CASH FLOW REPORTING AND CREATIVE ACCOUNTING

Within the wide field of creative accounting, the main preoccupation of researchers surrounded earnings management. The current study comes to acknowledge that creative cash flow may distort the assessment of financial performance and should therefore, become a subject of the same interest for analysts and investors, as earnings management is. In order to reach the objective proposed, there are two hypotheses formulated, to be validated within the research: H1: Creative accounting distorts cash flow reporting within the boundaries of current regulations. H2: Real activity manipulation alters significantly the operating cash flow. The steps followed were analyzing the accounting standard related to cash flow statement, IAS 7, in order to uncover issues not taken into account, or options of allocation provided for accountants, which could lead to opportunistic choices and lack of comparability. The relevant literature was reviewed, so as to identify the opinions of accounting and finance specialists related to this subject, the results of their scientific process. The final step was a synthesis of relevant results and observations, which lead to the acceptance of the hypothesis of the research. Moreover, several techniques were identified, both related to creative accounting and to real activity manipulation, influencing mainly the figure reflecting operating cash flow, and thus the image on the potential of business continuity. Main conclusions were that the techniques applied were within the limits set by the standard: opportunistic allocation of dividends and interest collected or paid misallocation of certain activities like sale of receivables, but mainly recording non-recurring events into the operating cash flow, without separate notes of information or adjustments. Real activity manipulation should also be considered as it is even more difficult to detect, unless analysis is also performed on notes to financial reports and the figures within the profit and loss account. The contribution of the current study is providing a synthetic arrgumentation to why cash flow should be analysed in the context of creative accounting, reviewing methods and techniques that distort significantly the results of operating activity, providing basis for further study related to the impact of such practices on forecasts of cash flow and predictability of bankruptcy.operating cash flow, creative accounting, non-recurring activity, IAS 7, financial performance

Impact of the Financial Crisis on Finance Sector Workers

[Excerpt] The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the background, causes, characteristics and trajectory of the ongoing financial and economic crisis; to define the financial services sector, its occupations and their educational requirements, as well as recent important trends; to provide a preliminary assessment of the impact of the crisis on finance sector jobs; and to give suggestions on possible policy responses to address the effects of the crisis on finance sector workers

ROMANIAN PRACTITIONNERS AND THE USE OF ESTIMATES IN ROMANIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Our research is based on a survey conducted among accountants, in order toinvestigate how the accounting profession feels in respect to the use of estimates at company level.By conducting this research we tried to obtain a realistic view on estimates applied in companiesand on the degree of familiarity of Romanian accountants with estimation techniques, especially inthe three representative fields at micro-level, namely: financials, accounting and auditing. We alsointended to track down those fields of the estimation evaluation process where professionals facemajor challenges and to come up with solutions eventually.accounting profession, estimations, evaluation, financial reporting.

The Structure of Debt and Active Equity Investors: The Case of the Buyout Specialist

This paper examines the role buyout specialists play in structuring the debt used to finance the LBO and in monitoring management in the post-LBO firm. We find that when buyout specialists control the majority of the post-LBO equity, the LBO transaction is likely to be financed with less short-term and/or senior debt and less likely to experience financial distress. We also find that buyout specialists have greater board representation on smaller boards, suggesting that they actively monitor managers, and that for these transactions, using debt with tighter terms does not significantly increase the firm\u27s performance. In contrast, in all other transactions using such debt does significantly increase the firm\u27s performance. These findings suggest that active monitoring by a buyout specialist substitutes for tighter debt terms in monitoring and motivating managers of LBOs

The Information Content of the 1999 Announcement of Funds from Operations (FFO) Changes for Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study examines the market response to the 1999 announcement of a change in accounting for Funds from Operations (FFO) for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This change provides an increase in transparency in the accounting statements of REITs regarding the calculation of FFO. An analysis of this announcement finds that shareholder wealth increases but the significance of that increase is questionable. Additionally, an analysis of the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread finds weak evidence to support the conjecture that the amount of information asymmetry in REIT prices declines after the announcement of the FFO accounting change.

THE QUALITY OF VOLUNTARY SUSTAINABILITY REPORT ASSURANCE STATEMENTS: EVIDENCE FROM FORTUNE GLOBAL 500

Number of companies adopting sustainability report assurance is increasing rapidly. Prior researches have explored factors that might drive companies to voluntary adopt assurance on their sustainability reports. But, few researches focus on the quality of sustainability report assurance statements provided. The first objective of this research is to investigate how the quality of assurance statement differs among different assurance providers. The second objective of the research is to explore whether quality of assurance statement is jointly affected by national legal environment where company is located and the company’s choice of assurance provider. Population of this Research is Fortune Global 500 Companies 2014 list. Final sample of this research is 135 companies. Independent sample t-test is used to test how the quality of assurance statement differs among different assurance providers. Multivariate regression analysis is used to test whether quality of assurance statement is jointly affected by national legal environment and assurance provider. The analysis’ result indicates that national legal environment has a negative and significant effect on assurance statement quality. Assurance provider also has a negative and significant effect on quality of assurance statement, while industry has a negative and slightly significant effect on it

FREE CASH FLOW AS PART OF VOLUNTARY REPORTING. LITERATURE REVIEW

The present study has as main objective to reflect the state of literature regarding free cash flow, and to withdraw the main pro's and con's in order to create an objective image upon this indicator. The main idea generating this research was the growing interest on cash flow reporting. As many say, "Cash Flow is King", while in Anglo Saxon countries the interest of investors and analysts in concentrated on operating cash flow, as the most important indicator of the probability of bankruptcy. In this context, voluntary additional reporting, like free cash flow may come either as an aid in providing the fair view or as an opportunistically reported figure. Throughout the paper, the intention was to provide answers to three main research questions: "What are the definition and calculation method of free cash flow? Why is there an interest in free cash flow reporting? What is the impact of free cash flow on the agency theory?" In order to provide relevant conclusions, four international data basis were used, and related articles and studies were extracted. The results proved that there is no generally accepted definition and computing method, while the format depends on the end-user of the report (shareholders, investors, analysts, bankers, a.s.o.). As stated below, this aspect generates confusion and lack of comparability, giving room to creative accounting techniques. Moreover, the interest on free cash flow reporting is connected mainly to liquidity assessment, company valuation and investors' choice. Still, in the context of agency theory, results show that in presence of high free cash flow, managers tend to make investment choices that satisfy their personal interest and that generate low efficiency and profitability for the company. The contribution to current state of research is providing a literature review study, focused on a comparative approach, as well as on underlying an objective image upon a debatable financial indicator and accounting report.free cash flow, reporting, management, agency theory, creative accounting