Business Commons^™

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention? Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time. Holmes: That was the curious incident. 2 As an organization of over eight thousand, the American Accounting Association has been dedicated to thought leadership for almost a century. Its members create, critically evaluate and debate, and disseminate new ideas where they may be selectively absorbed into public policy and professional practice over time. As thought leaders, AAA members do not confine themselves to …

Attempts to improve financial reporting by adding clarity to its rules and standards through issuance of interpretations and guidance also serve to furnish a better roadmap for evasion through financial engineering. Thus, paradoxically, regulation of financial reporting becomes a victim of its own pursuit of clarity. The interplay between rules written to govern preparation and auditing of financial reports on one hand, and financial engineering of securities to manage the appearance of financial reports on the other, played a significant role in the financial crisis of the recent years. Fundamental rethinking about excessive dependence of financial reporting on written rules …

We examine four key conceptual tensions that are at the heart of many financial reporting dilemmas: stocks vs. flows, ex-ante vs. ex post, conventions vs. economic substance, and topdown design vs. bottom-up evolution as sources of accounting practice. Associated with each of these conceptual dimensions is an accounting duality; in some cases one side (e.g., stocks) is easier to measure in a reliable manner, while the other side (e.g., flows) is easier to measure in other instances. We suggest that financial reporting would benefit from a willingness to pay attention to, and find compromise between both sides of these tensions; …