财务会计：基于价值还是基于交易

Is Financial Accounting Based on Transaction or Based on Value

企业是一个契约的组合,契约达成的条件之一是具有可验证的变量,财务会计信息因基于过去的交易和复式簿记方法而区别于其他信息,成为可以验证的信息,会计政策因此成为契约的一个组成部分。企业战略面向未来,体现为契约或契约变更,战略是管理层向投资者承诺的重要内容,也是投资者和分析师估计企业未来业绩的重要因素,战略的恰当性以及战略的实施效果需要用过去已经发生的事实来验证,会计信息是履行契约的结果,因此,财务会计是一个验证战略恰当性的系统。盈余意外证明了财务会计信息的验证作用,投资者根据对企业未来现金流量的估计对股票进行估价,会计信息通过证实原来的估计向投资者传递管理层履行战略的能力,也传递分析师的专业能力。因此,基于交易的财务会计在市场上的作用是验证过去,而不是面向未来,尽管历史成本会计信息也可以用于估价。

Financial accounting is becoming more value-based.However,firm is a nexus of contracts.Contracts can be reached only with verifiable variables.Financial accounting information is distinguished from other information due to its past transaction basis and double entry rules,which make financial accounting information relatively more reliable.Therefore,accounting policies become an inherent part of contracts.Strategies are looking-forward reflection of contracts or modified-contracts.They are commitments of the management made to investors.The appropriateness of strategies and the performance of strategy implementation are verified by the facts occurred in the past.Financial accounting information is the result of enforcing contracts.Therefore,financial accounting is a process of verifying strategy enforcement.The function of accounting verification in capital markets is proved by earnings surprises.Earnings surprises sig- nal the new information by verifying earnings forecasts with the realized accounting earnings.Therefore,the transaction-besed financial accounting is designed to verify the past performance rather than to predict the future.