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I am going to speak on the general topic of electronic information, that is to say information provided in electronic form. I am going to give very much an overview presentation and a fairly brief presentation.

In this paper, the author of the Auditor's Dictionary: Terms, Concepts, Processes, and Regulations reflects on the challenges and implications of dictionary‐writing. The paper takes the form of a discursive literary review. Preparation of the Auditor's Dictionary offered insights into contentious aspects of lexicography, ranging from definitions of the term “dictionary” to the subjective nature of lexical selection. The Auditor's Dictionary also illuminated a number of characteristics of auditing, including the nature of auditing's intellectual foundations; its rather loose lexicon; its increasing self‐assertion as a field independent of accounting; and the discipline's social status and credibility. The traditional subsuming of the auditing lexicon within accounting dictionaries has reflected the historical origins of auditing within accounting, but it does not reflect the increasingly independent status of auditing as a standalone discipline. The Auditor's Dictionary may assist in reinforcing the conceptual peg on which the language of auditing rests. In addition, dictionaries often act as more than information providers – they frequently take on the role of cultural artefact or ideological instrument. The existence of a dictionary for a field of activity can be a signal of status and credibility, and the Auditor's Dictionary may have potential repercussions for the intellectual and professional status of auditing.

This extensive extract from the proposed rules on how to disclose financial instruments and similar items in the income statement of banks and other financial institutions develops the thinking of the joint working group set up to prepare global standards in this field. The extract covers the critical issue of disclosure in the income statements of such organisations. As such it is the most comprehensive summation of the arguments involved yet produced.

The purpose of this study is to identify how different Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) influence property management. The study is based on two basic accounting principles for the valuation of assets: fair value and historical cost. The study focuses on land and buildings as a main part of the total fixed assets of a company. It uses the framework of the Greek real estate market as an experimental setting where the principles of historic cost and fair value accounting can be compared.

The topic is approached using an integration of fixed assets into four main portfolio categories: own used; investments; held for sale assets; and inventories. According to this framework the study examines the accounting treatments under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), US GAAP and Greek GAAP for each portfolio transaction and analyses the impact of accounting entries to equity and profit and loss account.

The study results to a comparative analysis of the different studied GAAP and tries to establish a purchase price allocation method for property acquisition.

The contribution of this article is that it surveys principles, literature and practice about the above issues from a critical perspective, and presents a way to managing and monitoring real estate investments, using logical decision trees, from an accounting point of view.

This chapter explores the link between virtue and representational faithfulness in making judgments in a principles-based environment. The motivation for the chapter is the impending adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the United States and its principles-based approach to accounting. Even in a rules-based system, there are principles that provide a foundation for making decisions about the selection and implementation of accounting standards, financial statement presentation, estimates, and the sufficiency of evidence. A model is presented that reflects these judgments informed by virtue considerations that support substance over form decisions and a true and fair view. Implications for accounting education are discussed including the readiness of faculty to incorporate IFRS into the curriculum.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of ASU 2016–01 on the predictive value, the confirmatory value and the value relevance of earnings. One of the key provisions of ASU 2016–01 is the requirement that all changes in unrealized gains and losses on all equity securities are recognized in income instead of other comprehensive income (OCI) as under prior guidance (SFAS 115). Because many companies in the insurance industry are large holders of equity securities, the sample for this study consists of firms from the insurance industry.

The author compares the change in earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast error for the periods before and after adoption of ASU 2016–01, and the relationship between the percentages of assets invested in equity securities for both earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast error. Further, the author tests the price reaction at the time of the release of earnings using an event study. The author also tests the value reliance of earnings measured by the correlation of earnings and stock prices, as well as the change in earnings and stock returns. The association between investment gain/loss components of earnings, and OCI, with stock prices and returns is tested for value relevance.

The findings of this study show that earnings volatility and analysts’ forecast errors increased in the period after adopting ASU 2016–01 and an initial overreaction to earnings releases. Further, the investment gain/loss components of earnings and OCI are not value-relevant in this study and including unrealized gains/losses on equity securities in income decreased value relevance of earnings in the post-adoption period, particularly for firms with large equity investment portfolios.

This study is limited to one industry and only represents the impact of ASU 2016–01 on that industry. Thus, there are opportunities to extend the research to other industries. Furthermore, the time-period of study since adopting ASU 2016–01 is limited to only two years and with the passage of time, a greater sample of post-ASU 2016–01 will be available for testing.

Standard setters considering recognizing fair value changes on all investment securities in income should consider the findings of this study. Further, industry participants affected by ASU 2016–01 should consider improving explanation of earnings to mitigate the initial misunderstanding of earning announcements found in this study.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study on the effects of ASU 2016–01 on volatility of earnings, earnings forecast errors, market reactions to earnings releases and the value relevance of earnings. This paper fills a gap in prior research by studying the effects of fair value on reported earnings, which is limited in prior research. This study contributes to the growing field of research on fair value accounting.

Examines the changing employment needs in licensed retailing in particular the need for highly skilled management. The increasing sophistication of pub retailing is addressed along with the growth of the food provision in pubs. The paper identifies a skills gap in licensed retailing management and calls for increased opportunities for graduate trainees. The case of Bass taverns is discussed.

Although the intention of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is not to permit choices in the accounting treatment of similar transactions and events, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) still contain various choices of accounting treatment. Different accounting alternatives for similar transactions limit the comparability of financial information. Certain accounting policies result in differences in recognition, measurement and disclosures. This article identifies 16 such accounting policy choices and presents the descriptive empirical results on which accounting policies were in fact chosen by a sample of 157 South African listed companies, in cases where IFRSs allow a choice between alternative accounting policies. Disclosure of accounting policies is necessary for the users of financial statements to enable them to compare the financial statements of various entities in making economic decisions. The research also found a lack of disclosures relating to chosen accounting policies in limited cases.

This paper aims to examine how auditors make sense of the ill-theorized and contentious notion of other comprehensive income (OCI), specifically by uncovering their use of metaphors to make OCI plausible and intelligible.

This interpretative paper draws on a collection of 21 interviews with experienced auditors. The analysis first uncovers metaphors that naturally surface within the talk and sensemaking of auditors about OCI (elicited metaphors). The authors then encapsulate these elicited metaphors into second-order constructs (projected metaphors) to synthesize and further explain auditors’ practical sensemaking.

Auditors conceive OCI as a “safety” that ensures the well-functioning of fair value accounting, metaphorically qualifying this notion as a “necessary evil”, a “passage obligé”, and a “parking lot” resolving fair value-related issues and aberrations. Auditors also metaphorize OCI as a “purifier” that allows “polluted”, “noisy”, and “unloved” items to be “parked” outside net income.

The study’s findings further the understanding of auditors’ tendency to remain uncritical throughout their sensemaking process. Making sense of professional standards of practice through metaphors indubitably involves shadowing and silencing other worldviews.

This paper extends knowledge of auditors’ sensemaking, specifically showing how auditors easily make sense of complex notions even in the absence of conceptual grounds. This study also highlights that metaphors are a powerful sensemaking device that auditors mobilize to render complex notions intelligible and mitigate IFRS inconsistencies.