O processo de convergência das normas contábeis ao padrão internacional está entrando na reta final, especialmente no que diz respeito à publicação das normas expedidas pela Comissão de Valores Mobiliários.

Veja maiores detalhes:

Conheça as Próximas Normas IFRS

by Robert Bruce for Financial Director, November 23, 2009.

FDs should apply the latest thinking around narrative reporting to their accounts ahead of any rule-making.

These are trying times for finance directors. There is a feeling among them that, though they are working at full stretch in trying to keep things stable as we move through the economic crisis, their true worth is still being trivialised. They are seen by audit committees and investor bodies as the bulwark. They are trying to hold everything together so there can be nothing that will frighten the horses. But all this effort is driving them into a space which is not where they want to be.

This is summed up by the cri de coeur heard over and over in conversations currently, in conference presentations and, between the lines, in comment letters: accounts and financial reporting are becoming compliance documents. Of course, they are compliance documents. Regulators, investors, creditors and a myriad of other interested people depend on them for precisely that reason. But they are also something else. They are part of the living dynamic that keeps the whole business of financial reporting and corporate governance moving forward.

If the perception is that they are only there for compliance purposes, the whole system starts to unravel. Compliance, however hard you try, is seen by others as a dull, almost clerical; a lining up of the ducks in a row. But the brightest and the best find no joy or challenge in doing dull. Why should the modern FD?…(continue reading)

This article talks about the seasonal business of inventory counting from a Polish perspective. It is also broadly true, with variations in the details, for most countries in the region.

It’s that time of the year again. Already some businesses with financial years corresponding to the calendar year (which is still the vast majority of businesses in this country) will count their inventories at the end of November just to avoid interrupting their employees Christmas breaks, some however will be pulling in the warehouse staff and others around Christmas and New Year to do their yearly duty. Some businesses, even with material amounts of stocks, will however not be stock-taking at all, as they believe that they can take advantage of  article 26 paragraph 3 point 2 of the Ustawa o Rachunkowosci and only perform this task every two years, and among those who will be doing it this year, a surprising number will not be taking it too seriously.

The point of this article is to remind you that the stocktake is one of the most important things that need to be done in order to be sure that the annual report is right, and to urge Quoracy.com readers to think again and invest some time and energy into this process if it has not been given adequate attention in your Company in the past.

For many businesses – at least half of the manufacturing ones and also a number of service enterprise performing long-term contract work-in-progress, the figure for stock is the largest asset and the largest item on the balance sheet. It is also one of the more complex to account for, as unlike the monetary items such as debtors and cash, which are simply denominated in value, you need to keep volume and value information and to that end most businesses with sizeable stocks run special warehouse programs to keep track of stocks and manage such matters as goods received notes and goods issued notes, reordering, and these systems often interface with the main accounting system showing the amount of stocks purchased against creditors for the given period and sold against debtors also.

For stock accounting an evidential or standard cost is often used, enabling the system to concentrate on the issue of volumes, and a system for allocation of deviations between actual cost and the standard costs.

In my experience the area is found difficult to get right by businesses, and where issues do occur in audits or errors appear which are of a size that could entirely upset the usefulness of the financial statement, more often than not it is precisely in the area of stocks, and a properly conducted stock-take could have helped avoid the problem. In many cases, years of sloppy stocktakes failed to spot a problem until it became critical.

International Accounting Standards, in particular IAS 2 “Inventories” talk in detail about the principals for the value to be shown for each individual item of stock, but there is no help in IAS for the question of how often and in what way to go about establishing the volume of the stock items actually present. There is no mention of inventory counting or stocktake methodology or frequenct, and there is not even a definition given for these in the glossary to IFRS. This is extremely disappointing, given the importance and centrality of this item for so many businesses, and one is driven to wonder about the practicality of IFRS when one sees a regular “taniec godowy” being made in IFRS about the question of derivatives (instrumenty pochodne) which effects only a minority of businesses and is non-routine in nature for many of them, and then total silence on a matter which actually creates more practical hicoughs in accountancy for more businesses than most others do.

So we are thrown back on national law for any kind of realistic guidance in the matter – the requirements of Polish law for businesses accounting under the “Ustawa o Rachunkowosci”. There have been queries coming across my desk from businesses which are accounting under IFRS asking what they should do when they are “not under the UoR, but the IFRS are silent in the matter” – it seems to me that they must also abide by the tenets of Polish law in matters not regulated in IFRS, but is the Polish law actually strict enough?

As you can see from the text of the Ustawa, almost all classes of asset must be counted from life (spisem z natury) on the last day of each accounting year. That’s the basic rule from 26.1 and 26.2. And a very fine rule it is. But then we come on the 3^rd paragraph, which is where certain relaxations from the main rule are allowed, and we see that on the basis of these rules people are performing stock-takes of very material amounts of inventory where there are systems that do historically allow in errors and where there is rapid movement of stocks, anywhere between 3 months before and 15 days after their financial year end, and also these cases where whole years are skipped (which is only supposed to happen where warehouses are properly guarded and there is a proper stock system, but people take a very subjective interpretation of what that means). And this is where the law as it stands is rather deficient, and we have to rely on the good practice of well trained business managers, such as the people reading this magazine, to make sure they do the right thing anyway.

