However, they have also changed the face of the accounting profession in a way that will affect the education and conduct of accountants in the future. In the future, the accountant will have to do more than to balance the books. In order to understand the potential educational requirements for accountants in the future, we will examine how they have changed historically and then apply the changes that have

. Some important ideas to keep in mind are that historical cost can be more reliable than fair value accounting (Flegm, 2008). As Laux and Leuz (2010) note, some have argued that fair value accounting was partly responsible for the great financial crisis of 2008. Thus, it is very important that cost accounting be approached honestly in every way.(Revise feedback for highlight area above: Historical is required by US GAAP

Failure-to-Disclose Disclosure & Financial Accounting Environmental and Financial Factors in the Petroleum Industry The petroleum industry has a unique responsibility in the initiative to practice environmental safeguarding while producing the petroleum products in such great demand. The financial manager must be decide what weight to apply to costs in terms of new processes and methods that are efficient as well as environmentally friendly and complaint. Weighing Costs in Failure-to-Disclose Environmental and Financial Factors in

Accounting Qualitative Characteristics of Financial Statements There are four principal qualitative characteristics that make the information provided in financial statements useful to users. These are understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability. The first section of this paper will be dedicated to explaining each of these concepts and how they relate to making financial statements more valuable for the audience. The first principal qualitative characteristic is understandability. This relates not only to the information but

Accounting forms the overall backbone of the financial world. Financial markets are predicated on consumer and user confidence. Without confidence, consumers attempting to make financial decisions will be doing so using inaccurate and incomplete information. The lack of transparency regarding the truthfulness of reported numbers creates uncertainty within the capital markets. This uncertainty regarding the accuracy of information ultimately undermines the overall financial system, causing harm to society in the

Accounting of Enron In recent months the rules regarding special purpose entitles have come under great scrutiny. Special purpose entities allow firms to raise debt while at the same time making it almost impossible for investors to determine the actual amount of debt exposure. ("Special Purpose Entities are Often a Clever Way to Raise Debt Levels") Thus was the case with Enron, which collapsed in 2001 when their fraudulent accounting practice