ICAI Notes- Unit 1: Meaning and Scope of Accounting - 2 | Principles and Practice of Accounting - CA Foundation PDF Download

Sub-Fields of Accounting

The various sub-fields of accounting are: 

• Financial Accounting – It covers the preparation and interpretation of financial statements and communication to the users of accounts. It is historical in nature as it records transactions which had already been occurred. The final step of financial accounting is the preparation of Profit and Loss Account and the Balance Sheet. It primarily helps in determination of the net result for an accounting period and the financial position as on the given date. 
• Management Accounting – It is concerned with internal reporting to the managers of a business unit. To discharge the functions of stewardship, planning, control and decision- making, the management needs variety of information. The different ways of grouping information and preparing reports as desired by managers for discharging their functions are referred to as management accounting. A very important component of the management accounting is cost accounting which deals with cost ascertainment and cost control. Management Accounting will be dealt with at higher levels of the Chartered Accountancy Course. 
• Cost Accounting – The terminology of Cost Accounting published by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of England defines cost accounting as: “the process of accounting for cost which begins with the recording of income and expenditure or the bases on which they are calculated and ends with the preparation of periodical statements and reports for ascertaining and controlling costs.” 
• Social Responsibility Accounting – The demand for social responsibility accounting stems from increasing social awareness about the undesirable by-products of economic activities. As already discussed earlier, social responsibility accounting is concerned with accounting for social costs incurred by the enterprise and social benefits created. 
• Human Resource Accounting – Human resource accounting is an attempt to identify, quantify and report investments made in human resources of an organisation that are not presently accounted for under conventional accounting practice.

Users of Accounting Information

Generally users of accounts are classified into two categories, (a) internal users and (b) external users. Management accounting is concerned with identifying information requirements as well as methods of providing such information to management while information requirements of the outside users are generally served by financial statements. Following are the various users of accounting information:

(i) Investors: They provide risk capital to the business. They need information to assess whether to buy, hold or sell their investment. Also they are interested to know the ability of the business to survive, prosper and to pay dividend. In non-corporate sector, where ownership and management are not essentially separated, the owners still need information about performance of the business and its financial position to decide whether to continue or shut down. 

(ii) Employees: Growth ofthe employees is directly related to the growth ofthe organisation and therefore, they are interested to know the stability, continuity and growth of the enterprise and its ability to provide remuneration, retirement and other benefits and to enhance employment opportunities. 

(iii) Lenders: They are interested to know whether their loan-principal and interest will be paid back when due. 

(iv) Suppliers and Creditors: They are also interested to know the ability of the enterprise to pay their dues, that helps them to decide the credit policy for the relevant concern, rates to be charged and so on. Sometimes, they also become interested in long-term continuation of the enterprise if their existence becomes dependent on the survival of that business. 

(v) Customers: Customers are also concerned with the stability and profitability of the enterprise because their functioning is more or less dependent on the supply of goods, suppose, a company produces some chemicals used by pharmaceutical companies and supplies chemicals on three month’s credit. If all of a sudden it faces some trouble and is unable to supply the chemical, the customers will also be in trouble. 

(vi) Government and their agencies: They regulate the functioning of business enterprises for public good, allocate scarce resources among competing enterprises, control prices, charge excise duties and taxes, and so they have continued interest in the business enterprise. (vii) Public: The public at large is interested in the functioning of the enterprise because it may make a substantial contribution to the local economy in many ways including the number of people employed and their patronage to local suppliers. 

(viii) Management: Management as whole is also interested in the accounts for various managerial decisions. On the basis of the accounts, management determines the effects of their various decisions on the functioning of the organisation. This helps them to make further managerial decisions.

Relationship of Accounting with Other Disciplines

Accounting is closely related with several other disciplines and thus to acquire a good knowledge in accounting one should be conversant with the relevant portions of such disciplines. In many cases they overlap accounting. The accountant should have a working knowledge of the related disciplines so that he can understand such overlapping areas and apply the knowledge of other disciplines in his own work wherever possible, or he can take the expert advice. 