Here then is my advice about stocktaking for this fine magazine’s readership

DO give more attention to the stocktake if your stock is:

• A major asset in the balance sheet
• Controlled by special laws such as explosives and pharmaceuticals
• Easily removable and able to be used by employees or sold onwards
• Not tracked over the reporting period by volume and value (some businesses in Poland whose owners come from countries which have a relaxed system forget the implications of the monthly tax system in Poland and do not realise that if they do not have a full volume-and-value system, they actually need proper stock takes every month in this country)
• Difficult to count because of being “materialy sypkie” which need special mathematical algorithms to apply depending on the shape of the prism

Sometimes stocktaking pourable solids (materialy sypkie) is a bit like counting sand in the Sahara Desert and looks that way too, although I assure you this is woodchips in West Poland. This looks like a good time to get stock-take help from the “geodeta”!

• Obsolescent, or partly aging or damaged
• Slow-moving
• In numerous locations or needs at least several man days to count
• Extremely varied
• Known in the past to show up errors at stock take

(If you have any of the conditions in this list, then you have high risk stock, and shouldn’t in my view be taking advantage of biennial stock taking even if the Ustawa allows you to. If you have several then you should be ensuring that you have the time and resources allocated to take this exercise seriously, as failure to do so could upset the smooth-running of your business at some stage)

In planning the stocktake DO

• Start planning early, don’t leave it till the last minute
• Ensure auditors are informed and can attend. (Auditors are well within their rights to qualify your accounts if they are not enabled to attend the stocktake)
• Consider your stocks held at other locations and stocks at your location that belong to third parties.Certificates may be requested/issued for these items.
• Ensure that the count sheets do not contain any info on the expected volume of the stocks. This would compromise the count being a proper “count from life”. Counters will blindly accept any suggestion on the sheet about values and save on counting if they can. Count sheets should clearly identify the stock number, description, location and unit of measurement, and should be signed off by the counter and double-checked at least on a sample basis by another team)
• Ensure BHP training for each participant, especially those not normally working in the warehouse, and proper protective clothing on the day if needed.
• Ensure that there is an adequate number of teams to do the job in the available time – which ought to be the time over which the business can afford to avoid moving the stock around. Where stocks must be moved during the count, it is necessary to devise some marking system so that all items are counted, and once only.
• Ensure that the wareouse people who are responsible are all there, and that they are teamed up with people independent, such as bookeepers or other administrative people.
• Ensure that enough forklift drivers will be on hand if access to stock depends on that

Some stocks are difficult to access – make sure lifting equipment is on hand at the stock take!

• Take advantage of sensible techniques, such as digital photography, weighing homogenous stocks and the use of dipsticks for liquid tanks.
• Do try to arrange a stock-take at the time when the company’s stocks are at their annual low. The counting then is at its most accurate, and it is worth doing even if it is not the main stock count of the year. This is the probable origin of why the inwentaryzacja is sometimes known in  informal language in Polish as the “remanent” – it refers to checking the ‘remnant’, the small amount left over at the end of a season.

Some DON’Ts of stock taking:

• Don’t cut corners – especially if the stock is risky stock as identified in the first list above. All year round you are paying good money to the accounts department to get a good set of financial statements, but if you don’t get this bit right, what chance do they have?
• Ignore likely weather or lighting conditions in planning. Last year alone I had to abort one count because it was planned after sundown in a poorly lit location and in another case the outside guages were frozen over so the apple juice concentrate involved would  not flow over them. In another case it was hard to tell where the snow stopped and the coal started on one prism.

In this case it was hard to tell where the snow stopped and the coal started – a true case of “in-winter-yzacja”. Maybe not the best image for a Christmas card to a member of the stocktake team, despite the seasonal weather!

• Don’t try to measure a hałda or prism at a distance or use photography without a proper measurement. For complex shapes of materialy sypkie, don’t try to measure them unless you have specialist resources – get a surveyor in (geodeta).
• Don’t allow the people who are materially responsible for the stock to be responsible for the count of it, although they should be there at the time to answer questions.
• Don’t let the counters go from books to life, only from life to the books. Don’t give them access to the volume the system thinks is there
• Don’t delay in turning the results of the count into an adjustment to the books. You also need to analyse the possible reasons behind any surprising divergences between expacted volumes and actual volumes. This is a cue to check controls, especially access controls to avoid theft and also the correct functioning of the guages and scales that measure the inflow and outflow of stock – have they been checked for accuracy and maintained properly by the producer?
• Don’t forget to reward the count people with some kind of special thank-you, especially if they have been pulled out of their homes at Christmas time. This job is worth doing well, so it’s worth motivating people to take it seriously. Let it become one of your Company’s traditions that people actually might even start to enjoy and look forward to!

I would like to close this article with a story from my casebook about a company who had failed to get their stocktaking right – and this was a company in the heating sector which burned coal. They had had a problem with their weighing apparatus and for some time had been getting very good calorific results for each ton of coal they put into their furnaces, or so they thought. What had actually been happening was that they were reading 1 tonne of coal but putting in in fact 15% more.

