Rethinking the Rules of Financial Accounting

This text focuses on the defective rules of the American Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and suggests ways of curing the defects. These suggestions are limited to financial accounting rules and do not address the ethical behaviour of accountants or auditors who use these rules.;Anthony provides a brief account of how the rules were first developed, beginning with a historical background of the governing bodies (the FASB and the GASB) and briefly discusses the components of the accounting rules themselves. He then methodically describes the defects in each of the four financial statements required of business organizations - balance sheets, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statements, and offers suggestions to correct these defects and how to implement changes. The book thus offers a solutions-based approach to improving the rules that govern the financial reporting model.