overlapping investments in productive capacity. The analysis identifies a particular accrual accounting (depreciation) rule that is termed replacement cost accounting because the book value of existing capacity assets is set equal to the value that such assets would have if a competitive market were to exist for used assets. It is shown that replacement cost accounting aggregates past investment decisions of the firm without a loss of value‐relevant information. The intrinsic value of the firm can then be expressed as a function of current accounting data and certain parameters of the firm’s operating environment. Further, it is shown that replacement cost accounting is essentially the only accounting rule with this informational sufficiency property.     

Preconditions for Successful Implementation of Accrual Accounting in Central Government

A number of national governments, including the UK, have successfully implemented a change to accrual accounting. But the change should not be regarded as an end in itself: it will not solve the problems that arise where inadequate cash accounting systems exist; it will not improve control or management where inadequate control and poor management exist; nor will it improve external audit or the legislature's control over the executive. Before this reform is introduced, cash accounting should be robust, control should be secure, external audit should be functioning well and the legislature should have an ability to call the executive to account. This article sets out preconditions that governments need to meet to ensure that the full benefits of accrual accounting are achieved.     

Budgetary Accounting in National Governments: Anglo versus American Accounting

Abstract: This paper offers an understanding of the US federal budgeting and accounting system, in context. The system is unique among the major Anglophone countries, in being both cash‐based and obligation‐based, thereby providing what can be termed a polar opposite case to an accrual‐based system, the technicalities of which the paper explains. The paper uses, as a comparator, the UK government's cash‐based and accrual‐based system, also in context. This shows that the US system is primarily a system of control by the legislature, whereas the UK's is primarily one of control by the executive. The paper analyses the long history of institutions of the US federal government defending the obligation basis in the face of accrual‐based assaults; the obligation basis has remained resilient.