Of course they suddenly ran out of coal in the depths of winter when the system was telling them that they had enough to go easily to the end of the season. They then assumed that the coal had been stolen and asked me to do a forensic accounting exercise to discover what had happened. This analysis led to the broken rolling scale and the both good and bad news that no-one had in fact stolen their coal, they had simply been overusing it for the previous six months. This would have showed up on their stock take (and saved them a lot of money not least in not needing to employ a top consultant) had they used the correct manner of measuring the coal, and not relied on two inexperienced children fresh from university sent in by their auditor, one of the largest companies in  the world, who later needed to withdraw their audit opinion and redraft it with the correct figures in.  When I asked what procedures these kids had applied at the stocktake attendance, I was told that they had looked at the coal pile from the third floor (about 300 metres away) as it was rather cold that day and they were young ladies and didn’t want to go outside. Please take your stocktakes a bit more seriously than that!

Some businesses holding large amounts of stock in their balance sheets are going to be audited and so they automatically will get an auditor to look (hopefully more closely than the above mentioned case) at their stock count, but even if your business is too small to fall under obligatory audit, but has relatively a large figure of stock or difficulties with control of stock, remember you can ask an auditor to make an audit style stock-take attendance without doing a full audit, and just report to you on the quality of the stocktake with recommendations for improvements. This shouldn’t cost more than a thousand Euro or two, and has a chance of giving you a good proportion of the value back that you would have had from a much more expensive full audit, if it’s a stock intensive business you are in. This comes under “agreed upon procedures” and auditors will be very pleased to help you with just what you need without making a full audit or review assignment out of it. Many people in business would find it useful, but just haven’t thought of asking an auditor in just for their view on the inventory count.

David J. James

(Photos by the author)

Thanks to everyone who attended last night’s IFRS update at Johnny’s.  Jason Hanavan of Deloitte & Touche gave us an excellent overview of where IFRS stands today and how the roadmap will impact our businesses.

One thing that really caught my attention was that only 63% of respondents in the Deloitte survey Jason presented said that technology issues was a significant concern.  I was surprised that the number was so low.  I may be biased because of my past information technology experience, but I would have expected more finance executives to place a significant emphasis on IT conversion issues.

What are your thoughts on the relative indifference of finance executives toward IT concerns related to IFRS?  Does this show a lack of focus to IT, and how can our profession drive this change?

The IFRS is coming full circle and this map can show that well. Taken from the International Accounting Standards Board’s website, this map shows the countries who already use IFRS, those who have stated that they are going to adapt to IFRS, and those who are in the process of adapting to IFRS. This website (which is found at http://archive.iasb.org.uk/standards/summaries.asp) contains a lot of good information that is related to the change to IFRS.

The handbook is found there as well as many different IFRS summaries that are based on the new rules of IFRS. Presented on the summaries page are various standards from 2003 through 2007.

Another interesting webpage that deals with the IFRS is at the link http://www.icpas.org/hc-ifrs.aspx?id=6342 and presents various articles that relate to the switch to International Financial Reporting Standards. This website is to help those affected by the switch plan and prepare for what is ahead of them. It contains news, recent developments, and other resources that will help you convert. Another cool thing found on this website is that it contains different sections of the website for the different people who will be affected by IFRS. This includes students, consumers, young professionals, and more.

Not everyone is for the changeover to IFRS. In the comments on the SEC’s proposed timeline for a switch to IFRS nearly 40% of executives had concerns over the cost of switching to IFRS according to the article located at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14453580/c_14453738?f=home_todayinfinance. This is not just a concern relative to business size either.

Small businesses are always concerned with costs and the additional burden of switching will not be feasible for some companies. On the other hand, large businesses have so much to switch over and so many people to retrain that costs could rise very quickly. Given the recent financial crisis, some even wonder if it is worth it to completely change the system at this point. We are just recovering from a recession where many large financial companies collapsed, what will happen if we’re forcing them to switch the way they do business in such a situation?

Hasta el momento el Colegio de Contadores de Chile A.G. -ente que emite las normas contables en Chile- no se ha pronunciado respecto de la emisión de la NIIF para PYME y su entrada en vigencia en nuestro país.

El Colegio de Contadores de Chile A.G emitió el 15 de Diciembre del 2008 el Boletín técnico 79, sobre la Convergencia de los GAAP chilenos a las NIIF, y que durante este período ha dejado la opción para que las empresas opten por adoptarlas desde el 01 de Enero 2009, o sigan aplicando las GAAP Chilenas.

Para las empresas que cotizan en Bolsa, deben por instrucción de la Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros (SVS) reportar bajo las NIIF.

De acuerdo a lo antes planteado las PYME en Chile no estarían obligadas ( por ahora ) a reportar bajo NIIF, a no ser que quieran hacerlo voluntariamente.

Si aplicamos la norma para determinar a una empresa PYME -no reportan públicamente- en Chile aproximadamente el 98% de las empresas sería PYME, ya que, actualmente  un número muy reducido de empresas cotizan en bolsa incluidas sus respectivas filiales. En todo caso, la situación de Chile es similar a la del resto del Mundo, ya que también una ínfimo porcentaje reportan públicamente.

