IX.
Conclusions
I expect that on a first blush the proposed New Accounting will seem to some readers as overly ambitious and expansive, too intrusive and excessively costly to maintain, both in terms of direct cost and exposing managers to shareholder litigation.
My reaction to these and related concerns:
The proposed system is indeed ambitious, expanding traditional accounting to the non-transaction and non-financial domains.
But that just reflects decision makers’ information requirements in the current fast changing global economic environment.
This becomes clear when one realizes that the proposed system incorporates the major information elements in the currently popular economic value added measures (e.g., the capitalization of all intangible investments) and the balance scorecard systems (e.g., focus on nonfinancial indicators), whose popularity among managers derives from the shortcomings of accounting.
The proposed system adds to these information modes coherence and structure.
But the need for significantly richer information than is currently provided by GAAP is clearly demonstrated by managers.
Regarding the intrusiveness of the proposed system and litigation exposure, it’s important to note that the system is mainly aimed at internal reporting. As is the case with current financial reporting, the externally disclosed information will be at a higher level of aggregation than the internal information to assure a certain discretion of proprietary information..
The precise nature of the information required, or encouraged to be disclosed will have to await a certain period of experimentation with the disclosure of the new information.
Policymakers (SEC, FASB, AICPA) should play an important role in the development of New Accounting, focusing on the standardization of the new information.
Non-standardized information, such as the various customer satisfaction indicators which are measured differently across firms is of very limited use to investors because of lack of comparability.
Development of standardized measurement and reporting modes for key elements of the new information structure will be an important contribution to improved accounting and reporting.