According to the basic idea of China's enterprise accounting system reform, the national unified accounting system will break the boundaries between industry and ownership, and all enterprise accounting systems will be divided into enterprise accounting system, financial enterprise accounting system and small enterprise accounting system according to the nature and scale of enterprises. At present, the first two systems have been implemented, and the latter system is being formulated. In this regard, we have studied the contents and concerns of the accounting system for small enterprises, and put forward some views and suggestions. I implementation of the accounting system for small enterprises 1. Scope of Implementation According to the Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Printing and Distributing the Accounting System for Business Enterprises (Caishui [2000] No.25), all joint stock limited companies (including listed companies) are required to implement the Accounting System for Business Enterprises. However, according to the standards of the Interim Provisions, some joint stock limited companies (such as investment-oriented or high-tech enterprises) may also be smaller enterprises. According to the Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Printing and Distributing the Accounting System for Financial Enterprises, all kinds of financial enterprises should implement the accounting system for financial enterprises; According to the Provisions of the Ministry of Finance on Issues Concerning the Implementation of the Accounting System for Enterprises with Foreign Investment (Caishui [20065438+0] No.62) and the Answers on Issues Concerning the Implementation of the Accounting System for Enterprises with Foreign Investment issued on May 20, 2002, the implementation of the accounting system for enterprises with foreign investment began on June 5438+ 10/2002. In this way, the implementation of the accounting system for small enterprises is actually limited to small enterprises other than joint stock limited companies, financial enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises. The crux of the problem is: do these small enterprises have to implement the accounting system for small enterprises? Is it mandatory or alternative? In China, the national unified accounting system is a normative document of administrative regulations, which have mandatory characteristics. Accordingly, those who meet the standards of small enterprises must strictly implement the accounting system for small enterprises. However, we believe that it is appropriate to implement the policy of replacing the implementation of small enterprise accounting system for small enterprises, that is, small enterprises can implement both the Accounting System for Commercial Enterprises and the Accounting System for Small Enterprises. Because the mandatory characteristics of the accounting system can be considered as a whole, as long as the enterprise strictly implements an accounting system in accordance with the regulations; At present, many small enterprises have actually implemented the enterprise accounting system. If the alternative implementation policy is implemented, these small enterprises do not need to change their accounting systems. Starting with encouraging enterprises to strengthen internal management and establish and improve internal accounting control system, we should also allow and encourage qualified small enterprises to implement enterprise accounting system. In this way, meeting the standards for small enterprises is only a necessary condition for implementing the accounting system for small enterprises, that is, the scale of enterprises that implement the accounting system for small enterprises must meet the standards for small enterprises, but enterprises that do not meet the standards for small enterprises must implement them, and commercial enterprise accounting systems can also be implemented if conditions permit. Of course, we should also consider whether foreign-invested small enterprises and domestic small enterprises should enjoy the same "national treatment" in the implementation of accounting system, that is, we should also implement alternative implementation policies. In addition, according to the Ministry of Finance's stipulation that "except for small enterprises and financial enterprises, newly established enterprises shall conduct accounting and prepare financial reports in accordance with the provisions of the Accounting System for Business Enterprises from June 5438+1 October12003", it is suggested that newly established small enterprises (except financial enterprises) should implement the policy of alternative implementation, just like small enterprises defined normally. 2. Changes and adjustments caused by changes in enterprise scale Due to the development of enterprises and the flexibility of small and medium-sized enterprises, the number of employees, sales and total assets used to judge the size of enterprises will change in different periods, and the number of employees and total assets may change in different periods of the same accounting year. Therefore, in strict accordance with the classification standards, many small and medium-sized enterprises will change their scale ownership in different years or even at different times in the same accounting year. It is a medium-sized enterprise at the beginning of the year and may become a small enterprise at the end of the year; Small enterprises at the beginning of the year may also develop into medium-sized enterprises at the end of the year. However, as mentioned above, enterprises can usually only judge the scale of enterprises at the beginning of the year according to the index value of the previous fiscal year against the standard value, so as to determine whether the accounting system for small enterprises can be implemented. The resulting question is: when the enterprise scale changes at the end of the year compared with that at the beginning of the year, does the original accounting system