Accounting information is the primary basis for the company's management and decision-making plan, and it is also the primary source of information for regulating the national economy. This paper first analyzes the meaning and quality characteristics of accounting information, raises questions about the quality of accounting information, analyzes it, and puts forward some countermeasures to improve the quality of accounting information.
First, the meaning and quality characteristics of accounting information
Accounting information refers to the information that an accounting unit reminds investors, creditors or other information users to pay attention to its financial status and operating results through financial statements or notes. Useful for control and resolution planning, the first thing to reflect is to seek truth from facts; Secondly, it is timely, and expired information has no effect. Third, accounting information is not a simple digital symbol, but a certain economic connection. Fourth, the information released should be consistent.
There is a logical connection between the quality characteristics of accounting information and accounting policies. On the one hand, accounting information is the basis of completing accounting policies and judging the quality of accounting information. With the policy, there is a basis for the provisions on the quality characteristics of accounting information; On the other hand, the quality of accounting information serves the accounting policy and has a binding effect on the accounting information provided by financial statements.
The most basic quality feature of accounting information is the usefulness of the solution. The authenticity and reliability of accounting information is the premise to ensure that information users can make accurate plans. If accounting information is distorted, its economic consequences will be very severe, which will lead to wrong investment decision-making plans and ineffective allocation of social and economic capital.
Second, the quality of accounting information in China problems
(A) asymmetric accounting information, capital equipment power decline
The embodiment of asymmetry of accounting information: the asymmetry of accounting information between different users of accounting information refers to the fact that companies choose specific accounting methods, and the information published in accounting statements tends to specific information users, which constitutes that some people get more information they need, while others do the opposite; The accounting information between information providers and users is asymmetric, and the company management authority is the provider of accounting information and the internal user of information, which has more information advantages than external users. Handling personnel may use this advantage to polish and beautify accounting statements and constantly adjust income and profits.
(B) accounting information statements are distorted, resulting in false data
Accounting information distortion refers to the situation that accounting information fails to truly reflect objective economic activities and brings bad luck to relevant decision makers. From the outbreak process, accounting information distortion can be divided into accounting item distortion and accounting processing distortion. The reasons are as follows: first, the accounting information is deliberately tampered with, and the parties in accounting activities make careful arrangements in advance for their personal interests, so that the accounting information is misinterpreted and economic activities are reflected by means of fraud and deception; Second, accounting information is unintentional and inaccurate. In the process of providing accounting information according to accounting standards, accounting information cannot be truthfully reflected due to one-sided judgment errors, lack of experience and the limitations of the accounting system itself. Third, accounting information distortion caused by accounting operation, such as low quality of accounting personnel, improper selection of accounting treatment methods, inaccurate discrimination of accounting matters, etc.
(c) Accounting information is not fully published, and relevant information cannot be accurately reflected.
The main performance is that the company does not publish all the information that should be published, but adopts the method of avoiding the important and neglecting the important, deliberately exaggerating some truths, concealing some truths and misleading investors. Some companies even refused to announce some important events.
Traditional financial statements are based on historical cost to reflect the past financial situation and operating results. However, the most obvious feature of resolution planning activities is the planning of future funded activities, which is an expected economic behavior. The current accounting information disclosure fails to disclose future related financial information, and the current statements cannot disclose all kinds of constant information related to the company. At the same time, at present, the disclosure of accounting information is mainly restricted by traditional accounting. The main point is to disclose only the property that can only be measured in money, but not the non-monetary property such as intellectual property and human capital, which will affect the accurate judgment of the report users.
(D) Accounting information data reflect a single, lack of guidance
The existing company statements first reflect the company's financial information, and their reminding scale is limited to the transactions and events confirmed and measured by financial accounting, while ignoring the primacy of non-financial information. Because the company environment and the company itself are still changing, it is impossible to guess the future development of the company only by relying on past financial data, and some non-financial information can better prompt the future development trend of the company. People's evaluation criteria for companies are not limited to the economic benefits of companies, so it is difficult for information users to make full evaluation of companies by using existing accounting statements.