Si consideramos que Chile es un país fuertemente exportador e importador de productos, entonces existe un gran número de empresas exportadoras, importadoras, productivas y de servicios  que según NIIF PYME les aplicaría dicha norma contable internacional.

Dado lo anterior, habría que hacer la siguiente pregunta ¿Qué beneficio obtendría la empresa que aplique las NIIF para PYME?

Este es el punto neurálgico que deberían plantearse las PYME, ya que, si por ejemplo, se determina que una empresa PYME aplica full NIIF PYME podría tener un mejor acceso al crédito a través de la Banca Privada, aminorando por este solo hecho la cuantificación del riesgo del negocio, el monto por garantías exigidas, etc.

Otra opción sería que el estado apoye a las PYME y las motive a reportar bajo NIIF PYME, gestionando con Bancos Extranjeros préstamos en mejores condiciones de tasa y plazo, a cambio de una mejor calidad de información financiera, con el debido respaldo Estatal.

Creo que esta es una oportunidad para que las empresas que no emiten Estados Financieros Públicos, para aprovechar lo que las NIIF para PYME les podrían aportar en cuanto a una mejor cuantificación y calidad de la información.

Lo importante es crear conciencia en las empresas PYME que mediante una buena gestión financiera se podrán obtener además de buenos resultados, buenas condiciones para hacer negocios, y por qué no fusionar y/o comprar empresas.

Luis Fernando Maldonado V.

IFRS: SEKULARISASI DAN NEOLIBERALISME AKUNTANSI

Oleh: Aji Dedi Mulawarman

diambil dari sebagian  buku Akuntansi Syariah: Teori, Konsep dan Laporan Keuangan, yaitu “kata pengantar” (halaman xvii) dan Bab 4 (halaman 98-100); serta makalah penulis pada seminar di STEI TAZKIA tanggal 10 Januari 2009 berjudul Perubahan Melalui Akuntansi Syariah di Era Neoliberalisme

Seperti kita ketahui hampir seluruh ‘peta’ akuntansi Indonesia merupakan product Barat. Akuntansi konvensional (Barat) di Indonesia bahkan telah diadaptasi tanpa perubahan berarti. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari sistem pendidikan, standar, dan praktik akuntansi di lingkungan bisnis. Kurikulum, materi dan teori yang diajarkan di Indonesia adalah akuntansi pro Barat. Semua standar akuntansi berinduk pada landasan teoritis dan teknologi akuntansi IASC (International Accounting Standards Committee). Indonesia bahkan terang-terangan menyadur Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements IASC dalam Standar Akuntansi Keuangan (SAK) yang dikeluarkan Ikatan Akuntan Indonesia (IAI). Perkembangan terbaru, saat ini telah disosialisasikan sistem pendidikan akuntansi “baru” yang merujuk internasionalisasi dan harmonisasi standar akuntansi. Pertemuan-pertemuan, workshop, lokakarya, seminar perubahan kurikulum akuntansi sampai standar kelulusan akuntan juga mengikuti kebijakan IAI berkenaan Internasionalisasi Akuntansi yaitu diterapkannya IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) di Indonesia tahun 2012. Menurut IAI sendiri, seperti dikutip Berita Sore pada 26 Desember 2008 (http://beritasore.com/2008/12/26/iai-deklarasikan-sak-indonesia-ke-ifrs/),  IFRS dijadikan sebagai referensi utama pengembangan standar akuntansi keuangan di Indonesia karena IFRS merupakan standar yang sangat kokoh. Penyusunannya didukung oleh para ahli dan dewan konsultasi internasional dari seluruh penjuru dunia. Dengan telah dideklarasikan program konvergensi terhadap IFRS ini, maka pada 2012 seluruh standar yang dikeluarkan oleh Dewan Standar Akuntansi Keuangan IAI akan mengacu kepada IFRS dan diterapkan oleh entitas.

Jelas sekali, akuntansi dan sistem pendidikan saat ini telah lepas dari realitas masyarakat Indonesia disebabkan sistem dan konsep pendidikan akuntansi dibawa langsung dari Barat tanpa kodifikasi dan penyesuaian yang signifikan. Akuntansi dan sistem pendidikan akuntansi memang membawa values “sekularisasi” yang memiliki ciri utama self-interest, menekankan bottom line laba, hanya mengakui realitas kuantitatif, materialistis dan mekanistis (Mulawarman 2008a). Sekularisasi akuntansi terlihat pada sambutan mantan Presiden The American Accounting Association, William H. Beaver (1987):

Given that our cultural-political environment is one of separation of church and state and that most accounting education takes place in secular schools, how do we provide a common basis for discussion that honors that long-standing and highly cherished tradition of separation of church and state? If a nonreligious basis is used, what basis will that be? Given that we believe that ethical norms are established in the early formative years of our students, what effect, if any, can we realistically be expected to have on the behavior of students, who we see for a brief time, and whose ages range from late teens, to early twenties, to midlle age? Ethical behavior is an extremely important issue... (tanda tebal tambahan penulis)

SEKULARISASI AKUNTANSI

Sekularisasi menurut Al-Attas (1993, 17) didefinisikan sebagai pembebasan akal dan bahasa manusia dari kendali religi dan berlanjut pada kendali metafisika. Berikut penjelasan definisionalnya:

…as the deliverance of man “first from religious and then from metaphysical control over his reason and his language”.