(a) Accounting and Economics: Economics is viewed as a science of rational decisionmaking about the use of scarce resources. It is concerned with the analysis of efficient use of scarce resources for satisfying human wants. This may be viewed either from the perspective of a single firm or of the country as a whole.
Accounting is viewed as a system, which provides data to the users to permit informed judgement and decisions. Some non-accounting data are also relevant for decisionmaking.
Accounting overlaps economics in many respects. It contributed a lot in improving the management decision-making process. But, economic theories influenced the development of the decision-making tools used in accounting.
However, there exists a wide gulf between economists’ and accountants’ concepts of income and capital. Accountants got the ideas of value, income and capital maintenance from economists, but brushed suitably to make them usable in practical circumstances. Accountants developed the valuation, measurement and decisionmaking techniques which may owe to the economic theorems for origin but these are moulded in the work environment and suitably tempered with reference to relevance, verifiability, freedom from bias, timeliness, comparability, reliability and understandability.
An example may be given to explain the nexus between accounting and economics. Economists think that value of an asset is the present value of all future earnings which can be derived from such assets. Now think about a plant whose working life is more than one hundred years. How can you estimate future stream of earnings? So accountants developed the workable valuation base – the acquisition cost i.e., the price paid to acquire the assets.
At the macro-level, accounting provides the database over which the economic decision models have been developed; micro-level data arranged by the accounting system is summed up to get macro-level database.
Non-overlapping zones of accounting are not negligible. Development of the systems of recording, classifying and summarising transactions and events, harmonising the systems by uniform rules and communicating the data is essentially a non-overlapping area of accounting. 

(b) Accounting and Statistics: The use of statistics in accounting can be appreciated better in the context of the nature of accounting records. Accounting information is very precise; it is exact to the last paisa. But, for decision-making purposes such precision is not necessary and hence, the statistical approximations are sought.
In accounts, all values are important individually because they relate to business transactions. As against this, statistics is concerned with the typical value, behaviour or trend over a period of time or the degree of variation over a series of observations. Therefore, wherever a need arises for only broad generalisations or the average of relationships, statistical methods have to be applied in accounting data. 

Further, in accountancy, the classification of assets and liabilities as well as the heads of income and expenditure has been done as per the needs of financial recording to ascertain financial results of various operations. Other types of classification like the geographical and historical ones and ad hoc classification are done depending on the purpose to make such classification meaningful. 

Accounting records generally take a short-term view of events and are confined to a year while statistical analysis is more useful if a longer view is taken for the purpose. For example, to fit the trend line a longer period will be required. However, statistical methods do use past accounting records maintained on a consistent basis. 

The functional relations showing mathematical relations of one variable with one or more other variables are based on statistical work. These relations are used widely in making cost or price estimates for some estimated future values assigned to the given independent variables. For example, given the functional relation of total cost to the price of an input, the effect of changes in future prices on the cost of production can be calculated. 

In accountancy, a number of financial and other ratios are based on statistical methods, which help in averaging them over a period of time. Several accounting and financial calculations are based on statistical formulae. 

Statistical methods are helpful in developing accounting data and in their interpretation. For example, time series and cross-sectional comparison of accounting data is based on statistical techniques. Now- a-days multiple discriminate analysis is popularly used to identify symptoms of sickness of a business firm. Therefore, the study and application of statistical methods would add extra edge to the accounting data.

(c) Accounting and Mathematics: Double Entry book-keeping can be converted in algebraic form; in fact the first known book on this subject was part of a treatise on algebra. The fundamental accounting equation will be discussed in detail under ‘Dual Aspect Concept’ of this chapter.
Knowledge of arithmetic and algebra is a pre-requisite for accounting computations and measurements. Calculations of interest and annuity are the examples of such fundamental uses. While computing depreciation, finding out installments in hirepurchase and instalments payment transactions, calculating amount to be set aside for repayment of loan and replacement of assets and calculating lease rentals, mathematical techniques are frequently used. Accounting data are also presented in ratio form. 

With the advent of the computer, mathematics is becoming a vital part of accounting. Instead of writing accounts in traditional fashion, the transactions and events can be recorded in the matrix form and the rules of matrix algebra can be applied for classifying and summarising data. 

Now-a-days statistics and econometric models are largely used for developing decision models for the users of accounts. Also, Operations Research Techniques provide lot of decision models. Since accounting is meant for providing information to the users, to be effective, accounting data should feed the information requirements of such statistical, econometric and operations research models. Understanding mathematics has become a must to grasp the decision models framed by statisticians, econometricians and the O.R. experts. 

Presently graphs and charts are being extensively used for communicating accounting information. In addition to statistical knowledge, knowledge in geometry and trigonometry seems to be essential to have a better understanding about the accounting communications system. 

