What is creative accounting?

Creative accounting and earnings management are euphemisms referring to accounting practices that may follow the letter of the rules of standard accounting practices, but certainly deviate from the spirit of those rules. They are characterized by excessive complication and the use of novel ways of characterizing income, assets, or liabilities and the intent to influence readers towards the interpretations desired by the authors. The terms "innovative" or "aggressive" are also sometimes used.

 

The term as generally understood refers to systematic misrepresentation of the true income and assets of corporations or other organizations. "Creative accounting" is at the root of a number of accounting scandals, and many proposals for accounting reform - usually centering on an updated analysis of capital and factors of production that would correctly reflect how value is added.

 

Newspaper and television journalists have hypothesized that the stock market downturn of 2002 was precipitated by reports of accounting irregularities at Enron, Worldcom, and other firms in the United States.

 

One commonly accepted incentive for the systemic over-reporting of corporate income which came to light in 2002 was the granting of stock options as part of executive compensation packages. Since stock prices reflect earning reports, stock options could be most profitably exercised when income is exaggerated, and the stock can be sold at an inflated profit.

 

According to critic David Ehrenstein, the term "Creative Accounting" was first used in 1968 in the film The Producers by Mel Brooks.

 

My top 6 books about Accounting Fraud

  1. Unaccountable Accounting: Games Accountants Play (Hardcover) by Abraham J. Briloff
  2. Creative Cash Flow Reporting: Uncovering Sustainable Financial Performance (Hardcover) by Charles W. Mulford (Author), Eugene E. Comiskey (Author)
  3. Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Second Edition (Hardcover) y Howard Schilit (Author)
  4. Quality of Earnings (Paperback) y Thornton L. O'glove  (Author)
  5. Investing: The Last Liberal Art (Paperback) by Robert G. Hagstrom
  6. The Financial Numbers Game: Detecting Creative Accounting Practices (Paperback) by Charles W. Mulford