Sekularisasi seperti itu menurutnya merupakan hilangnya dunia dari pemahaman religi dan kuasi religi itu sendiri, hilangnya semua yang berkenaan pandangan dunia yang khas, menghancurkan semua simbol-simbol mitos supernatural dan suci. Penghancuran nilai-nilai tersebut berlaku di seluruh kehidupan sosial, politik maupun budaya, serta seluruh aspek kehidupan kemanusiaan.

Bila dikerucutkan dalam pandangan ilmu, sekularisasi sebenarnya merupakan hasil dari bentuk desakralisasi atas fakta-fakta. Glasner (1992, 53-76) menjelaskan pandangan sekularisasi keilmuan sebagai proses desakralisasi definisi religi terutama aspek-aspek substantif norma dan nilai dalam mitos sosial. Desakralisasi menurutnya terdiri dari empat hal, yaitu generalisasi (yaitu model diferensiasi aspek norma dan nilai), transformasi (yang religius menuju kapitalisasi), desakralisasi (hilangnya supernatural yang esoterik dalam fakta empiris) dan sekularisme (sekularisasi terbatas yang berubah bentuknya menjadi ideologi). Khusus berkaitan dengan ilmu, konsep desakralisasi berhubungan dengan hilangnya kekuatan supernatural-esoterik, sedangkan realitas hanyalah gagasan-gagasan berdasarkan pada rasionalitas murni.

Penjelasan Glasner mirip dengan konsep sekularisasi dari Kartanegara (2003, 122-126), Menurutnya sekularisasi didasarkan penghilangan dua sebab utama, yaitu Penjelasan Ilmiah untuk menjawab Empat Sebab Aristotelian. Pertama, Sebab Material (berkaitan dengan bahan); Kedua, Sebab Formal (berkaitan dengan bentuk); Ketiga, Sebab Efisien (berkaitan dengan inisiatif dari proses perubahan); Keempat, Sebab Final (berkaitan dengan tujuan pembentukan sesuatu). Empat sebab tersebut berlangsung dari Masa Yunani sampai dengan masa Peradaban Islam, dan berhenti ketika terjadi transformasi peradaban menuju Barat, dengan apa yang disebut sebagai ’Revolusi Penjelasan Ilmiah’. Revolusi penjelasan ilmiah menekankan sebab material dan sebab efisien. Sedangkan sebab formal dan final ditolak karena menurut filosof dan ilmuwan Barat lebih cenderung pada makna dan karena itu diserahkan pada agama dan bukannya sains.

Sekularisasi menurut Glasner (1992, 65) bersandarkan pada gagasan positivisme dari Comte, yang menekankan pengetahuan semata-mata pada observasi empiris terhadap data yang dapat diindera. Positivisme merupakan hasil logis dan natural dari evolusi pemikiran manusia, dengan hukum tiga tingkat. Hukum tiga tingkat evolusi menurut Comte adalah sebagai berikut:

Dipandang dari kesempurnaannya hukum evolusi intelektual yang fundamental terdiri dari jalan lintas beberapa teori bahwa semua manusia melalui tiga tingkatan yang berurutan. Pertama tingkatan teologis, atau khayalan, yang bersifat provisional; kedua tingkatan metafisik atau abstrak yang bersifat transisional; dan ketiga tingkatan positif atau ilmiah, yang hanya ia sendiri yang definitif (Comte 1876, 23 ff; dalam Glasner 1992, 65).

Evolusi pemikiran manusia seperti di atas memperlihatkan tingkatan teologis dan metafisika merupakan fase natural yang telah berevolusi menjadi rasionalitas pemikiran manusia. Hilangnya realitas teologis dan metafisik menempatkan realitas rasional menjadi kekuatan satu-satunya dari manusia tanpa gangguan gagasan teologis maupun metafisik. Pemikiran berbasis rasio mengarahkan kekuatan dan kekuasaan hanya berpusat pada manusia itu sendiri. Sedangkan certainty condition tidak pernah ada, yang ada hanyalah relativitas. Pemikiran seperti inilah yang kemudian biasa disebut dengan antroposentrisme, segala sesuatu berpusat pada manusia.

Sekularisme menurut Al-Attas (1981, 21) memiliki tiga komponen integral, yaitu the disenchantment of nature (penegasian terhadap kekuatan di luar manusia), the desacralization of politics (penegasian atas kekuasaan terpusat), dan the deconsecration of values (penegasian nilai-nilai non materi atau materialism dan penolakan terhadap certainty condition atau relativism). Tiga bentuk sekularisasi Al-Attas tersebut memiliki kesesuaian dengan bangunan teori dan realitas akuntansi.

