...literature and propose a conceptual framework for accounts manipulation. This framework is based on the possibility of wealth transfer between the different stakeholders, and in practice, the target of the manipulation appears generally to be the earnings per share and the debt/equity ratio. The paper also describes the different actors involved and their potential gains and losses. We review the literature on the various techniques of accounts manipulation: earnings management, income smoothing, big bath accounting, creative accounting, and window-dressing. The various definitions of all these, the main motivations behind their application and the research methodologies used are all examined. This study reveals that all the above techniques have common elements, but there are also important differences between them. I. Introduction Finns have been manipulating accounts for a long time, and this practice, well known in the literature, has been given various names: earnings management, income smoothing, big bath accounting, creative accounting, and window dressing. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the literature and propose a conceptual framework for accounts...
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...originality of that standards even complying all the basic requirements. In this writing provide some discussion of literature review of the CEO changes and earnings management. Generally, according to big bath hypothesis, the CEO is trying to hide current higher earnings in order to secure their position in future drop earnings performance. In other hand, the contemporary CEO claim that he always does not have sufficient time especially on his first year tenure to show his capability, hence take opportunistically behavior by manipulate the account in achieving their target. Also, in few cases, CEO’s compensation also being some motivation factors. CEO big bath hypothesis Generally, the likelihood involuntary CEO turnover are positively related to a firm's earnings management. The relation surrounding CEO turnover also occurs either the current performance good or bad. Big Bath in accounting is a technique take by CEO in taken against income by reduce assets, which purposely to lower expenses in the future. Usually, they write-off or reduce the asset from the current year accounting period and results a lower net income for that current year. This purposely to create “big expenses” so that future years can show improvement income. The CEOs objective to engage in big bath behavior...
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...asset sales, provisions, accruals (discretionary) and direct changes to retained earnings. Types of Earnings Management: 1) Unsuitable revenue recognition 2) Inappropriate accruals and estimates of liabilities 3) Excessive provisions and generous reserve accounting 4) Intentional minor breaches of financial reporting requirements that tied to material breach. All of this had been used by some companies to influence the figures by bending the rules rather than breaking them, anticipate or increasing the income reduce or delay the recognition of the expenses and shifting way from debt or losses. Pattern of Earnings Management: 1) Big Bath accounting is the process where publicly traded corporations write-off or write-down certain assets from their balance sheets in a single year. The write-off will help remove or reduce the asset from the financial books and results in lower net income for that year. 2) Income Minimization 3) Income Maximization 4) Income Smoothing Motivations of Earnings Management: 1) Contractual motivations • Bonus plan hypothesis: to manage cash bonus...
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...|Topic in Mastery of the |Chapter 3 - Building Your |Chapter 4 – Brain Teasers: Using|Chapter 5 – Cases to Accompany | |Financial Accounting Research |Business Vocabulary: Defining |FARS to Untangle the Mystery |FARS [Related Assignments at End| |System (FARS) Through Cases 2nd |Terms and Solving Problems |[See Introduction and Example |of Cases] | |Edition by Wallace [Chapter 1 |Through FARS [See Introduction |pp. 4-1 to 4-7] | | |and 2 where noted] |and Example pp. 3-1 to 3-7] | | | |FASB, Standard Setting; GAAP; |Table 3.1 Accounting Standards; |1: How Many Standards Have Been |Case 12: Emerging Issues: The | |Governance; FARS [Chapter 1 – |Table 3.39 Regulated Industry; |Issued by FASB?; 2: Dissents |Agenda of FASB; [Case 8 Related:| |The Financial Accounting |Table 3.40 Specialized Industry |Portending Future?; 32: What |Does It Matter Where Guidance Is| |Research System (FARS) Primer.] |Considerations |Makes One GAAP Preferable to |Located?]; [Case 12 Related: Are| | | |Another?; 30: When Can Analogies|Accounting Rules to Blame?] | | | |Be Used?; 31: What Are the 10 | | | ...
