tailieunhanh - Does Full Accrual Accounting Enhance Accountability?

There is a natural tradeoff in many cases between relevance and reliability. For example, the value of an infrequently traded asset may be very relevant, if the clear intent is to even- tually sell that asset to meet a liability. But the valuation of such an asset may be difficult or impossible to reliably determine. Different parties may place materially di fferent values on that asset, such that the reported value is impossible to verify by an external party or auditor. The only reliable value for the asset may be its original cost, but such a value. | The Innovation Journal The Public Sector Innovation Journal Volume 12 3 2007 article 4. Does Full Accrual Accounting Enhance Accountability Thomas H. Beechy Professor Emeritus of Accounting Schulich School of Business York University tbeechy@ KEY WORDS Full Accrual Accounting Non-profit Organizations Accountability Stewardship Reporting Matching 1 The Innovation Journal The Public Sector Innovation Journal Volume 12 3 2007 article 4. Does Full Accrual Accounting Enhance Accountability Introduction The concept offull accrual accounting has swept through non-business reporting over the past decade both in governments and in non-profit organizations NPOs . The purported advantage of using full accrual accounting is that this form of accounting enhances accountability and transparency. I believe that many people don t really understand just what full accrual accounting means and when it may or may not be an improvement over the bad old traditional ways of accounting for NPOs and governments . The argument of this paper is that the use of full accrual accounting actually obscures operating accountability and transparency in some types of organizations. This is particularly true when the organization has either or both of two characteristics 1. the funding sources do not correspond with the beneficiaries of the organization s activities or 2. the organization is delivering public collective goods and or services rather than private goods services. This paper will discuss these two characteristics and their significance for accounting. The paper will then explain the major concepts that are included in full accrual accounting . Full accrual accounting is not a concept in itself. Instead it is a group of separate concepts that has developed in private enterprise accounting. These concepts make sense in private enterprise accounting because neither of the characteristics listed above are present. In businesses 1 revenue comes from those to whom goods .