The connection between accounting and taxation goes back to the 1920s laws of the named areas. A proposal has now been brought forward, the so-called SamRoB-investigation, which means that the connection between accounting and taxations should be decoupled.The authors? aim with the study is to investigate what a possible decoupling between accounting and taxation, i.e. the formal connection and the untaxed revenues, implicates for the auditor´s work.A research has been done by interviewing two authorized auditors and one authorized consultant of accounting to get a view in how the auditor?s works could be affected.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether accounting quality is a priced factor by investors. The event studied is the release of year-end result and the release of the annual report. To assess accounting quality a sample of 30 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2003 to 2007 are studied. We assess accounting quality by the absolute size of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al. (1995).

This thesis analyses the cost accounting system KPP and its use within the Swedish health care. KPP is designed to calculate and assign health care costs to individual patients. This would facilitate evaluations and comparisons of the costs for certain diagnosis, patient groups or clinics with a different mix of diagnosis. The study investigates the following questions: 1. Does the KPP-model theoretically work as a cost accounting tool for health care purposes? 2.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and propose improvements to the cost accounting system in use at an airline operating on the Swedish market. The choice of study object is based on the airline?s desire to have its cost accounting system evaluated. During the analysis we have identified a number of points where the current cost accounting system does not correspond to its intended purpose. These points include significant groups of costs not being considered in the current system, potential over capacity is not visible and logic connections between distribution keys and the use of resources are sometimes lacking.

Laws, regulations and generally accepted accounting principles hold options on how companies should recognize revenue. Generally accepted accounting principles are determined by standard-setting bodies as the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Supervisory Authority, which is influenced by international standard-setting bodies as the IASB. Service revenue is generally recognized when performance is completed, but there are variations in when a performance is considered complete. The different accounting options available create difficulties in comparing companies over time and between companies, which in turn creates difficulties to achieve a true and fair view. By clarifying what methods and principles in accounting for service income the unlisted companies in Sweden are using and why these differences exist, we have been able to study how the comparability and the true and fair view is affected by these differences. The aim was to study the underlying factors that companies do their financial report differently.

För att skapa mer verkliga siffror och aktualitet i beslutsunderlag har lean accounting som ekonomistyrningsmetod uppkommit. Metoden sägs bättre komplettera de förändringar som skett mot mer processorientering inom företag. Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva de skillnader och likheter som förekommer mellan traditionell ekonomistyrning och lean accounting. Även hur lean accounting kan utgöra ett mer komplett styrsystem i processorienterade företag i dess strävan mot lönsamhet, diskuteras. Detta görs för att identifiera de brister som sägs uppkomma då traditionella ekonomistyrningsmetoder används i processorienterade företag.

The value investing philosophy, which can be traced at least to the teaching of Graham and Dodd in the 1930?s, entails identifying and investing in potentially under valued stocks with a potential for extraordinary returns. The focus of this thesis is to identify patterns and characteristics in financial accounting data preceding creation of shareholder value. The authors of this thesis utilize a multivariate discriminant analysis in order to identify indicators of value creation and subsequent extraordinary returns in value stocks. A discriminant function is derived which successfully identifies which value stocks will eventually become growth stocks.

In recent years, customer profitability has become a focal point of academic discussions on business performance. However, researchers remain divided as to how evaluation of customers ought to be conducted, resulting in uncertainty of how accounting systems should be adapted to prevailing conditions. This paper aims to investigate the application of customer accounting techniques and the role they play in the organisational and commercial context in which they take place. In a case study of Billerud, a Swedish company providing materials and services for packaging solutions, the interplay between customer accounting techniques and customer relationship characteristics has been examined through the application of a theoretical framework developed by Lind and Strömsten. Particular emphasis has been put on deviations from the prescribed pattern of the framework.

