accural basis is a more appropriate basis for determining profits as expenses are match againts revenue earned in relation thereto
Answers
Most companies use the accrual basis of accounting. The accrual basis of accounting recognizes revenues when earned (a product is sold or a service has been performed), regardless of when cash is received. Expenses are recognized as incurred, whether or not cash has been paid out. For instance, assume a company performs services for a customer on account. Although the company has received no cash, the revenue is recorded at the time the company performs the service. Later, when the company receives the cash, no revenue is recorded because the company has already recorded the revenue. Under the accrual basis, adjusting entries are needed to bring the accounts up to date for unrecorded economic activity that has taken place.
The following video summarizes the difference between cash and accrual basis of accounting.
Throughout the text we will use the accrual basis of accounting, which matches expenses incurred and revenues earned, because most companies use the accrual basis.
Time-Period Assumption
According to the periodicity (time periods) assumption, accountants divide an entity’s life into months or years to report its economic activities. Then, accountants attempt to prepare accurate reports on the entity’s activities for these periods. Although these time-period reports provide useful and timely financial information for investors and creditors, they may be inaccurate for some of these time periods because accountants must estimate depreciation expense and certain other adjusting entries.
Accounting reports cover relatively short periods. These time periods are usually of equal length so that statement users can make valid comparisons of a company’s performance from period to period. The length of the accounting period must be stated in the financial statements. For instance, so far, the income statements in this text were for either one month or one year. Companies that publish their financial statements, such as publicly held corporations, generally prepare monthly statements for internal management and publish financial statements quarterly and annually for external statement users.
Accrual basis and periodicity
Previously, we demonstrated that financial statements more accurately reflect the financial status and operations of a company when prepared under the accrual basis rather than the cash basis of accounting. The periodicity assumption requires preparing adjusting entries under the accrual basis. Without the periodicity assumption, a business would have only one time period running from its inception to its termination. Then, the concepts of cash basis and accrual basis accounting would be irrelevant because all revenues and all expenses would be recorded in that one time period and would not have to be assigned to artificially short periods of one year or less.