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...ENRON: A CASE STUDY Q.1) Give the definition of earnings management. Discuss in what instances is earnings management acceptable and in what instances is it not acceptable? Earnings management is the process by which management can potentially manipulate the financial statements to represent what they wish to have happened during the period rather than what actually happened. Reasons why management may want to manage earnings include both internal and external pressures. Perhaps the most important section of this chapter is that of dealing with the common techniques used to manage earnings. It is through a thorough understanding of these methods that earnings management can be spotted. These strategies are important to know as an accountant, auditor, financial analyst, creditor, or investor. Healthy scepticism on the part of these various interests, and contributors, to the financial statements will further detection, and a reduction, of earnings management practices. By improving the quality of the information in financial statements, through better accounting standards and ethical behaviour, the cost of doing business decreases. Not only is this true with the cost of capital, as the chapter describes, but nowhere is it more clearly seen today than with the additional costs publicly traded companies are now faced with to come into compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Earnings management and unethical behaviour of the past is costing businesses more today...
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...Assignment Task The four largest Australian Banks have faced considerable pressure from the community and the government in recent times. This pressure has arisen due to their interest rate increases in association with their high reported earnings. As accountants, we are responsible for preparing financial statements and “calculating” the profit figures. In your opinion, do you think the big banks are managing their reported earnings to show lesser profits than what they are actually earning (i.e. using earnings management techniques)? You are required, and must, read and incorporate academic journal articles and other relevant materials to justify your viewpoint. INTRODUCTION Accounting can be broadly defined as the ‘measurement and communication’ of economic information to the decision makers (Watts and Zimmerman 1986). Accounting is divided into internal and external accounting on the basis of the users of the information (Spohr 2005). Spohr (2005) further highlights that the responsibility for preparing the external accounting information and publishing it lies with the managers of the firm. These managers rely on their inside knowledge of the firm’s current state to provide an accurate and fair picture of the financial state of the firm. The existence of accounting regulations and guidelines aims to improve the relevance and accuracy of the financial reports. However, this insider knowledge gained by managers can lead to information asymmetry. This occurs when...
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...Financial statements are management’s report to owners. 3 profit-seeking entities: Sole proprietorship simple to establish, owner controlled Unlimited liability (no legal separation). All profits and losses belong to owner, report income on tax returns. Business ends if owner dies, can sell it. Easy and inexpensive to operate. No reporting requirements. Partnership simple to establish, shared control, broader skills and resources Two or more owner-managers. Want a formal agreement covering $ contributions, workload, withdrawals, decision-making. Each partner’s net income reported on his or her personal tax form. No tax advantage. General Partners: have unlimited liability (person A and B legally connected). Limited Partners: limited involvement, limited liability (LLP at the end of the name). Ends if the partners die or dissolve it, can try to sell your portion. Corporation Easier to transfer ownership, easier to attract investors, no personal liability, tax advantages possible. Separate legal entity from owners. Owners called shareholders. Limited liability. Can only lose investment, not personal assets. Taxed separately from owners: corporate income tax. Tax deferral if income not paid out but double taxation. Indefinite life: owners can sell their shares, doesn’t affect operations. Most complex (and expensive) to operate: More regulations, but easier to raise additional capital. Corporate Organization:...
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...about the various aspects of cosmetic accounting .It also shows the opinions of internal auditors, external auditors and accountants raised some concerns as to whether these circumstances will last. 3 Field of Research: Accounting. Keywords: Cosmetic Accounting, Accountants. External Auditor, Internal Auditor, 1. Introduction Creative accounting is referred to also as income smoothing, earnings management, earnings smoothing, financial engineering and cosmetic accounting. The preferred term in the USA, and consequently in most of the literature on the subject is „earnings management‟, but in Europe the preferred term is „creative accounting‟ and so this is the term that will be used in this paper. It should be recognized that some accounting manipulation involves primarily balance sheet rather than earnings management. Definitions of creative accounting vary, and include „Is the deliberate dampening of fluctuations about “some level of earnings considered being normal for the firm” (Barnea et al. 1976). „Is any action on the part of management which affects reported income and which provides no true economic advantage to the organization and may in...