(d) Accounting and Law: An economic entity operates within a legal environment. All transactions with suppliers and customers are governed by the Contract Act, the Sale of Goods Act, the Negotiable Instruments Act, etc. The entity itself is created and controlled by laws. For example, a company is created by the Companies Act and also controlled by Companies Act.
Similarly, every country has a set of economic, fiscal and labour laws. Transactions and events are always guided by laws of the land. Very often the accounting system to be followed has been prescribed by the law. For example, the Companies Act has prescribed the format of financial statements for companies.

Banking, insurance and electric supply undertakings may also have to produce financial statements as prescribed by the respective legislations controlling such entities.
However, legal prescription about the accounting system is the product of developments in accounting knowledge. That is to say, legislation about accounting system cannot be enacted unless there is a corresponding development in the accounting discipline. In that way accounting influences law and is also influenced by law.

(e) Accounting and Management: Management is a broad occupational field, which comprises many functions and encompasses application of many disciplines including those mentioned above. Accountants are well placed in the management and play a key role in the management team. A large portion of accounting information is prepared for management decision-making. Although management relies on other data sources, accounting data are used as basic source documents. In the management team, an accountant is in a better position to understand and use such data. In other words, since an accountant plays an active role in management, he understands the data requirements. So the accounting system can be moulded to serve the management purpose.

Limitations of Accounting

There are certain misconceptions regarding financial statements. A common man presumes that an income statement shows the correct income or loss of the enterprise and that a balance sheet depicts a perfectly true and fair picture of financial standing of that enterprise. It must be recognised that the accounting as a language has its own limitations. The figures of profit or loss generated by the accounting process are subject to various constraints within which the accounting works. The assumptions and conventions, on which the accounting is based, become the limitations of accounting. The financial statements are never free from subjectivity factor as these are largely the outcome of personal judgement of the accountant with regard to the adoption of the accounting policies. Following are certain instances: 

1. The factors which may be relevant in assessing the worth of the enterprise don’t find place in the accounts as they cannot be measured in terms of money. The Balance sheet cannot reflect the value of certain factors like loyalty and skill of the personnel which may be the most valuable asset of an enterprise these days. 
2. Balance Sheet shows the position of the business on the day of its preparation and not on the future date while the users of the accounts are interested in knowing the position of the business in the near future and also in long run and not for the past date. 
3. Accounting ignores changes in some money factors like inflation etc.
4. There are occasions when accounting principles conflict with each other. 
5. Certain accounting estimates depend on the sheer personal judgement of the accountant, e.g., provision for doubtful debts, method of depreciation adopted, recording certain expenditure as revenue expenditure or capital expenditure, selection of method of valuation of inventories and the list is quite long. 
6. Financial statements consider those assets which can be expressed in monetary terms. Human resources although the very important asset of the enterprise are not shown in the balance sheet. There is no generally accepted formula for the valuation of human resources in money terms. 
7. Different accounting policies for the treatment of same item adds to the probability of manipulations. Though through various laws and Accounting Standards, efforts are made to reduce these options to minimum but certainly could not be reduced to one. 

In nutshell, it can be said that the language of accounting has certain practical limitations and, therefore, the financial statements should be interpreted carefully keeping in mind all various factors influencing the true picture.

Role of Accountant in the Society

There are only a few types of profession in the world which are held in high esteem in public eyes and there is no denying the fact that the accounting profession is one of them. Goethe had called the accountant’s profession as ‘the fairest invention of the human mind’. At the core of all types of learned profession, there is the desire of public good and of finding the best way to serve society. By the use of the science of accountancy and under the spell of its art, a dynamic pattern which assists business in planning its future is woven by accountants out of the inert mass of non-speaking silent figures. This is what makes their profession an instrument of socio-economic change and welfare of the society.
An accountant with his education, training, analytical mind and experience is best qualified to provide multiple need-based services to the ever growing society. The accountants of today can do full justice not only to matters relating to taxation, costing, management accounting, financial lay-out, company legislation and procedures but they can delve deep into the fields relating to financial policies, budgetary policies and even economic principles. The area of activities which can be undertaken by the accountants is not limited but it can also cover many additional facets.

Areas of Service

The practice of accountancy has crossed its usual domain of preparation of financial statements, interpretation of such statements and audit thereof. Accountants are presently taking active role in company laws and other corporate legislation matters, in taxation laws matters (both direct and indirect) and in general management problems. Some of the services rendered by accountants to the society are briefly mentioned hereunder:
(i) Maintenance of Books of Accounts: An accountant is able to maintain a systematic record of financial transactions in order to establish the net result of the transactions entered into during a period and to state the financial position of the concern as at a particular date. For the fulfillment of the twin objective of ascertaining the profit earned or loss suffered and the financial position, it is necessary that all transactions be recorded in a systematic manner, which can be done only by an accountant. Proper maintenance of books of accounts assists management in planning, decision-making, controlling functions. 