need to be changed and adjusted? Specifically: (1) If it is a medium-sized enterprise at the beginning of the year and the enterprise accounting system is implemented during the year, it will become a small enterprise at the end of the year. Can it be adjusted according to the accounting system for small enterprises at the end of the year? If it can be adjusted, do you need retrospective adjustment in the part involving changes in accounting policies? (2) At the beginning of the year, it was a small enterprise. If the enterprise accounting system is implemented during the year, no matter whether the enterprise scale changes or not at the end of the year, there is no need to adjust it; If the small enterprise accounting system is implemented during the year and becomes a medium-sized enterprise at the end of the year, should it be adjusted according to the enterprise accounting system at the end of the year? According to the principles of "consistency" and "comparability", once an enterprise's accounting policy is determined, it should remain stable and not be changed at will, so that the accounting information before and after the enterprise can be compared with each other. Therefore, only under certain circumstances, such as according to the requirements of relevant laws and regulations or due to changes in the economic environment, the reliability and relevance of accounting information provided by the original accounting policy will be affected, and enterprises will have reason to change accounting policies. Accordingly, we believe that if the enterprise accounting system has been implemented, no matter how the original scale of the enterprise or the scale of the enterprise changes in the future, the changes in the accounting system should be strictly limited; If it is a small enterprise, the accounting system for small enterprises will be implemented, and by the end of the year, the scale of the enterprise has reached the standard of medium-sized enterprises, so it is not suitable to make changes and adjustments according to the accounting system for enterprises at the end of that year, but the accounting system for enterprises must be implemented in the next accounting year. Considering the provisions of system transformation, it is suggested that enterprises do not need to use retrospective adjustment method to calculate the cumulative impact of accounting policy changes in the next year and make adjustments. 3. Adjustment of different accounting systems when consolidating accounting statements Because the object of defining small enterprises emphasizes the legal subject, that is, a single enterprise with independent legal personality, the scale of member enterprises in enterprise groups may be different. The most common is that the parent company is a large and medium-sized enterprise, and some subsidiaries belong to small enterprises. In order to control industry risks and meet the needs of business flexibility, more and more enterprises (especially private enterprises) adopt the business model of "group integration and legal person separation", and register subsidiaries according to different business needs, resulting in a large number of enterprise groups whose parent and subsidiary companies are small enterprises. Due to the artificial division of standards for small and medium-sized enterprises, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises wander around the critical point of standards. Some investment companies have large total assets, but because of the small number of employees, they are defined as small enterprises, and there may be enterprise groups with small parent companies and medium subsidiaries. The above phenomenon is reflected in the implementation of the accounting system, which is manifested in the situation that the parent company and subsidiary company implement different accounting systems in the enterprise group. So how should enterprise groups unify accounting policies when compiling consolidated accounting statements? Generally, there are three viewpoints as follows: (1) If the parent company is a large and medium-sized enterprise and the small enterprises in the subsidiaries implement the small enterprise accounting system, the parent company should adjust the individual accounting statements of these subsidiaries in accordance with the accounting policies of the parent company and merge them according to the adjusted accounting statements of the subsidiaries. (2) If both the parent company and its subsidiaries are small enterprises, regardless of whether the parent company implements the accounting system for business enterprises or the accounting system for small enterprises, the accounting policies of the parent company shall be taken as the unified standard, and individual accounting statements whose accounting systems are inconsistent with those of the parent company shall be adjusted and merged according to the adjusted accounting statements of the subsidiary company. (3) If the parent company is a small enterprise and there are non-small enterprises (such as medium-sized enterprises) in its subsidiaries, the accounting system implemented by the non-small enterprise subsidiaries is consistent with that of the parent company, and only the individual accounting statements of the subsidiaries that implement the accounting system for small enterprises need to be adjusted; However, under the circumstance that the parent company implements the Accounting System for Small Enterprises, it is worth discussing whether the parent company adjusts the accounting statements of subsidiaries with different accounting systems according to the accounting policies of the parent company or adjusts the individual accounting statements of the parent company and other subsidiaries with the Accounting System for Small Enterprises according to the accounting policies of the subsidiaries with the Accounting System for Business Enterprises. We tend to the latter view. Second, special considerations about the accounting system of small enterprises 1. Proper