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...about the various aspects of cosmetic accounting .It also shows the opinions of internal auditors, external auditors and accountants raised some concerns as to whether these circumstances will last. 3 Field of Research: Accounting. Keywords: Cosmetic Accounting, Accountants. External Auditor, Internal Auditor, 1. Introduction Creative accounting is referred to also as income smoothing, earnings management, earnings smoothing, financial engineering and cosmetic accounting. The preferred term in the USA, and consequently in most of the literature on the subject is „earnings management‟, but in Europe the preferred term is „creative accounting‟ and so this is the term that will be used in this paper. It should be recognized that some accounting manipulation involves primarily balance sheet rather than earnings management. Definitions of creative accounting vary, and include „Is the deliberate dampening of fluctuations about “some level of earnings considered being normal for the firm” (Barnea et al. 1976). „Is any action on the part of management which affects reported income and which provides no true economic advantage to the organization and may in...
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...mismanagement. 11.2 Evidence of Earnings Management for Bonus Purposes In 1985 earnings management was researched to see if managers would manage net income so as to maximize their bonuses under their firm’s compensation plans. Healy examined firms whose compensation plans are based on current reported net income only, this is also known as bonus schemes. With a typical bonus scheme, reported net income will have a lower bound called bogey and upper bound called cap. A manager’s bonus will increase as reported net income increases, unless there is a cap at which point the bonus will remain the same as net income continues to increase beyond the cap. A manager will not receive any bonus when income is below the bogey. Healy predicted that when net income is between the bogey and cap is the manager motivated to adopt accounting policies to increase reported net income. Net income that is below the bogey or above the cap would motivate managers to “take a bath” whereby they will try to reduce or minimize net income. By taking a bath below the bogey, managers will then increase the probability of receiving a bonus the following year since current write-offs will reduce future amortization charges. Likewise, managers would take a bath (to a lesser extent) to decrease net income since a bonus would be permanently lost on reported net income...
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...SESSION 2013/2014 BKAL3063 INTEGRATED CADE STUDY ”CASE 2: LUOTANG POWER : VARIANCES EXPLAINED” GROUP : L (3) PREPARED FOR: PROF. MADYA. DR. ENGKU ISMAIL B. ENGKU ALI PREPARED BY: NURIN NAZMIN BT AHMAD FISOL 207704 TENGKU NADIRAH BT TENGKU DANIEL 207733 SABIRAH BT ABDULLAH 207783 NAJIHA BT MOHD MISBAHHUDDIN 207785 NUR AMALINA BT ABD GHANI 207791 SUBMISSION DATE : 06 OCTOBER 2013 Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 4 2.0 MAIN ISSUE 5 3.0 FINDINGS 7 4.0 STANDARD COST 12 5.0 RECOMMENDATION 13 6.0 CONCLUSION 15 1.0 INTRODUCTION Tan Min Yi who was the general manager of Luotang Power, a coal-fired power plant located in central China. He should make a presentation to the Board of Directors of his parent company, China Hua Tong Power (HT Power). Tan knew that his company had performed well during that year, both plant availability and fuel economy improved over the previous year but it just didn’t show up in the financial report. Hubei Provincial Power Company (HPPC) was the primary customer of Luotang that had made a contract for a minimum annual purchase of total electricity of 3,000,000MWh every year. However, there had been limited opportunity to sell energy above the contractual minimum, either to HPPC or others. If the amount of sell would be reduced, the contract required that Luotang sell amounts in excess of minimum annual purchase at approximately 65% of regular price. Luotang also made...