(ii) Statutory Audit: Every limited company is required to appoint a chartered accountant or a firm of chartered accountants as their auditor who are statutorily required to report each year whether in their opinion the balance sheet shows a true and fair view of the state of affairs on the balance sheet date, and the profit and loss account shows a true and fair view of the profit or loss for the year. Auditing is not confined to the accounts of companies; other organisations may also have their accounts audited, either because the law so requires (for example, the Co-operative Societies Act, the Income-tax Act, etc.) or because the proprietors wisely decided so (for example, a partnership firm or an individual trader). 

(iii) Internal Audit: It is a management tool whereby an internal auditor thoroughly examines the accounting transactions and also the system, according to which these have been recorded with a view to ensure the management that the accounts are being properly maintained and the system contains adequate safeguards to check any leakage of revenue or misappropriation of property or assets and the operations have been carried out in conformity with the plans of management. Now-a-days internal auditing has developed as a service to management. The internal auditor constructively contributes in improving the operational efficiency of the business through an independent review and appraisal of all business operations. 

(iv) Taxation: An accountant can handle taxation matters of a business or a person and he can represent that business or person before the tax authorities and settle the tax liability under the statute prevailing. He can also assist in avoiding or reducing tax burden by proper planning of tax affairs. Accountants also have a social obligation to express their views on broad tax policy, on the effect of tax rate on business and the economy in general and on all other aspects of taxation in which they have knowledge superior to that of the general public. 

(v) Management Accounting and Consultancy Services: Management accountant performs an advisory function. He is largely responsible for internal reporting to the management for planning and controlling current operations, decision-making on special matters and for formulating long-range plans. His job is to collect, analyse, interpret and present all accounting information which is useful to the management. Accountant provides management consultancy services in the areas of management information system, expenditure control and evaluation of appraisal techniques for new investments and divestments, working capital management, corporate planning etc. 

(vi) Financial Advice: Many people need help and guidance in planning their personal financialaffairs. An accountant who knows about finances, taxation and family problems is well placed to give such advice. Some of the areas in which an accountant can render financial advice are:
(a) Investments: An accountant can explain the significance of the formidable documents which shareholders receive from companies and help in making decisions relating to their investments.
(b) Insurance: An accountant can provide information to his clients on various insurance policies and helps in choosing appropriate policy.
(c) Business Expansion: As businesses grow in size and complexity and mergers are being considered, accountants are in the forefront in interpreting accounts, making suggestions as to the form of schemes and the fairness of proposals considering cost and financial consequences and generally advising their clients. They also advise on how to set about the problem of borrowing money or whether this is an appropriate method of finance. Accountants can render extremely useful service in connection of negotiations with foreign collaborators.
(d) Investigations: Financial investigations are required for a variety of purposes. Examples are:
(i) To ascertain the financial position of a business, for the information of interested parties in connection with an issue of capital, the purchase or sale of the business or a reconstruction or amalgamation.
(ii) To help the management to decide whether it is cheaper to manufacture an article or to buy out.
(iii) To ascertain why profits have fallen.
(iv) To achieve greater efficiency in management.
(v) To ascertain whether fraud has occurred and if so, its nature and extent and to make suggestions which will help to prevent a recurrence.
(vi) To value businesses and shares in private companies for purposes such as purchase, sale, estate duty or wealth tax etc.

For such problems requiring financial investigation, you need an accountant. His task as an independent professional is to establish the facts fairly and clearly for the benefit of those who have to make decisions and to give advice in many areas in which he has competence and experience.

(e) Pension schemes: Specialist advice from actuaries, insurance agents or insurance company is needed before launching or amending a provident fund or pension scheme in a business. But before making a final decision, an accountant has to be consulted. Later on, his help may be needed for managing the scheme or obtaining tax relief.

