Regulation

Abstract

In Chapter 1 the concept of a country’s accounting system was introduced, being defined as the set of rules that governs the practice of financial reporting in that country. In financial reporting there are many different types of rules and they cover a very wide spectrum, ranging from, at one extreme, laws which must be obeyed under sanction of penalties imposed by the state, through accounting standards, which, according to the country, may or may not possess the authority of law, to, at the other extreme, accounting conventions which have no legal standing but which, nevertheless, accountants generally follow. However all these rules, irrespective of their authority, are significant for an understanding of financial reporting practice in a country, that is for the analysis of the behaviour of accountants when they prepare financial statements. Much of this book is given over to an analysis of these rules, with this chapter serving as a general introduction. However, before commencing this task it is appropriate to ask the fundamental question: ‘why, in financial reporting, are rules necessary?’