Sekularisasi bangunan teori dan realitas akuntansi terlihat sebagai berikut. Pertama, the disenchantment of nature terlihat pada substansi self interest para akuntan, standard setter, shareholders, birokrat dan politisi sebagai individu-individu yang terlibat melakukan upaya memaksimalkan expected utilities mereka sendiri. Wujud utama dari disenchantment of nature dalam akuntansi adalah penerapan konsep dasar teoritis akuntansi, yaitu Entity Theory. Entity Theory seperti kita tahu merupakan dasar dari seluruh kerangka konseptual akuntansi dijalankan yang kemudian mendesain seluruh logika akuntansi yang berpusat pada stockholders.   Kedua, the desacralization of politics terlihat pada pemisahan kekuasaan standard setter dari lingkaran kepentingan birokrasi dan politisi maupun pemisahan kekuasaan antara principal dan agent. Pemisahan kekuasaan ini menurut Fukuyama (2003) sebagai bentuk dasar kapitalisme yang merepresentasikan “tuan” dan “budak”. Representasi dari pemisahan kekuasaan ini nampak pada kuatnya kedudukan organisasi para akuntan, seperti IAI (Ikatan Akuntan Indonesia). Ketiga, the deconsecration of values tampak pada ditolaknya nilai-nilai normatif sebagai main guidance. Main guidance sebenarnya adalah kepastian aturan, kepastian pengukuran dan kepastian pengakuan secara materi. Tiga kepastian tersebut untuk mengendalikan pergerakan menuju perubahan-perubahan sesuai realitas dan keinginan self-interest di area market dan politic. Tidak ada kebenaran realitas, tidak ada rujukan baju normatifi. Kebenaran dan rujukan hanya ada dalam realitas empiris apa adanya.

DARI SEKULARISASI MENUJU NEOLIBERALISME AKUNTANSI

Konsekuensi nilai sekuler di atas, berdampak pada desain akuntansi sebagai  ”perangkap hegemoni korporasi” (Mayper et.al. 2005) serta diarahkan untuk “mengisi” peserta didik dalam memahami kepentingan ekonomi (Amernic dan Craig 2004) dan mereduksi nilai di luar ekonomi. Kondisi yang berlangsung lama ini kemudian menjadi “dogma” akuntansi yang “universal” dan terstruktur dalam ekonomi positivistik (Truan dan Hughes 2003). Perangkap hegemoni korporasi lewat akuntansi kemudian mengarah pada evolusi lebih lanjut sebagai “alat” neoliberalisme ekonomi, (lihat misalnya Kim 2004; Abeysekera 2005; Lehman 2005).

Neoliberalisme Akuntansi melalui Harmonisasi Akuntansi

Harmonisasi akuntansi sebagai bagian dari neoliberalisme merupakan implementasi kekuasaan untuk melanggengkan kepentingan hegemoni korporasi melalui manufactured consent untuk kepentingan MNC’s di Amerika Serikat (Merino et al. 2005). Manufactured consent adalah cara paling efektif mengarahkan kekuasaan dan justifikasi ideologis melalui deregulasi untuk mendistribusikan wealth, security, secara global, pada kondisi penguatan pasar yang bebas dari intervensi regulasi. Teknisnya, MNC’s mendesain deregulasi lewat harmonisasi akuntansi, sedangkan akuntan dan analis finansial dijadikan sebagai “professional gatekeeper” untuk injeksi kepentingan MNC’s lewat lobi politik dan kelonggaran deregulasi audit demi profit. Langkah berikutnya, “hegemoni” dan pengendalian para MNC’s di Amerika Serikat dalam pengembangan standar akuntansi internasional lewat IASB (International Acconting Standard Boards). Dampaknya, IAS (International Accounting Standards) tidak dapat diadopsi tanpa persetujuan lembaga standar akuntansi Amerika Serikat (Financial Accounting Standard Boards) (Diaconu 2007).

Ujung-ujungnya, akuntansi harus melanjutkan misinya menjadi alat penting mewujudkan globalisasi bagi MNC’s (Thorelli 1977 dalam Choi dan Muller 1998). Perilaku MNC’s lewat praktik harmonisasi akuntansi tersebut mirip bentuk kolonialisme (Choi dan Muller 1998, 48). “Kolonialisme” akuntansi melalui harmonisasi di Indonesia dimulai pada saat Indonesia mengalami krisis keuangan tahun 1997. IMF (International Monetary Fund) mengajukan beberapa syarat atas lending conditionalities dari Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies apabila menginginkan perubahan makro ekonomi Indonesia, salah satunya adalah praktik akuntansi Indonesia harus mengadopsi kebijakan keuangan Neoliberal IASB (Graham dan Neu 2003). Nota kesepahaman ini ditandatangani antara IMF dan pemerintah Indonesia tahun 1997 sebelum Presiden Soeharto turun dari jabatannya akibat Reformasi tahun 1998. Di sinilah awal dari “tekanan dan kewajiban” yang harus dilaksanakan oleh pemerintah Indonesia untuk menerapkan IFRS secara menyeluruh di Indonesia.