In 2010 mandatory audit was revoked for small and medium sized companies in Sweden. At the same time the authorization for accounting consultants was established with the aim of raising the knowledge and status of the profession. Even though The Swedish Companies Registration Office has discovered more errors in the accounting after the mandatory audit was eliminated, it especially concerns those companies who does not have neither an auditor or an accounting consultant. One of the reasons often mentioned to be audited is the auditors role when it comes to lending decisions. Our empirical studie show that the auditors most important function, being unbiased, is not what is of greatest importance for the credit institutions.Instead it was professional skills, and for small and medium enterprises (SME) it was consulting they requested the most.

The purpose of this master thesis was to examine how the corporations quoted on the A-list on the Stockholm Stock Exchange were affected by the introduction of IFRS 3 Business Combinations. Their opinion about the accounting rule and the acquired goodwill in particular was focused as well. The authors wanted to see if there were any changes in ROE, return on equity, after the introduction of the new accounting standard.Data for this study was collected through interviews, questionnaires and annual reports. Interviews were held with corporate accounting managers of Assa Abloy, WM-data, Electrolux, Ericsson and SCA. Questionnaires were sent by e-mail to 50 companies and were answered by 30 of them.

The aim of this study is to examine and analyze how management control mechanisms evolve within an organization when a requirement of return on equity is imposed, as well as why the mechanisms evolve the way they do. A case study was performed on Samhall, a Swedish state-owned company, which has the aim to help people with disabilities develop by providing meaningful work. The framework provided by Samuelsson, defining five means of control in organizations was used to structure the study. Further, theories within New Public Management have been used to provide the reader with a proper background to the research area. Theories from the institutional field of organizational research have also been used to provide further depth to our analysis.

AbstractFrom 1st of July 2003 it is compulsory for companies with an average number of ten employees the latest two financial years to account sick leave in the annual report.The government?s purpose with accounting of sick leave was partly to evoke an action from the companies? side in terms of motion as an effect due to the awareness of the level of the sick leave. The government was of the opinion that the companies had too deficient knowledge in sick leave and that the knowledge about causes and costs had to increase.In this paper three companies affected by the compulsory accounting of sick leave have been interviewed. The paper defines to only concern private companies. The companies were interviewed in purpose to form an opinion of whether the companies have changed their health promoting actions due to the application of the law.

This study aims to measure the effect of accounting conservatism and to identify thebusiness activities causing firms to undervalue owners? equity. To estimateaccounting conservatism, we have followed the hypothesis that no firm over time cangenerate a return greater than its cost of equity, i.e. CAPM. Thus, if a firm in factgenerates an excess return over time, we assume that the excess return is an estimateof accounting conservatism within that firm.The hypothesis originates from the corporate valuation model ?Economic ValueAdded®? which tries to adjust for accounting bias.

This thesis aims to investigate the information effects of fair value accounting in Nordic real estate companies. As a consequence of the mandatory IFRS adoption in the European Union in 2005, listed Nordic companies are allowed to recognize investment property at fair value in accordance with IAS 40. Theory suggests that fair value accounting should lower information asymmetry. Therefore, this study aims to examine correlation between fair value accounting of investment property and information asymmetry on the stock market. To investigate this, we use bid-ask spread as a proxy for information asymmetry and examine Nordic real estate companies before and after the implementation of IFRS.

This study examines how a company adapts its operating control when the environmental circumstances are changing. This is a case study with a qualitative approach which is based on interviews. The main purpose is to examine how an accounting firm adjusts its operating control in order to meet the abolishment of the statutory auditing. Another purpose is to describe how the abolishment of the statutory auditing will influence or have influenced the choice of measures in the balanced scorecard. The question this study aims to examine is: How do audit firms adapt its operating control in order to meet changes in the environment? This question lead to a second question which the study also aims to examine and is How is the abolishment of the statutory auditing influencing the accounting firms goals, measures and focus in the balanced scorecard? The conclusion of this study shows that the abolishment of the statutory auditing has had an influence on the balanced scorecard.