昆明理工大学英文 4昆明理工大学-论文英文附录

附录（英译文献）

【英文原文】

The future of Accounting and Financial Reporting

PartⅡ: The Colorized Approach

In this sequel to an earlier Commentary on the Future of Accounting and Financial Reporting, the author first discusses the importance of accounting and financial reporting to (1) asset, capital and investment allocation, (2) contracting and "expose settling up," and (3) corporate stewardship and monitoring. He then reviews several reasons for the concern that accounting and financial reporting are becoming increasingly less useful, including changing concepts of the traditional term, recognition and measurement difficulties, issues related to the timeliness of financial reports, and limitations associated with current information distribution channels. A refinement to the current "black and white" accounting paradigm is suggested to begin to address certain of these concerns, and to quicken the debate on the need and benefits for change. By decreasing the emphasis currently devoted to determining whether a particular item should be recognized, and focusing greater attention on whether the item is relevant and the degree of attestation that may be associated with any related disclosure, a more finely textured "colorized" accounting model might be developed. The goal of such a system would be to provide more useful information in connection with accounting and financial reporting, while maintaining the current core disclosures. The author provides examples of how the "colorized" model might operate, discusses limitations of the model, and suggests that greater attention be devoted to refining the current accounting paradigm to meet the needs of users of accounting and financial information better, regardless of whether such a "colorized" model is ever adopted. The Importance of Accounting and Financial Reporting

From the most generalized perspective, the purpose of accounting and financial reporting is to provide information that is useful to investors, creditors, monitors and others—increasingly

including employees and major suppliers and customers—^in making investment, credit, monitoring and other decisions. This general goal may be further defined and analyzed by describing three specific and distinct purposes and functions of financial reporting: (1) asset, capital and investment allocation; (2) "contracting" and "ex post settling-up"; and (3) corporate stewardship and monitoring.

Determining "What" to Value: Recognition and Measurement Issues

We also should question exactly "what" it is we are measuring and reporting. As discussed above, historically, the assets and liabilities used to produce wealth were recognized in financial statements at cost and were "hard" or tangible—like plant and equipment. However, the shift to a knowledge-based economy has created or focused increased attention on entirely different categories of assets such as brand names and other "soft" assets previously mentioned.

With certain limited exceptions, such as the purchase of a brand name, these "soft" assets are not recognized in the financial statements. The primary obstacles relate to valuation difficulties, the inherent uncertainty of any value ultimately determined, and the resulting potential for fraud. As a result of these concerns, we attribute no value in financial reports to something as obviously significant as Disney"s Mickey Mouse. This cannot be the correct result for the long-term utility of financial reporting, particularly given the increasing importance of firms with "soft" assets.

Some suggest that the values of these assets are ultimately reflected, implicitly, in the statement of cash flows or in earnings, and therefore they need not be reflected elsewhere. Unfortunately, however, because it would make life very easy if such an answer were right, the same can be said for all other assets on the balance sheet. Our task then is either to improve the credibility and reliability of soft asset valuations, or to find other creative solutions to the problem—not to ignore this fast growing segment of our economy.

"When" to Report? The Timeliness of Financial Reporting

The rapid acceleration of events that may significantly affect share values has started to

make our system of annual audits and quarterly reports obsolete. Today’s annual and even quarterly reports—relying on recognized items as the core of the reports—do not capture and communicate material developments in sufficient time to meet the markets information needs. Product cycles have shortened, risk management practices have improved and are more prevalent, and products and whole companies become obsolete much more quickly now than ever before. It is hard to obtain a good picture of an3hing that is moving so quickly and changing so often when only snapshots are taken at relatively long intervals. As I mentioned last year, I am not now suggesting a system of monthly, weekly, or daily audits and report filings with the Commission. I am suggesting, though, that overtime we will need to develop a system that fills the need for timely—and ultimately real-time—financial information. Forward looking information will obviously be an increasingly critical component of the disclosures.

A Different Perspective: Color VS. Black And Whit e

Background is divided into four broad segments. At the first level we have the financial statements themselves, which focus on recognized items that pertain to the resources (assets) of an entity, the claims to such resources (liabilities and equity) and the results of operations. Within this system, the recognition of items in the financial statements assumes primary standing. To be recognized in financial statements an item must meet each of four criteria:

? First, the item must meet the definition of an element of those financial statements:

It must be an asset, liability or component of equity;

? Secon d, the item must be measurable: It must be susceptible to quantification in monetary units with sufficient reliability;

? Third, the item must be relevant: It must make a difference to the investment or credit decision; and

? Finally, the item must be reliable: It must have representational faithfulness, be verifiable and neutral.

It is generally expected that the most useful information about assets, liabilities, revenues,

expenses and other items of financial statements would be recognized. There is also an expectation that such information would have utility in making capital allocation decisions. That is, it can be used to help predict future cash flows and is comparable across entities. In addition, because such information is viewed as more reliable and is audited, it is viewed as having greater utility in contracting and monitoring. The second subset of financial reporting consists of the notes to the financial statements. The notes are designed to explain information in the financial statements. The final two categories are supplementary information (such as information related to changing prices) and other information supplied by a company (such as management"s discussion and analysis). This information adds to the financial statements or the notes. It often includes information that may be relevant but that does not meet all criteria for recognition. It is frequently not subject to third party attestation.

The current accounting and financial reporting model works reasonably well for many of the items that are recognized within financial statements. However, the model increasingly is subject to criticism. First, potentially relevant items are omitted because they do not meet recognition criteria (usually due to reliability concerns). Second, items that are less and less useful due to valuation or other concerns are nevertheless included. Finally, it is not always clear why soirée information is included and other information is excluded from financial reports. These concerns are exacerbated by the developments in the general business environment previously discussed.

The Alternative Model

In response to these concerns, I believe it is time to refine our perspective on financial reporting. We need, in particular, to move away from a model that primarily relies on black and white recognition in the financial statements. We need to move towards a model where financial statements and related disclosures are viewed more as different layers of information—just as a finely textured color picture can provide more information than a black and white representation.

The model that I am about to describe may be viewed as refining the current system by adding new sets or layers of information. It also refocuses our analysis to de-emphasize recognition and towards providing greater disclosure of useful information.

In this model, the primary focus is on providing relevant information, with specification of both the items to be reported and the form and level of assurance of these items. The most relevant and reliably measured items would represent the core of the financial reports—the clear black and white, with no shades of gray or color—similar to the recognized content of the financial statement items in today’s model. Successive outer layers of the financial reporting picture would consist of information that meet some—but not all—of the requirements of recognition, or that are not as susceptible to verification procedures.

Under this approach, instead of starting with the question of whether an item must be recognized in the financial statements, the first question would be whether an item should be part of the firm"s financial disclosure, with a progression then to a discussion of the appropriate layer in which the item should be reported. Such a framework—where the different layers of information could reflect in essence, different levels of satisfaction of the traditional recognition criteria concepts(e.g., relevance, reliability, measurability),or could reflect entirely different concepts—will be useful in progressing beyond the current recognition versus non-recognition debates.

Application of this model to the current business environment requires: (1) specification of the additional layers, outside the core financial statements, including the criteria for inclusion of items in one layer versus another, and (2) consideration of how different levels of attestation might attach to information in the various layers. Admittedly, establishing these components of this model is not an easy task. However, for discussion purposes, specification of the differing layers might be based, in part, on existing recognition criteria (as articulated in FASB Concepts Statement No. 5(1984)).

Distinctions from the Current Model

There are several distinctions between the colorized model and the current accounting and financial reporting model. First, as noted above the colorized approach places the emphasis of financial reporting on providing information that is relevant and useful and having a high degree of utility to investment, credit or other decisions as opposed to deciding whether information should be recognized in the financial statements. While recognition is an important concept in this new model, it should be remembered that recognized information is a subset of financial reporting and the goal is to present information that users find useful. With the colorized approach, the primary role of recognition would be in connection with items for which there was general agreement on the high degree of relevance, reliability and measurement for the first or core level of presentation. As the relevance, reliability and measurement of particular items became more or less generally acceptable to financial standard setters and users of information, the core would expand and contract as necessary. But recognition would be de-emphasized in that

In sum, the colorized approach is more aligned with the purposes of financial reporting and more compatible with dealing with the d3Tiamic nature of information that is relevant to end-users of financial reporting, than the current black and white system. It allows us to make finer distinctions among various types of information, thereby avoiding the daunting task of determining whether items that are close to the recognition/non-recognition line are in or out of the financial reporting paradigm.