IFRS: Flows of Things Kapitalisme

Dasar dari penerapan IFRS sebenarnya adalah masuknya siapapun yang mengadopsi IFRS dalam globalisasi liberalisasi financial market dan harmonisasi standar akuntansi dalam mendorong tersebarnya pada praktik secara umum. Merujuk pemikiran Burchell et al. (1980) seperti diungkapkan kembali oleh Graham dan Neu (2003)  bahwa akuntansi termasuk di dalamnya IFRS sebagai implementasi riilnya digunakan atau untuk melayani dua kepentingan, kompleksitas internal organisasi dan praktik sosial lebih luas. Mekanisme seperti itu berdampak pada penyebaran perubahan akuntansi, berupa teknologi akuntansi, hubungannya dengan kepentingan organisasi menjadi organisasi supranasional atau transnasional (MNC’s). Penyesuaian teknologi akuntansi dalam praktik organisasi supranasional melayani tujuan yang sama dengan organisasi konvensional, tetapi berbeda mekanismenya yaitu melakukan aktivitas yang dinamakan “aliran lintas batas melampaui ruang dan waktu” (cross-border flows beyond time and space), seperti aliran modal, produk, informasi, kebijakan dan orang.

Akuntansi untuk aliran lintas batas melampaui ruang dan waktu menciptakan bentuk sesuai perbedaan sosial yang melampaui simbol dan mitos. Perbedaan sosial berkaitan dengan asimetri kekayaan (wealth) dan kekuasaan (power) yang eksis di berbagai wilayah secara internasional. Hasil teknologi akuntansinya dalam organisasi supranational membantu menciptakan dan menyeimbangkan kondisi ketidakstabilan antara pusat dan pinggiran, antara non-majority world dan majority world. Graham dan Neu (2003) melihat bahwa teknologi dan praktik akuntansi yang dijalankan MNC’s ternyata bukan hanya melakukan tata kelola aliran lintas batas melampaui ruang dan waktu saja, tetapi mereka menyodorkan “praktik standarisasi” lintas batas. Lebih jauh, desakan standarisasi ternyata bermuatan ekonomi politik untuk kepentingan MNC’s mempergunakan berbagai institusinya.

Tabel Flows of ‘Things’

Sumber: Graham dan Neu (2003, 454) dimodifikasi

Salah satu kepentingan IFRS dapat dilihat dari dampaknya setelah diterapkan adalah untuk kepentingan kepastian aliran atau arus kas perusahaan “bermain monopoli” di berbagai flows of things. Ujung-ujungnya adalah dijalankannya “permainan monopoli” dengan laporan arus kas sebagai alat bantu pemetaan kekuatan keuangan perusahaan untuk mengantisipasi “dadu mesin” dari bursa saham yang disebut Electronically Operated Global Casino (Casino Global Elektronik), atau dalam bahasa Castells disebut sebagai Automaton (Capra 2003, 120). Automaton menurut Castells adalah ciptaan inti ekonomi hasil proses globalisasi keuangan yang secara tegas mengatur kehidupan manusia. Bukan robot-robot yang menghilangkan lapangan kerja atau komputer-komputer pemerintah, tetapi mesin-mesin globalisasi berbentuk transaksi keuangan elektroniklah yang mengambil alih dunia manusia. Logika automaton bukanlah aturan-aturan pasar tradisional, dinamika aliran keuangan yang digerakkannya saat ini di luar kendali-kendali pemerintahan negara, perusahaan-perusahaan dan lembaga-lembaga keuangan. Akan tetapi pada keluwesan dan ketepatan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi baru, regulasi ekonomi global yang efektif secara teknis menjadi masuk akal.

Dampak-dampak Neoliberalisme Akuntansi

Hasilnya? Secara historis ekonomi kapitalisme sebagai akar dari neoliberalisme telah menunjukkan “kinerja krisis”-nya yang tak dapat dipungkiri. Krisis tahun 2007-2008 dan bahkan diprediksikan akan memuncak tahun 2009 ini sebenarnya dapat disebut sebagai bentuk siklik dan cenderung mengarah pada akumulasi keruntuhan ekonomi kapitalisme. Siklik dan kecenderungan akumulasi ini terlihat sejak tahun 1923, kemudian berulang pada tahun 1930, 1940, 1970, 1980, 1990, dan 1998-2001. Krisis keuangan tahun 2000-2001 di Amerika Serikat puncaknya ketika terjadi skandal korporasi terburuk 70 tahun terakhir seperti Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Cisco Systems, Lucent Tech dan lainnya (lihat misalnya Stiglitz 2006, 7-8; Ravenscroft dan William 2004; Mayper et.al. 2005; Bean dan Bernardi 2005).

Krisis memicu reformasi pendidikan akuntansi beretika. Mulai dari The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOA) dan SAS 99 yang juga telah dilakukan sebelumnya dalam The Bedford Report tahun 1986 (Truan dan Hughes 1999). Kesadaran etis juga dideteksi The Wall Street Journal dengan peningkatan mata kuliah Accounting Fraud di berbagai perguruan tinggi Amerika Serikat (Haas 2005). Tetapi kita ketahui ternyata SOA maupun SAS 99 tidaklah memberikan dampak positif terhadap akuntansi dan finance. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of Treadway Commission (COSO) yang dibentuk tahun 1985 oleh lima lembaga profesi[1] untuk mendesain dan membentengi masalah kecurangan pelaporan keuangan dengan meningkatkan kualitas laporan keuangan sesuai dengan corporate governance, praktik etis, dan pengendalian intern, ternyata jauh panggang dari api.