(vii) Other Services 
(a) Secretarial Work: Companies, clubs, and associations indeed, virtually all organisations involve secretarial work. Accountants frequently do this work.
(b) Share Registration Work: Accountants are often used by many companies to undertake the work involved in registering share transfers and new issues.
(c) Company Formation: In conjunction with legal advisers, accountants help in the formation of a company or advise against doing so.
(d) Receiverships, Liquidations, etc.: An accountant has to sometimes take on the onerous duties of liquidator when a company is being wound up or receiver when a debenture holder exercises a right to recover a loan on which the borrower has defaulted. Accountant is just the man for the job. He is also just the man to help you to keep insolvency away if you consult him in time.
(e) Arbitrations: At times, accountants are invited by parties to act as arbitrators in a dispute or settle disputes of various kinds.
(f) As regards the Cost Accounts: A cost accountant’s job is to continuously report cost data and related information at frequent intervals to the management.
(g) Accountant and Information Services: An accountant will be effective in his role if he supplies the information promptly and in an unambiguous language. He should develop a system by which there is a regular flow of information both horizontally and vertically.

The information system should be such that comparability of financial statement is possible both business-wise and year-wise so that it benefits both the management and the investors. Dependence on data from the computerised information system will put new responsibilities on an accountant but his product will command greater attention and respect.

Chartered Accountant in Industry 

An accountant, though he is a part of the highest planning team is not a planner in an industry. He works with the functional departments and translates the organisation’s aims in terms of financial expectations. Therefore, he has to make a thorough study of the business and of individuals in the functional departments, whether they are engineers or salesmen. A qualified accountant will be able to play an important role in performing important functions of a business relating to accounting, costing and budgetary control, estimating and treasury. 

Chartered Accountant in Public Sector Enterprises 

Both in the developed and developing countries, public sector enterprises have become a special feature of the national economy. The system of financial and budgetary control and of accounting, auditing and reporting has, therefore, become a matter of interest and concern to the nation, and does not remain confined merely to a limited number of shareholders. The form of accounting followed by these corporations or companies is different from that of ordinary government accounting. It is the duty of the accountants to prepare the accounts and reports of these public corporations in such a way that they enable the general public to know how far the items appearing in the various types of records and financial statements justify their existence. 

Chartered Accountant in Framing Fiscal Policies 

Accountants have a positive role to play in the determination of proper fiscal policies and advancement of trade, commerce and industry. They should develop new techniques and prepare themselves for new fields of service towards their commitment to the concept of the public goods and services. A business enterprise can be successful in the commercial sense only if accounting and business knowledge are pooled together. It is a social obligation for both accountants in industry and in practice to disclose greater information regarding the corporate results. The state of affairs of the economy can be ascertained only when such consolidated corporate information is disclosed.

Chartered Accountant and Economic Growth

In the present times accountants should conceive their duties as broadly as the conditions might require and do not restrict them to only literal compliance of the law. Their aim should be not to allow any individual to gain at the cost of the nation. Accountants have to accept a positive role and do their best to encourage efficiency in individual business units and encourage those social objectives which form the main foundation of a welfare state.

Summary

• “Accounting is the art of recording, classifying, and summarising in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of a financial character, and interpreting the result thereof.” 
• Accounting procedure can be basically divided into two parts:
  (i) Generating financial information and
  (ii) Using the financial information. 
• The objectives of accounting can be given as follows:
  (i) Systematic recording of transactions
  (ii) Ascertainment of results of above recorded transactions
  (iii) Ascertainment of the financial position of the business
  (iv) Providing information to the users for rational decision-making
  (v) To know the solvency position
  The main functions of accounting are as follows:
  (i) Measurement
  (ii) Forecasting
  (iii) Decision-making
  (iv) Comparison & Evaluation
  (v) Control
  (vi) Government Regulation and Taxation 
• Objectives of Book-keeping:
  (i) Complete Recording of Transactions and
  (ii) Ascertainment of Financial Effect on the Business 
• The various sub-fields of accounting are:
  (i) Financial Accounting
  (ii) Management Accounting
  (iii) Cost Accounting
  (iv) Social Responsibility Accounting
  (v) Human Resource Accounting 
• The various users of accounting information:
  (i) Investors
  (ii) Employees
  (iii) Lenders
  (iv) Suppliers and Creditors
  (v) Customers
  (vi) Government and their agencies
  (vii) Public
  (viii) Management 
• Accounting is closely related with several other disciplines and thus to acquire a good knowledge in accounting one should be conversant with the relevant portions of such disciplines. 

An accountant with his education, training, analytical mind and experience is best qualified to provide multiple need-based services to the ever growing society. The accountants of today can do full justice not only to matters relating to taxation, costing, management accounting, financial lay-out, company legislation and procedures but they can delve deep into the fields relating to financial policies, budgetary policies and even economic principles.