未來的會計和財務報告第二部分彩色的方法[文獻翻譯]

中文 3160 字 本科畢業(yè) 論文 （ 設計 ） 外 文 翻 譯 題 目 全面收益理論的發(fā)展研究 專 業(yè) 會 計 學 外文題目 The future of Accounting and Financial Reporting,Part :The Colorized Approach 外文出處 Accounting Horision 1996（ 6） 外文 作者 Steven M. H. Wallman 1 原文 ： The future of Accounting and Financial Reporting Part :The Colorized Approach In this sequel to an earlier Commentary on the Future of Accounting and Financial Reporting, the author first discusses the importance of accounting and financial reporting to (1)asset, capital and investment allocation, (2) contracting and exposf settling up, and (3) corporatestewardship and monitoring. He then reviews several reasons for the concern that accounting and financial reporting are becoming increasingly less useful, including changing concepts of the traditional Tirm,recognition and measurement difficulties, issues related to the timeliness of financial reports, and limitations associated with current information distribution channels. A refinement tothe current black and white accounting paradigm is suggested to begin to address certain of these concerns, and to quicken the debate on the need and benefits for change. By decreasing the emphasis currently devoted to determining whether a particular item should be recognized, and focusing greater attention on whether the item is relevant and the degree of attestation that may be associated with any related disclosure, a more finely textured colorized accounting model might be developed. The goal of such a system would be to provide more useful information in connection with accounting and financial reporting, while maintaining the current core disclosures. The author provides examples of how the colorized model might operate, discusses limitations of the model, and suggests that greater attention be devoted to refining the current accounting paradigm to meet the needs of users of accounting and financial information better, regardless of whether such a colorized model is ever adopted. The Importance Of Accounting And Financial Reporting From the most generalized perspective, the purpose of accounting and financial reporting is to provide information that is useful to investors, creditors, monitors and others increasingly including employees and major suppliers and customers in making investment, credit, monitoring and other decisions. This general goal may be 2 further defined and analyzed by describing three specific and distinct purposes and functions of financial reporting: (1) asset, capital and investment allocation; (2) contracting and ex post settling-up; and (3) corporate stewardship and monitoring. Determining What to Value: Recognition and Measurement Issues We also should question exactly what it is we are measuring and reporting. As discussed above, historically, the assets and liabilities used to produce wealth were recognized in financial statements at cost and were hard or tangible like plant and equipment. However, the shift to a knowledge-based economy has created or focused increased attention on entirely different categories of assets such as brand names and other soft assets previously mentioned. With certain limited exceptions, such as the purchase of a brand name, these soft assets are not recognized in the financial statements. The primary obstacles relate to valuation difficulties, the inherent uncertainty of any value ultimately determined, and the resulting potential for fraud. As a result of these concerns, we attribute no value in financial reports to something as obviously significant as Disneys Mickey Mouse. This cannot be the correct result for the long-term utility of financial reporting, particularly given the increasing importance of firms with soft assets. Some suggest that the values of these assets are ultimately reflected, implicitly, in the statement of cash fiows or in earnings, and therefore they need not be refiected elsewhere. Unfortunately, however, because it would make life very easy if such an answer were right, the same can be said for all other assets on the balance sheet. Our task then is either to improve the credibility and reliability of soft asset valuations, or to find other creative solutions to the problem not to ignore this fast growing segment of our economy. When to Report? The Timeliness of Financial Reporting The rapid acceleration of events that may significantly affect share values has started to make our system of annual audits and quarterly reports obsolete. Todays annual and even quarterly reports relying on recognized items as the core of the reports do not capture and communicate material developments in sufficient time to 3 meet the markets information needs. Product cycles have shortened,risk management practices have improved and are more prevalent, and products and whole companies become obsolete much more quickly