application of the principle of prudence According to the general principles of accounting, enterprises should follow the requirements of the principle of prudence in accounting, and must not overestimate assets or income or underestimate liabilities or expenses. Usually, the principle of prudence needs to be realized through the choice of accounting policies and accounting estimates. Reasonable accounting estimation is the premise to ensure the reliability and relevance of accounting information, and the abuse of accounting estimation will inevitably lead to the loss of authenticity and reliability of accounting information. "Accounting System for Enterprises" requires enterprises to accrue eight impairment reserves and estimated liabilities, which fully embodies the principle of prudence. However, for small enterprises, due to the relatively weak accounting foundation and limited professional quality of accountants, accounting estimates such as recoverable amount, net realizable value or asset impairment amount cannot be accurately grasped, and may also become a tool to adjust profits. Therefore, in order to prevent small enterprises from abusing the principle of prudence, the accounting system of small enterprises should pay special attention to the proper application of this principle. We suggest that the Accounting System for Small Enterprises can cancel eight impairment reserves and allow small enterprises to take direct write-off method to account for asset impairment; The estimated liabilities are not accrued and confirmed; If there are large impairment and estimated liabilities, they will be replaced by the form of disclosure in the notes to the statements. 2. Coordination of accounting treatment and tax system Many small enterprises propose that in order to simplify the accounting treatment of small enterprises and avoid cumbersome tax adjustment, the accounting system of small enterprises should be consistent with the current tax law, and accounting treatment can be completely implemented in accordance with the provisions of the tax law. Can tax adjustment really be avoided? That's not true. After all, financial accounting and tax law follow different principles and norms. Specifically, there are two situations to consider. (1) For permanent differences, it is not appropriate to assume that expenses that are not allowed to be deducted before tax or income that is allowed to be exempted from tax by tax law are directly collected by setting subjects such as "after-tax expenditure" and "after-tax income", which cannot eliminate the difference between accounting income and taxable income. Because the tax law allows expenses to be paid before tax, but limits the charging standards, such as business recruitment fees and publicity fees, it is uncertain whether all or how many shares can be paid before tax at the time of occurrence, and it will not be determined until the end of the year. Therefore, it cannot be directly included in the "after-tax expenditure" account when it occurs. Even if it is included in the current month, it may be transferred back to the next month. It has always been a variable during the year, artificially increasing accounting procedures and simplifying subjective wishes, but the objective results are mixed. However, for some income and expense items that are inconsistent with the provisions of the tax law, such as voucher procedures, enterprises often deviate from the provisions of the tax law in implementation, and there are still tax adjustments when the income tax is settled at the end of the year. On the other hand, because the national tax policy is not static, the relevant standards and contents may change, and the tax policy standards of different tax authorities (national tax or local tax) and regions are not exactly the same, and there will be policy changes or adjustments every year. Therefore, it is impossible for enterprises to implement it in advance in accordance with the provisions of the tax law. In any case, tax adjustment projects always exist. (2) For timing difference, under the taxable law, it is unrealistic to assume that the accounting treatment is completely in line with the provisions of the tax law by setting the subjects of "after-tax expenditure" and "after-tax income", because for the expense items (such as organization expenses) whose accounting confirmation time is faster than the time or speed stipulated in the tax law, the amount of expenses that the later accounting does not need to confirm or confirm is actually less than the pre-tax deduction allowed by the tax law, so tax adjustment is still inevitable. Under the tax impact method, it is solved through the procedures of confirmation and intertemporal distribution of deferred income tax assets or liabilities. From this point of view, it is unrealistic to try to find a shortcut that conforms to accounting treatment and tax laws and regulations. We believe that when coordinating the relationship between accounting treatment and tax laws and regulations, it is not necessary to consider and it is impossible to eliminate or reduce the permanent differences in the accounting system of small enterprises. Only by reducing (but not eliminating) the time difference as much as possible and simplifying the accounting procedure of time difference is a wise choice. The so-called minimizing the timing difference means that the accounting system of small enterprises should be consistent with the tax laws and regulations as far as possible, or provide alternative methods that can be consistent without violating the general accounting principles and the principles of accounting element confirmation and measurement. For example, (1) cancel eight impairment reserves and estimated liabilities, and after the approval of the tax authorities, report the loss of assets and record the estimated liabilities according to the facts, then timing difference will be eliminated. (2) In addition to the one-time amortization method, the amortization period of start-up expenses can be increased