Accounting income does not include all of the company’s holding gains or losses (increases or decreases in the market values of its assets). For example, the construction of an expressway nearby may increase the value of a company’s land, but neither the income statement nor the balance sheet will reflect this holding gain. Similarly, the introduction of a successful new product increases the company’s anticipated future cash flows. While this increase makes the company more valuable, those additional future sales will not show up in the conventional income statement or in the balance sheet until they are recorded as transactions.
Accounting reports have also been criticized on the grounds that they confuse monetary measures with the underlying realities when the prices of many goods and services have been changing rapidly. For example, if the wholesale price of an item rises from $100 to $150 between the time the company bought it and the time it is sold, many accountants claim that $150 is the better measure of the amount of resources consumed by the sale. They also contend that the $50 increase in the item’s wholesale value before it is sold is a special kind of holding gain that should not be classified as ordinary income.
When inventory purchase prices are rising, LIFO inventory costing prevents the recognition of any gains made from the holding of inventories. If purchases equal the quantity sold, then according to LIFO accounting the entire cost of goods sold will be measured at the higher current prices, while the ending inventory will be measured at the lower prices shown for the beginning-of-year inventory. The difference between the LIFO inventory cost and the replacement cost at the end of the year is an unrealized (and unreported) holding gain.
In the inventory example cited earlier, the LIFO cost of goods sold ($10,275) exceeded the FIFO cost of goods sold ($9,750) by $525. In other words, LIFO kept $525 more of the inventory holding gain out of the income statement than FIFO did. Furthermore, the replacement cost of the inventory at the end of the year was $6,050 (1,100 × $5.50), which was equal to the inventory’s FIFO cost; under LIFO, in contrast, there was an unrealized holding gain of $525 ($6,050 minus the $5,525 LIFO inventory cost).
The amount of inventory holding gain that is included in net income is usually called the “inventory profit.” The implication is that this is a component of net income that is less “real” than other components because it results from the holding of inventories rather than from trading with customers.
When most of the changes in the prices of the company’s resources are in the same direction, the purchasing power of money is said to change. Conventional accounting statements are stated in nominal currency units—not in units of constant purchasing power. Changes in purchasing power—that is, changes in the average level of prices of goods and services—have two effects. First, net monetary assets (essentially cash and receivables minus liabilities calling for fixed monetary payments) lose purchasing power as the general price level rises. These losses do not appear in conventional accounting statements. Second, holding gains measured in nominal currency units may merely result from changes in the general price level. If so, they represent no increase in the company’s purchasing power.
In some countries that have experienced severe and prolonged inflation, companies have been allowed or even required to restate their assets to reflect the more recent and higher levels of purchase prices. The increment in the asset balances in such cases has not been reported as income, but depreciation thereafter has been based on these higher amounts. Companies in the United States are not allowed to make these adjustments in their primary financial statements.
As international economies evolve at an accelerating rate, financial accounting faces some daunting challenges. One of the most important questions facing accountants is the problem of assigning value to so-called “soft” assets such as brand image, corporate reputation, goodwill, and human capital. These can be among the most valuable assets controlled by the entity, yet they might be undervalued or ignored altogether under current practices.
In addition, accountants need to develop reliable ways to express forward-looking information; although this kind of information is more speculative than the information represented in financial statements, it is often the most relevant to decision makers. It is difficult to obtain, however, in part because of the uncertain nature of the information and in part because too much information could benefit competitors and harm the company. Furthermore, it is difficult to measure social performance, but this type of information is useful in evaluating organizational effectiveness as it is broadly conceived. While many companies are experimenting with alternative methods to measure and disclose employee and customer satisfaction data, environmental performance, and safety reports, increased standardization will enhance comparability and consistency.
Finally, a global economy demands dramatically enhanced international accounting standards. In order to improve the efficient allocation of capital resources across international boundaries, investors and creditors need to make reasonable comparisons among companies in different countries.