now than ever before. It is hard to obtain a good picture of an3hing that is moving so quickly and changing so often when only snapshots are taken at relatively long intervals.As I mentioned last year, I am not nowsuggesting a system of monthly, weekly, ordaily audits and report filings with the Commission.I am suggesting, though, that overtime we will need to develop a system that fills the need for timely and ultimately realtime financial information. Forward looking information will obviously be an increasingly critical component of the disclosures. A Different Perspective:Color VS. Black And White Background be divided into four broad segments. At the first level we have the financial statements themselves, which focus on recognized items that pertain to the resources (assets) of an entity, the claims to such resources (liabilities and equity) and the results of operations.Within this system, the recognition of items in the financial statements assumes primary standing. To be recognized in financial statements an item must meet each of four criteria: First, the item must meet the definition of an element of those financial statements: It must be an asset, liability or component of equity; Second, the item must be measurahle: It must be susceptible to quantification in monetary units with sufficient reliability; Third, the item must be relevant: It must make a difference to the investment or credit decision; and Finally, the item must be reliable: It must have representational faithfulness, be verifiable and neutral. It is generally expected that the most useful information about assets, liabilities, revenues,expenses and other items of financial statements would be recognized. There is also an expectation that such information would have utility in making capital allocation decisions.That is, it can be used to help predict future cash flows and is comparable across entities. In addition, because such information is viewed as more 4 reliable and is audited, it is viewed as having greater utility in contracting and monitoring.The second subset of financial reporting consists of the notes to the financial statements.The notes are designed to explain information in the financial statements. The final two categories are supplementary information (such as information related to changing prices) and other information supplied by a company (such as managements discussion and analysis). This information adds to the financial statements or the notes.It often includes information that may be relevant but that does not meet all criteria for recognition. It is frequently not subject to third party attestation. The current accounting and financial reporting model works reasonably well for many of the items that are recognized within financial statements. However,the model increasingly is subject to criticism.First, potentially relevant items are omitted because they do not meet recognition criteria (usually due to reliability concerns). Second, items that are less and less useful due to valuation or other concerns are nevertheless included. Finally, it is not always clear why soirie information is included and other information is excluded from financial reports. These concerns are exacerbated by the developments in the general business environmentpreviously discussed. The Alternative Model In response to these concerns, I believe it is time to refine our perspective on financial reporting. We need, in particular, to move away from a model that primarily relies on black and white recognition in the financial statements. We need to move towards a model where financial statements and related disclosures are viewed more as different layers of information just as a finely textured color picture can provide more information than a black and white representation. The model that I am about to describe may be viewed as refining the current system by adding new sets or layers of information. It also refocuses our analysis to de-emphasize recognition and towards providing greater disclosure of useful information. In this model, the primary focus is on providing relevant information, with 5 specification of both the items to be reported and the form and level of assurance of these items. The most relevant and reliably measured items would represent the core of the financial reports the clear black and white, with no shades of gray or color similar to the recognized content of the financial statement items in todays model. Successive outer layers of the financial reporting picture would consist of information that meet some but not all of the requirements of recognition, or that are not as susceptible to verification procedures. Under this approach, instead of starting with the question of whether an item must be recognized in the financial statements, the first question would be whether