注会-会计英语讲义(2)

会计英语基础讲义

5. Qualitative characteristics 会计信息质量特征

(1) Reliability 可靠性

For accounting information to be reliable, it must be dependable and trustworthy. Accounting information is reliable to the extent that it is：

Verifiable：means that information has been objectively determined, arrived at, or created. More than one person could consider the facts of a situation and reach a similar conclusion.

Representationally faithful：that something is what it is represented to be. For example, if a machine is listed as a fixed asset on the balance sheet, then the

company can prove that the machine exists, is owned by the company, is in working condition, and is currently being used to support the revenue generating activities of the company.

Neutral：means that information is presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and practices, and without bias.

(2) Relevance 相关性

Relevant information is capable of making a difference in the decisions of users by helping them to evaluate the potential effects of past, present, or future transactions or other events on future cash flows (predictive value) or to confirm or correct their previous evaluations (confirmatory value).

(3) Understandability 可理解性

Understandability is the quality of information that enables users who have a

reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and financial reporting, and who study the information with reasonable diligence, to comprehend its meaning.

(4) Comparability 可比性

Comparability： suggests that accounting information that has been measured and reported in a similar manner by different enterprises should be capable of being compared because each of the enterprises is applying the same generally accepted accounting principles and practices.

Consistency： suggests that an entity has used the same accounting principle or practice from one period to another, therefore, if the dollar amount reported for a category is different from one period to the next, then chances are that the difference is due to a change like an increase or decrease in sales volume rather than being due to a change in the method of calculating the dollar amount.

(5) Substance over form 实质重于形式

Substance over form emphasizes the economic substance of an event even though its legal form may provide a different result.

It requires that business enterprise should perform accounting recognition,

measurement and reporting in accordance with the economic substance rather than the legal form of an event or transaction.

(6) Materiality 重要性

Information is material if its omission or misstatement could influence the resource allocation decisions that users make on the basis of an entity’s financial report. Materiality depends on the nature and amount of the item judged in the particular