Kejahatan korporasi dan akuntansi menjadi sumber krisis global karena permainan derivatif di pasar saham berkenaan kredit perumahan atau subprime mortage. Kita lihat kejatuhan perusahaan investasi sekuritas keempat terbesar di Amerika, Lehman Brothers. Kebangkrutan Lehman Brother disebabkan ketidakmampuan melunasi kewajiban miliaran dollar AS. Kehancuran pasar saham lewat derivatif juga terungkap lagi dengan kasus penipuan senilai 50 miliar dollar AS di Wall Street oleh Bernard Madoff di akhir tahun 2008. Masalah besarnya dari sisi akuntansi adalah perusahaan Madoff ditangani oleh kantor akuntan kecil, Friehling & Horowitz. Indonesiapun tidak ketinggalan, misalnya Sarijaya Sekuritas yang melakukan penggelapan dana dan salah urus aktivitas sekuritas senilai 245 miliar rupiah. Belum lagi kasus Group Bakri atau yang sekarang sedang marak per Januari 2009, 12 perusahaan sekuritas lainnya diberi sanksi denda dan dalam pengawasan Bappepam karena melakukan short selling. Aktivitas mereka ditengarai yang telah menyebabkan gejolak IHSG BEI.

Jadi, mau kemana akuntansi kita sekarang? Melepaskan akuntansi dari kungkungan IFRS atau ngikut jadi “komprador-komprador”? Pilihan ada di tangan anda. Bila ingin menjadi orang yang berdikari, ya tolak IFRS…

With the stroke of a pen, companies can make themselves appear more financially fit than they are

By Mara Der Hovanesian, Business Week

Accounting shenanigans bubble to the surface every few years. In the dot-com days the trick was to book virtual revenues. After the tech bust, tinkering with expenses was all the rage. Now forensic auditors and analysts worry that troubled companies are playing fast and loose with asset valuations and cash management.

These recent numbers games, which rely on some familiar techniques, may be the most troublesome yet. Companies that employ aggressive accounting tactics aren’t just inflating earnings and cash flow—their motive may also be to hide a true financial picture from lenders to avoid losing credit and other lifelines.

BW November 4_2009 Magic Tricks on the Corporate Books

Eine interessante Geschichte für Anfänger. Wenn Sie etwas für Fortgeschrittene lesen wollen, dann lesen sie bitte die Bilanzen der (österreichischen) Banken! (hfk)

How would you feel if everything you had once learned you need to relearn just a few years later?  If you are affected by the nations change to IFRS you may need to.  The accounting standards are going to be switched to match the nationally accepted rules in the coming years.  An article found at http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2009-01-05-international-accounting-rule-switch_N.htm describes not only how costly the switch will be but also why some want and some don’t want the switch.

The switch is considerably expensive due to the need to retrain people from the things that they have been doing for years.  Regulators would like this to happen within five years leaving businesses not that long of a time in order to find the money and train people on their new job.  The article states that in order for businesses to be ahead and on time they need to start preparing and implementing up to three years in advance.

Although it is a large task to accomplish, many companies believe that it would be a move in the right direction.  They believe this switch will help them in doing business with other companies worldwide.  Large companies can simply handle the costs associated with the switch so it is believed that those who will be hit the hardest are small to mid sized companies.  Hopefully the switch will be worth it and not a lot of companies will go under due to the increasing costs of the switch.

PRONUNCIAMENTO TÉCNICO PME – CONTABILIDADE PARA PEQUENAS E MÉDIAS EMPRESAS (PMES)

Esse Pronunciamento, ora em audiência pública, é específico para aplicação às demonstrações contábeis para fins gerais de entidades de pequeno e médio porte (PMEs), com o objetivo de abranger o conjunto de entidades compoto por sociedades fechadas e entidades que se enquadrem como Pequenas e Médias e não sejam requeridas a fazer prestação de contas ou divulgar demonstrações contábeis publicamente para fins gerais.

Most bankers do not take the time to stay current on accounting issues like XBRL and IFRS. Adoption of both XBRL and IFRS will have major implications on financial statement reporting, and bankers have to understand the changes.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) requires a standard format for all financial statements, so tags are used to map individual general ledger accounts to the pre-determined format.

IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standard) accounting rules represent a generally uniform global approach to capitalization, revenue, and expense recognition. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently reaffirmed its commitment to a convergence of US GAAP to IFRS [1].

Commit yourself to learning the accounting issues that your banker needs to know. Offer to provide the information to your banker as a professional courtesy. I can tell you from experience, the benefits can be well worth the effort.

For a more in-depth discussion of how to be more important to your banker, see the following profile from Cfo.Com:
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/13131183/1/c_13131494?f=home_todayinfinance

Footnote:

[1] http://blog.ifrs.com/2009/09/sec-breaks-silence-on-ifrs.html

Fernando Torres - Valor Online

SÃO PAULO – A Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) colocou hoje em audiência pública a minuta do CPC 37, norma que detalha como as companhias abertas devem proceder para apresentar o balanço consolidado referente ao exercício social de 2010, o primeiro a seguir as normas do padrão internacional, conhecido como IFRS.

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