by an alternative method that conforms to the provisions of the tax law, that is, amortization in five years, and small enterprises can choose at their own discretion. (3) The depreciation method and depreciation period of fixed assets are clearly stipulated in the original industry accounting system and other related systems, but in practice, most small enterprises tend to adopt the standards allowed by the tax law to avoid tax adjustment; The Accounting System for Enterprises stipulates that enterprises should make their own decisions according to relevant factors. The accounting system of small enterprises can be consistent with the accounting system of commercial enterprises, that is, only the principles are stipulated, so that small enterprises can make alternative choices according to the depreciation method and depreciation period stipulated in the tax law. Of course, in order to prevent small enterprises from adjusting their book profits by using depreciation policy, specific provisions can also be made on the depreciation period, but it should be as consistent as possible with the tax system. (4) In revenue recognition, the enterprise accounting system is inconsistent with the current tax laws and regulations. If we can consider the accounting system of small enterprises, we can reduce the timing difference caused by inconsistent revenue recognition time. Regarding the time difference of simplifying accounting procedures, the accounting system of small enterprises cannot adopt two alternative models, namely, the tax payable method and the tax impact method. If the tax impact method is abolished, only the tax payable method will be adopted. 3. Simplification and consistency of accounting subjects The setting of accounting subjects should meet the requirements of enterprises to confirm, measure and record various transactions or events. According to the definition standard of small enterprises, compared with large and medium-sized enterprises, they only have fewer employees, smaller annual sales or smaller total assets, which does not mean that the economic activities of small enterprises are essentially different from those of large and medium-sized enterprises. For example, a small enterprise may have an investment relationship or even a subsidiary, so it needs long-term investment, investment income and other subjects to account for investment. On the other hand, as mentioned above, due to the artificial division of SME standards, coupled with the development of enterprises and the flexibility of SME management, many SMEs will change in scale. Therefore, we believe that the general principle of setting up accounting subjects for small enterprises should be: within the framework of enterprise accounting system, it should be as consistent as possible, and if it is really necessary to simplify or cancel it, it should also try to avoid or reduce the difficulty of adjusting accounting subjects when the enterprise needs to change its accounting system due to scale changes, so as to facilitate the unified adjustment of different accounting policies when consolidating accounting statements. Therefore, it is suggested that: (1) cancel the accounting subjects corresponding to transactions or events that are generally impossible and rare for small enterprises, such as the value of assets to be transferred, the return of investment, bonds payable, entrusted loans, unconfirmed financing expenses, etc. (2) cancel the accounting subjects corresponding to the simplification or change of accounting procedures for small enterprises, such as eight subjects involved in eight asset impairment reserves, and subjects such as "estimated liabilities" and "deferred taxes"; (3) When merging some small enterprises, there is no need to divide the accounting subjects corresponding to excessively detailed transactions or events. For example, operating expenses and management expenses are combined to set up "operating expenses" subjects, not just "dividends receivable" and "interest receivable" subjects; (4) Keep the accounting subjects corresponding to transactions or events of the same nature that may occur in small enterprises and large and medium-sized enterprises. 4. Selectivity in the preparation of cash flow statement According to the Regulations on Financial Accounting Reports of Enterprises, the accounting statements of enterprises should at least include balance sheets and income statements. The focus of the debate is mainly on: Is it necessary for small enterprises to prepare cash flow statements? As far as the implementation of small enterprises is concerned, most of them do not have the accounting basis for preparing cash flow statements. Many small enterprises only prepare this statement at the end of the year to cope with audits or reports, while some enterprises rely on accounting firms to prepare it on their behalf, thus making the figures in this statement actually statistical. From the external users of accounting statements of small enterprises, because there are fewer users, they pay less attention to the information provided by the statements. In fact, the cash flow statement has become a decoration. From the perspective of internal managers, cash flow information is generally highly valued, but the cash flow statement that provides this information is not consistent with the cash flow statement stipulated in the current accounting system. Enterprises often prepare daily cash flow statements or monthly cash flow statements according to the needs of internal management and different business sources and destinations, and these statements will reveal many business secrets of enterprises, so enterprises are reluctant to disclose them. It can be seen that it is not only difficult for small enterprises to prepare cash flow statements according to the current accounting system, but also the actual effect is a mere formality. Therefore, we tend to adopt an alternative policy, which allows enterprises to choose whether to prepare cash flow statements according to their own conditions.