an item should be part of the firms financial disclosure,with a progression then to a discussion of the appropriate layer in which the item should be reported. Such a framework where the different layers of information could reflect,in essence, different levels of satisfaction of the traditional recognition criteria concepts(e.g., relevance, reliability, measurability),or could refiect entirely different concepts will be useful in progressing beyond the current recognition versus non-recognition debates. Application of this model to the current business environment requires: (1) specification of the additional layers, outside the core financial statements, including the criteria for inclusion of items in one layer versus another,and (2) consideration of how different levels of attestation might attach to information in the various layers. Admittedly, establishing these components of this model is not an easy task. However, for discussion purposes, specification of the differing layers might be based, in part, on existing recognition criteria (as articulated in FASB Concepts Statement No. 5(1984). Distinctions from the Current Model There are several distinctions between the colorized model and the current accounting and financial reporting model. First, as noted above the colorized approach places the emphasis of financial reporting on providing information that is relevant and useful and having a high degree of utility to investment,credit or other decisions as opposed to deciding whether information should be recognized in the 6 financial statements. While recognition is an important concept in this new model, it should be remembered that recognized information is a subset of financial reporting and the goal is to present information that users find useful. With the colorized approach, the primary role of recognition would be in connection with items for which there was general agreement on the high degree of relevance, reliability and measurement for the first or core level of presentation. As the relevance, reliability and measurement of particular items became more or less generally acceptable to financial standard setters and users of information, the core would expand and contract as necessary. But recognition would be de-emphasized in that In sum, the colorized approach is more aligned with the purposes of financial reporting and more compatible with dealing with the d3Tiamic nature of information that is relevant to end-users of financial reporting, than the current black and white system. It allows us to make finer distinctions among various types of information, thereby avoiding the daunting task of determining whether items that are close to the recognition/non-recognition line are in or out of the financial reporting paradigm. Source: Steven M. H. Wallman.The Future of Accounting and Financial Reporting Part ii: The Colorized Approach. Accounting Horision 1996（ 6） 7 譯文 ： 未來的會計和財務報告 第二部分 :彩色的方法 在這部有點像續(xù)評以前有關未來會計與財務報告的文章中 ,作者首先論述了會計與財務報告的重要性 :(1)資產、資金和投資分配間的關系 ,(2)簽訂合同和“事后解決”和 (3)公司的管理和監(jiān)控。然后綜述了有關財務報告越來越缺乏有用性這一會計難點出現的相關原因：包括傳統(tǒng)公司概念的轉變、確認和計量的困難、財務報告的及時性以及當前信息分布渠道下的局限性。提煉目前的“黑和白”會計模式可看做是著手對以上特定的一些問題的關注，加快了民眾對辯論和福利改變的需要。通過 減少重點， 目前用于確定一個特定的項目是否予以承認，判斷重點主要放在這些項目是否具有相關性和與相關披露的相關聯的程度，這樣一個結構更完整的“彩色會計模式”就得到了發(fā)展的可能。這樣的模式目標在于為信息使用者提供與會計和財務報告相聯系的更有用的信息，同時也包括對核心問題的披露。作者提供的例子說明了如何將“彩色模式”在實務中加以應用，探討了這種模式的局限性，并著重為改善當前會計模式，使之更好的滿足會計和財務信 息使用者的需要，提出了自己的建議。 會計和財務報告的重要性 從最廣義的角度來看 ,會計與財務報告的目標是提供 對投資者、債權人、監(jiān)管者、員工、主要供應商 ,顧客等利益相關者，有助于投資、信貸、監(jiān)測等決策的信息。這個總的目標可能通過描述三個具體不同的財務報告的目的和功能得以進一步界定和分析 :(1)資產、資金和投資分配間的關系 ,(2)簽訂合同和“事后解決”和 (3)公司的管理和監(jiān)控。 決定什么該被確認為價值：確認與計量問題 我們也應該質疑什么是該計量和報告的。如上所述 ,從歷史上看 ,用來制造財富的資產和負債按取得時的實際成本計入財務報告中，像廠房和設備等有形資產一樣實現“硬著陸”。然而 ,轉向以知識為基礎的經濟已經創(chuàng)造或有針對 性的把注意力集中在完全不同類別的資產上 ,比如品牌和其他前面提到的“軟”資產。 當然也存在某些有限的例外 ,例如購入一個品牌 ,這些“軟”資產就不被確認進的財務報表。最主要的障礙與確認價值的困難有關 ,判定任何有價值的不確定性 ,最終導致潛在的欺詐行為。由于這些問題 ,我們忽略了在財務報告中明顯重要8 的像迪士尼的米老鼠等之類無形資產的價值計算。對于長期效用財務報告，這不可能是正確的結果 ,尤其是考慮到公司“軟”資產重要性的提高。 一些人認為 ,這些資產的價值最終含蓄地體現在現金流或收益的報表中 ,因此 ,就不需要在其他地方再加反 映。然而 ,遺憾的是 ,如果這種回答是對的 ,那么生活很容易了，同樣對于資產負債表里的所有資產的計量也就容易多。我們的任務則是提高軟資產估價的可信性和可靠性 ,或者在考慮這個發(fā)展迅速的經濟背景下，找到其他有創(chuàng)造性的解決方案。 何時 被報告 ?財務報告的及時性 明顯影響股價系統(tǒng)的加速事件已開始使年度審核和季度報告過時。目前的年度甚至季度報告 -以已確認的項目為核心的報告 -不足以在有限的時間內捕捉和傳達信息的發(fā)展，以滿足市場對信息需求。產品周期已被縮短 ,風險管理實務有長足的進步 ,變得更普遍 ,產品及整個公司被淘汰的 速度比以往任何時候都快。而在事物改變和移動的那么快的境況下，較長時間間隔內的快照，是很難得到一張好照片的。像我去年提到的那樣 , 我現在不是建議建立一個每月，每周或每天都向委員會審核和報告文件的系統(tǒng)。我只是認為，我們需要建立一個系統(tǒng) ,及時或適時的滿足我們對財務信息的需要。有前瞻性的信息顯然會成為一個越來越重要的披露組成部分。 一種不同的觀點 :顏色 vs 黑與白 背景被分為四個主要的部分。在第一個層次 ,我們有自己的財務報表 ,關注實體企業(yè)資源 (資產 )已確認項目、對這種資源 (負債和股權 )的利益訴求和經營結果。在這個系統(tǒng) 下，已被確認的項目在財務報表中承擔主要地位。要認識到列入財務報表中的每一個項目必須符合四個準則 : 第一 ,該項目必須符合財務報表中元素的定義。它必須是一個資產、負債或權益的組成部分 第二 ,項目必須可計量 :它一定要容易量化，貨幣單位有足夠的可靠度 第三 ,項目必須有關 :它一定會影響投資或信貸決策。 最后 ,該項目必須是可靠的 :它一定具有代表性的忠誠，可以證實的和中立。 人們普遍認為關于資產、負債、收入、費用和其他項目的最有用的信息將在財務報表中得到確認。也有一個期望 ,認為這些信息將有助于資本配置的決策，9