(E) The timeliness of accounting information transmission is too slow, which affects the information demand.
Among the characteristics of accounting information quality, timeliness is closely related to relevance. As far as the publication of listed companies is concerned, the annual report of the company will not be published until several months after the end of the financial year, and the agency of the company is often difficult to determine when some major events will occur because of incomplete information, which leads to insufficient supervision effectiveness. The limitation and practicality of accounting information constitute a serious lag, which greatly affects the information needs of information users and also affects the resolutions, plans and vital interests of many investors.
(VI) Accounting information transmission can not meet the needs of different information users.
Relevance is relative. The same information has different degrees of relevance to different users at different times, but the existing accounting system can only provide general accounting statements that all people need together. In fact, this is the result of the information processing process of reprocessing accounting information, which can only convey summarized information to information users. However, this general accounting statement can't meet the needs of all information users for different resolutions, and its correlation can only be relative.
Third, measures to improve the quality of accounting information
(A) improve the legal supervision system, so that the accounting information processing work has laws to follow.
It is necessary to establish an external supervision system based on audit supervision, tax supervision and administrative supervision and an internal supervision system based on internal audit, and improve the internal control mechanism. External supervision and giving full play to the role of social intermediary institutions are not necessary means to prevent collusion between accounting firms and audited units. Internal supervision, first of all, establish an accounting management system with strengthening internal management as the core and improve the company's internal accounting system; Secondly, according to relevant laws and regulations, the audit department checks the authenticity and legality of the company's financial budget and final accounts and all economic activities related to financial revenue and expenditure, supervises the implementation of the company's internal financial system, and ensures the authenticity and legality of accounting information.
(B) improve the accounting system and accounting standards, so that accounting information processing has rules to follow.
When perfecting the accounting system and formulating accounting standards, we should try our best to overcome or reduce its own unchangeable nature. The final accounting standards should scientifically analyze and speculate on the changes of the future accounting environment, so as to make the accounting development more stable and continuous, and prevent the invariance of the future environment from having too great an impact on accounting attacks.
(3) Clarify property rights and establish a company property rights system and its supervision system in line with national conditions.
To understand the company's property right structure, we should emphasize the following two aspects: first, the state, as the representative of social interests, coordinates the company's policies and social policies; as the owner of state-owned companies, the state owns the company's property rights, and as the handler of the society, it also has the right to supervise the company's accounting information and take responsibility for the quality of accounting information; Second, the professional skills possessed by the employees of the company are a kind of human capital. Without this kind of human capital, the material capital owned by shareholders cannot be added, so the employees of the company should also form a part of the company's property rights system.
(d) Improve the social and economic status of accountants and attach importance to follow-up teaching.
On the one hand, it is necessary to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of accountants, vigorously support them to perform their duties according to law, and clarify their legal responsibilities, so as to ensure and mobilize the enthusiasm of the majority of accountants and give full play to their functions. On the other hand, we should attach importance to the follow-up teaching of accountants and strive to improve their political, professional and professional ethics. Accountants should have a strong sense of professionalism and responsibility, study hard, constantly update their accounting majors and related knowledge, apply what they have learned, and become useful and available high-quality accounting managers to fundamentally prevent the occurrence of accounting information quality doubts.
Fourth, conclusion.
To fundamentally improve the quality of accounting information, we must first recognize the problems existing in the accounting information quality characteristic system, such as asymmetric accounting information, distorted statements, insufficient information disclosure, simplified data reflection, slow delivery time, and failure to fully consider the needs of accounting information users. Then in view of these shortcomings, find ways to improve. With the continuous development of economy and the constant change of social structure, China's accounting system and policies are constantly changing, and the corresponding accounting information quality will be more and more improved and improved.
References:
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[3] Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises [M]. Ministry of Finance of People's Republic of China (PRC), February 2006 15.
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