explain comparability as qualitative characteristics of accounting information
Answers
Relevance: information makes a difference in decision making
Reliability: information is verifiable, factual, and neutral
Comparability: information can be used to compare different entities
Consistency: information is consistently presented from year to year
These qualities make accounting information understandable and useful for decision and reporting purposes: the goal of financial reporting is to provide useful information to current and potential investors, creditors, and other users of accounting information (e.g., government, standard-setting bodies) to make investment, credit, and other decisions.
The Committee recommends that Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) require that a company’s outside auditor discuss with the audit committee the auditor’s judgments about the quality, not just the acceptability, of the company’s accounting principles as applied in its financial reporting; the discussion should include such issues as the clarity of the company’s financial disclosures and degree of aggressiveness or conservatism of the company’s accounting principles and underlying estimates and other significant decisions made by management in preparing the financial disclosure and reviewed by the outside auditors. This requirement should be written in a way to encourage open,
Harmonization, comparability,
In this paper, we focus on the relationships between international accounting harmonization (IAH) and the paradigm of Fair Value Accounting (FVA). Accountants rely on the accounting concept of comparability in defining IAH and are in agreement that a set of internationally implemented Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is required for a “complete harmonization.” We argue, however, that a second requirement—a common denominator for measuring, recording, and reporting business transactions, assets, liabilities, and equities—is necessary to reach a state of a “complete IAH.” We explain the logic behind the requirement of a common denominator and assert that IAH is feasible under the paradigm of FVA, but not under that of Historical Cost Accounting (HCA). This is true because the concept of fair value, but not historical cost, provides the common denominator necessary for a meaningful comparison of accounting data. We then argue that the paradigm of FVA acts as a catalyst in a harmonization cycle: