Accounting convention-Meaning,Understanding,Methods,Application (Commerce Achiever)

What Is an Accounting Convention?

Accounting conventions are guidelines used to help companies determine how to record certain business transactions that have not yet been fully addressed by accounting standards. These procedures and principles are not legally binding but are generally accepted by accounting bodies. Basically, they are designed to promote consistency and help accountants overcome practical problems that can arise when preparing financial statements.

KEY POINTS

Understanding an Accounting Convention

Sometimes, there is not a definitive guideline in the accounting standards that govern a specific situation. In such cases, accounting conventions can be referred to.

Accounting Convention Methods

There are four main accounting conventions designed to assist accountants:

• Conservatism: Playing it safe is both an accounting principles and convention. It tells accountants to err on the side of caution when providing estimates for assets and liabilities. That means that when two values of a transaction are available, the lower one should be favored. The general concept is to factor in the worst-case scenario of a firm’s financial future.
• Consistency: A company should apply the same accounting principles across different accounting cycles. Once it chooses a method it is urged to stick with it in the future, unless it has a good reason to do otherwise. Without this convention, investors’ ability to compare and assess how the company performs from one period to the next is made much more challenging.
• Full Disclosure: Information considered potentially important and relevant must be revealed, regardless of whether it is detrimental to the company.
• Materiality: Like full disclosure, this convention urges companies to lay all their cards on the table. If an item or event is material, in other words important, it should be disclosed. The idea here is that any information that could influence the decision of a person looking at the financial statement must be included.

Areas Where Accounting Conventions Apply

Accounting conservatism may be applied to inventory valuations. When determining the reporting value of inventory, conservatism dictates that the lower of historical cost or replacement cost should be the monetary value.

Estimations such as uncollectible accounts recievables and casualty losses also use the conservatism convention. If a company expects to win a litigation claim, it cannot report the gain until it meets all revenue recognition principles. However, if a litigation claim is expected to be lost, an estimated economic impact is required in the notes to the financial statements. Contigent liabilities such as royalty payments or unearned revenue are to be disclosed, too.