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...Research Paper No. 1976 International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality Mary E. Barth Wayne R. Landsman Mark H. Lang September 2007 RESEARCH PAPER SERIES http://ssrn.com/abstract=1029382 International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality Mary E. Barth* Graduate School of Business Stanford University Wayne R. Landsman and Mark H. Lang Kenan-Flagler Business School University of North Carolina September 2007 Forthcoming, Journal of Accounting Research * Corresponding author: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, 94305-5015, mbarth@stanford.edu. We appreciate helpful comments from Bill Beaver, Utpal Bhattacharya, Ole-Kristian Hope, Karl Lins, Doug Shackelford, Steve Young, Patricia Walters, T.J. Wong, Ray Ball (editor), an anonymous referee, and workshop participants at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Southern Methodist University, the 2005 Pennsylvania State University Accounting Research Conference, the 2005 Joint Journal of Accounting ResearchLondon Business School Conference on International Financial Reporting Standards, the 2006 New York University International Accounting Convergence and Capital Markets Integration Conference; research assistance of Yang Gui, Yaniv Konchitchki, and Christopher Williams; and funding from the Center for Finance and Accounting Research, Kenan-Flagler Business School. International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality Abstract We examine whether application...
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...Chapter 2 Financial Reporting and Analysis REVIEW Financial statements are the most visible products of a company’s financial reporting process. The financial reporting process is governed by accounting rules and standards, managerial incentives, and enforcement and monitoring mechanisms. It is important for a user of financial information to understand the financial reporting environment along with the accounting information presented in financial statements. In this chapter, the concepts underlying financial reporting are discussed with special emphasis on accounting rules. Next the purpose of financial reporting is discussed – its objectives and how these objectives determine both the quality of the accounting information and the principles that underlie the accounting rules. The relevance of accounting information for business analysis and valuation is also discussed and limitations of accounting information are identified. Last, accrual accounting is discussed including the strengths and limitation of accruals, and the implications of accruals for financial statement analysis. OUTLINE | | |Financial Reporting Environment | |Statutory Financial Reports ...
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...statement that summarizes a company's financial condition at a specific point in time, * Follows the formula Assets = Liabilities + Shareholder’s Equity, which makes sense because the company must pay for the resources it owns (assets) by either borrowing money (liabilities) or through the combo of money received from the sale of stock and money retained in the company from net income (shareholder’s equity). * The Income Statement: * Is a financial statement that measures a company's financial performance over a specific period of time, * Is divided into 2 sections: The operating section shows information about the company’s revenues and expenses that occurred due to their regular business operations (Apple selling an Ipad). The non-operating section shows the revenues and expenses as well as the gains and losses that were not tied to the company’s regular business operations (Apple selling a factory), * Is summarized by calculating net income or net loss, which indicates the profitability of the company. If the company has more (fewer) revenues than expenses for the period, it will have a net income (loss). * The Statement of Cash Flows: * Is necessary since companies tend to use the accrual accounting method (recognizing events regardless of when cash transactions occur), making the reporting of cash inflows and outflows for the period crucial, * Lists all of the cash that went in to the company and that came out of the company, * Is divided into 3 sections:...
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...Introduction to Earnings: Earnings are the fundamental indicator of a company’s value. Also referred to as ‘the bottom line’ and the ‘net income’, a company’s earnings is seen as the most important figure in a company’s financial statement as it is the summary measure of a company’s performance using the accrual basis of accounting. The theoretical value of a company’s stock is the present value of future earnings, or its ability to generate profit in the future (Lev, B. (1989). Earnings have a corresponding relationship with the projected value of a company with increased earnings representing an increase in company value which is inversely so for companies with lower earnings. Part A: Earnings Quality Although it is very common for investors to look at earnings in terms of quantity, the amount that the company has earned, developing an understanding of the quality of those earnings is vital to forecasting the quantity and credibility of future earnings of the company (smith). As reported earnings are a predominant driver of success, the reporting of earnings is a crucial business area that requires focus and direction. As so much of a businesses future and value is reflected in its earnings, it is very important that investors are provided with information that is free from mistakes and manipulation in order to get a true illustration of that company’s performance. The extent to which the financial performance is free from these errors and manipulations refers to the...
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