Prof.Rahul Malkan | [CA - Foun
rinciples & Practice of Accounting — Compiler]
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Fundamental Accounting Assumptions: Fundamental accounting assumptions underlie the
preparation and presentation of financial statements. They are usually not specifically stated
because their acceptance and use are assumed. Disclosure is necessary if they are not followed
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India issued Accounting Standard (AS) 1 on‘ Disclosure
of Accounting Policies’ according to which the following have been generally accepted as
fundamental accounting assumptions:
1. Going concern: The enterprise is normally viewed as a going concern, i.e. as continuing
operations for the foreseeable future, It is assumed that the enterprise has neither the
intention nor the necessity of liquidation or of curtailing materially the scale of the
operations,
2 Consistency: It is assumed that accounting policies are consistent from one period to
another.
3. Acerual: Guidance Note on ‘Terms used in Financial Statements’ defines accrual basis of
accounting as “the method of recording transactions by which revenue, costs, assets and
liabilities are reflected in the accounts in the period in which they accrue.” The accrual
“basis of accounting’ includes considerations relating to deferrals, allocations, depreciation
and amortisation. Financial statements prepared on the accrual basis inform users not only
of past events involving the payment and receipt of cash but also of obligations to pay cash
in future and of resources that represent cash to be received in the future. Hence, they
provide the type of information about past transactions and other events that is most useful
to users in making economic decisions. Accrual basi
of accounting.
Objectives of preparing Trial Balance
‘The preparation of trial balance has the following objectives:
‘Checking of the arithmetical accuracy of the accounting entries: Trial Balance enables one
to establish whether the posting and other accounting processes have been carried out
without committing arithmetical errors. In other words, the trial balance helps to establish
the arithmetical accuracy of the books.
2. Basis for preparation of financial statements: Trial Balance forms the basis for preparing
financial statements suchas the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. The Trial Balance
represents all transactions relating to different accounts in a summarized form for a
particular period. In case, the Trial Balance is not prepared, it will be almost impossible to
prepare the financial statements to know the profit or loss made by the business during a
particular period or its financial position on a particular date.
3. Summarized ledger: Trial Balance contains the ledger balances on a particular date. Thus,
the entire ledger is summarized in the form of a Trial Balance. The position of a particular
account can be judged simply by looking at the Trial Balance. The ledger may be seen only
when details regarding the accounts are required.
Accounting conventions emerge out of accounting practices, commonly known as accounting
principles, adopted by various organizations over a period of time. These conventions are derived
by usage and practice. The accountancy bodies of the world may change any of the convention to
improve the quality of accounting information. Accounting conventions need not have universal
application.
Machine Hour Rate method of calculating depreciation: Where it is practicable to keep a record
of the actual running hours of each machine, depreciation may be calculated on the basis of hours
that the concerned’ machinery worked. Under machine hour rate method of calculating
depreciation, the life of a machine is not estimated in years but in hours, Thus depreciation is
calculated after estimating the total number of hours that machine would work during its whole
life; however, it may have to be varied from time to time, on a consideration of the changes in the