Читать книгу Cost Accounting For Dummies - Kenneth W. Boyd - Страница 58

The principle of conservatism relates to decisions you make as an accountant (or as a business owner doing some accounting). By conservative, accountants mean the less-attractive decision. Your goal is to avoid creating accounting records that are overly optimistic.

Consider revenue. If you need to make a judgment on when to recognize revenue, choose to delay recognition. Delay posting the revenue until you’re sure the revenue has been earned. That decision is considered the conservative one, because it makes your financial statements less attractive to a reader.

Okay, now consider expenses. You should recognize expenses sooner than later. In the section “Previewing inventoriable costs,” marketing costs are recognized immediately. That’s because the accountant can’t justify delaying the expenses to a later period. Posting more expenses sooner makes your financial statements less attractive.