Source:Steven M. H. Wallman. The Future of Accounting and Financial Reporting Part ii: The Colorized Approach. Accounting Horision 1996（6）

【中文译文】

未来的会计和财务报告第二部分:彩色的方法

在这部有点像续评以前有关未来会计与财务报告的文章中,作者首先论述了会计与财务报告的重要性:(1)资产、资金和投资分配间的关系,(2)签订合同和“事后解决”和(3)公司的管理和监控。然后综述了有关财务报告越来越缺乏有用性这一会计难点出现的相关原因：包括传统公司概念的转变、确认和计量的困难、财务报告的及时性以及当前信息分布渠道下的局限性。提炼目前的“黑和白”会计模式可看做是着手对以上特定的一些问题的关注，加快了民众对辩论和福利改变的需要。通过减少重点，目前用于确定一个特定的项目是否予以承认，判断重点主要放在这些项目是否具有相关性和与相关披露的相关联的程度，这样一个结构更完整的“彩色会计模式”就得到了发展的可能。这样的模式目标在于为信息使用者提供与会计和财务报告相联系的更有用的信息，同时也包括对核心问题的披露。作者提供的例子说明了如何将“彩色模式”在实务中加以应用，探讨了这种模式的局限性，并着重为改善当前会计模式，使之更好的满足会计和财务信

息使用者的需要，提出了自己的建议。

会计和财务报告的重要性

从最广义的角度来看,会计与财务报告的目标是提供对投资者、债权人、监管者、员工、主要供应商,顾客等利益相关者，有助于投资、信贷、监测等决策的信息。这个总的目标可能通过描述三个具体不同的财务报告的目的和功能得以进一步界定和分析:(1)资产、资金和投资分配间的关系,(2)签订合同和“事后解决”和(3)公司的管理和监控。决定什么该被确认为价值：确认与计量问题

我们也应该质疑什么是该计量和报告的。如上所述,从历史上看,用来制造财富的资产和负债按取得时的实际成本计入财务报告中，像厂房和设备等有形资产一样实现“硬着陆”。然而,转向以知识为基础的经济已经创造或有针对性的把注意力集中在完全不同类别的资产上,比如品牌和其他前面提到的“软”资产。

当然也存在某些有限的例外,例如购入一个品牌,这些“软”资产就不被确认进的财务报表。最主要的障碍与确认价值的困难有关,判定任何有价值的不确定性,最终导致潜在的

欺诈行为。由于这些问题,我们忽略了在财务报告中明显重要的像迪士尼的米老鼠等之类无形资产的价值计算。对于长期效用财务报告，这不可能是正确的结果,尤其是考虑到公司“软”资产重要性的提高。

一些人认为,这些资产的价值最终含蓄地体现在现金流或收益的报表中,因此,就不需要在其他地方再加反映。然而,遗憾的是,如果这种回答是对的,那么生活很容易了，同样对于资产负债表里的所有资产的计量也就容易多。我们的任务则是提高软资产估价的可信性和可靠性,或者在考虑这个发展迅速的经济背景下，找到其他有创造性的解决方案。"何时"被报告?财务报告的及时性

明显影响股价系统的加速事件已开始使年度审核和季度报告过时。目前的年度甚至季度报告-以已确认的项目为核心的报告-不足以在有限的时间内捕捉和传达信息的发展，以满足市场对信息需求。产品周期已被缩短,风险管理实务有长足的进步,变得更普遍,产品及整个公司被淘汰的速度比以往任何时候都快。而在事物改变和移动的那么快的境况下，较长时间间隔内的快照，是很难得到一张好照片的。像我去年提到的那样, 我现在不是建议建立一个每月，每周或每天都向委员会审核和报告文件的系统。我只是认为，我们需要建立一个系统,及时或适时的满足我们对财务信息的需要。有前瞻性的信息显然会成为一个越来越重要的披露组成部分。

一种不同的观点:颜色vs.黑与白

背景被分为四个主要的部分。在第一个层次,我们有自己的财务报表,关注实体企业资源(资产)已确认项目、对这种资源(负债和股权)的利益诉求和经营结果。在这个系统下，已被确认的项目在财务报表中承担主要地位。要认识到列入财务报表中的每一个项目必须符合四个准则:

