Models and Rules of Evaluation in International Accounting

The accounting procedures cannot be analyzed without a previous evaluation. Value is in general a very subjective issue, usually the result of a monetary evaluation made to a specific asset, group of assets or entities, or to some rendered services. Within the economic sciences, value comes from its very own deep history. In accounting, the concept of value had a late and fragile start. The term of value must not be misinterpreted as being the same thing with cost, even though value is frequently measured through costs. At the origin of the international accounting standards lays the framework for preparing, presenting and disclosing the financial statements. The framework stays as a reference matrix, as a standard of standards, as a constitution of financial accounting. According to the international framework, the financial statements use different evaluation basis: the hystorical cost, the current cost, the realisable (settlement) value, the present value (the present value of cash flows). Choosing the evaluation basis and the capital maintenance concept will eventually determine the accounting evaluation model used in preparing the financial statements of a company. The multitude of accounting evaluation models differentiate themselves one from another through various relevance and reliable degrees of accounting information and therefore, accountants (the prepares of financial statements) must try to equilibrate these two main qualitative characteristics of financial information.