Question

Long Answer Question

Explain the nature of the financial statements.

Answer 1

The financial statements are the end-products of the accounting process. The financial statements not only reveal the true financial position of the company but also help various accounting users in decision making and policy designing process. The nature of the financial statements depends upon the following aspects like recorded facts, conventions, concepts, and personal judgment

1. Recorded facts- The items recorded in the financial statements reflect their original cost i.e. the cost at which they were acquired. Consequently, financial statements do not reveal the current market price of the items. Further, financial statements fail to capture the inflation effects.

2. Conventions- The preparation of financial statements is based on some accounting conventions like, Prudence Convention, Materiality Convention, Matching Concept, etc. The adherence to such accounting conventions makes financial statements easy to understand, comparable and reflects the true and fair financial position of the company.

3. Accounting Assumptions − These basic accounting assumptions like Going Concern Concept, Money Measurement Concept, Realisation Concept, etc are called as postulates. While preparing financial statements, certain postulates are adhered to. The nature of these postulates is reflected in the nature of the financial statements.

4. Personal Judgments- Personal value judgments play an important role in deciding the nature of the financial statements. Different judgments are attached to different practices of recording transactions in the financial statements. For example, recording stock either at market value or at the cost requires value judgment. Similarly, provision on various assets, method of charging depreciation, period related to writing off intangible assets depends on personal judgment. Thus, personal judgments determine the nature of the financial statements to a great extent.