?第一,该项目必须符合财务报表中元素的定义。它必须是一个资产、负债或权益的组成部分

?第二,项目必须可计量:它一定要容易量化，货币单位有足够的可靠度

?第三,项目必须有关:它一定会影响投资或信贷决策。

?最后,该项目必须是可靠的:它一定具有代表性的忠诚，可以证实的和中立。

人们普遍认为关于资产、负债、收入、费用和其他项目的最有用的信息将在财务报表中得到确认。也有一个期望,认为这些信息将有助于资本配置的决策，也就是说,它可以被用来帮助预测未来的现金流量,提高实体企业间的可比性。此外,因为这些信息被看作是更可靠和被审计过,它被看作在签订合同和监控上有很大的效用。第二部分的财务报告由会计报表附注组成，这些附注被用来解释财务报告中的信息。最后两个类别是补充信息(如价格变化)和其他公司提供的信息(如管理部门的内部讨论和分析）。这些信息增加了财务报表或其附注的内容，它通常包括相关的但不满足确认标准的项目，也常常不受到第三方的认证。

当前会计和财务报告模型中有许多合理的项目在财务报告中得到了确认。然而,该模型越来越受批评。首先，潜在的有关事项被忽略了，因为他们不符合确认条件(通常是由可靠性确认）。然后，在价值或其他标准下有用性越来越差的项目仍然是包括在内。最后，它并不总能解释为什么有些信息被包括而有些信息被排除于财务报告。而这些问题在一般商业环境被预先讨论的情况下更为恶化了。

另一种模式

针对这些问题，我相信是时候改变我们对财务报告的某些观点。我们尤其需要抛弃主要依靠黑与白确认项目的传统财务报表模式,而引入一个模型，能够在不同层面对财务报表和相关披露进行查看，就像一结构更为完整的彩色照片能提供比黑白下更多的信息。

我即将介绍的模型，被认为是通过增加新的部分或多层的信息来完善当前的系统。它巩固了我们不再重视确认的观念，同时提供了更多有用信息的披露。

在该模型中,主要关注提供相关信息,比如有规格说明的事项的报告、形式和可信程度。最有关和最可靠的已计量项目为核心的黑与白的财务报表模式，将与今天的彩色模式，在已确认的列入财务报表项目上，有很大的相似性。连续的外层财务报告将由不是满足所有确认条件的项目组成,或者对核查程序不那么敏感。

用这个方法,而不是考虑某一项目是否该在财务报表中得以确认,第一个问题是关于一个项目应不应该列入公司的财务披露,进而接着来讨论在何种情况下，项目该被报告。这样的框架，将使不同层次的信息得以在报表中反映，本质上，则满足了不同层次的传统

确认标准(例如相关性、可靠性、可测性)，同时，也搁置了当前对于确认与不确认的争议，对会计工作的顺利展开很有帮助。

在目前的商业环境应用此模型,需要:(1)在财务报表核心之外的额外层次的说明书,包括不同层次中项目标准的设立(2)考虑不同层次的认证如何提供不同层次的信息。诚然,建立该模型是件不容易的任务。然而,为了讨论的需要，规格不同的层次的建立,在某种程度上，将依据现有的确认条件(如FASB第5号声明(1984年)中的相关内容)。

与目前模式的区别

彩色模式和当前的会计与财务报告模式有几个区别。首先,如上所述的彩色的方法,强调对财务报告提供相关有用的信息,对投资、信用贷款或其它的决策有高度的效用,而不是决定信息是否应确认列入财务报表。确认在新模式下是一个非常重要的概念,在这个新模式中,我们必须记住,已被确认的信息是财务报告的一部分，目标是为使用者提供有用的信息。在彩色的方法下,被确认的项目将以高度的相关性、可靠性和可计量性为第一或核心判断条件，也就是相关性、可靠性和可计量性符合条件的项目，将或多或少的，更容易被经济准则制定者和信息使用者接受,核心的项目将会随着客观条件的转变而膨胀和收缩。但确认将不再作为被强调的一大问题。

总之，彩色的方法在目标上与财务报告更为一致，并协调处理动态的信息，与黑与白的模式比起来，更好的为终端财务报告使用者服务。它允许我们对各种类型的信息做出更好的区别,因此避免了对某些项目是否达到确认标准，该不该

被列入财务报表等此类技术性难点的阻碍。

资料来源：史蒂文·渥尔曼.未来的会计和财务报告第二部分：彩色的方法.会计视野.1996年6月

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