Background: Many different parties in the society are affected by the financial information delivered by the companies. Therefore, different interests want their ideas to have an impact on the accountning standards. The construction of the Accounting standards are illustrated as a pure political process, where lobbying and conflicts of interest are determining factors. Purpose: The purpose is to understand the underlying interests behind regulation of financial accounting in Sweden and how these interests are manifestated in the establishment of Accounting standards. Method: The thesis is designed as a casestudy of the regulation process which induced the legislation of the Årsredovisningslagen 6 kap 1 § 3st.

IASB is currently working with the replacement of IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. The new standard IFRS 9 Financial Instruments is said to be based on principles as opposed to the more rules-based IAS 39. This thesis examines the third phase of the project regarding micro hedge accounting. The expressed goal from IASB is to provide more useful hedge accounting information by reducing complexity of the standard. To examine the potential effects of the transition from the rules based IAS 39 to the more principles based IFRS 9, we have performed a case study on a major Swedish bank.

In order to achieve comparability, which is one of the fundamental principles of accounting, companies should be consistent concerning the accounting policies they use. Only under certain circumstances changes in accounting policies are allowed, and when there is a change in accounting policies, it is important that the change is reported in a way that assures that the financial reports still achieve comparability. The purpose of this thesis is to establish which rules and recommendations about changes in accounting policies that exist in Swedish and German law and what their meaning is. Further, the purpose is to compare these rules and recommendations and discuss their differences and similarities, advantages and disadvantages. Since publicly traded European companies will be obliged to prepare their consolidated accounts in conformity with International Accounting standards (IAS) from 2005, I also describe the content of IAS 8 which deals with changes in accounting policies, and discuss what the consequences of this transition might be for Swedish and German publicly traded companies considering changes in accounting policies.

This thesis is based on an assignment from a unit within an international group manufacturing industrial products. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze and suggest ways to improve the cost accounting system in use at the unit. The main source of empirical data has been interviews with employees. The theoretical framework is based on a comparison between traditional/standard costing and activity-based costing (ABC). The cost accounting system in use is described in detail and classified as a traditional/standard cost accounting system.

Abstract: Since the implementation of IFRS, many changes in Accounting standards have occured. Companies that follow IFRS must therefore always adapt and change its accountingprinciples according to changes made by IFRS. The latest change that companies must consider and adapt to in their financial accounting is the revised version of IAS 19 regarding pensions. This study aims to investigate if there is a relationship between financial accounting and management accounting due to changes made by IASB. More specifically the study investgates how the removal of the corridormethod and the introduction of IAS 19 as an external approach has affected its management accounting in three large corporations in Sweden.

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.

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.

Background: With an increased global market, where companies seek capital abroad, the demand for a more uniform Accounting standard has been raised. This uniform Accounting standard is not yet available, differences between Accounting standards still exists. Several Swedish companies seek risk capital in the USA and some are part of a concern that is listed on the American stock exchange. This means that the Securities and Exchange Commission requires the companies to do a reconciliation to US GAAP on those items that are considered material. This can be an extensive work for the companies if the knowledge about the differences between Swedish GAAP and US GAAP does not exist.

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.

A company may use different accounting techniques to adjust accounting information and thereby attract investors. Big Bath Accounting is defined as a strategy used to make changes in the financial statements and reduce the results further when the companies expect negative results. This phenomenon has been observed empirically and occurs when including CEO change and negative results. The aim of this study is to test whether there is another factor affecting Big Bath Accounting, namely remuneration of the CEO. The CEOs should, by changing the accounting information, be able to influence their compensation.

The problems and the opinions regarding accounting of Goodwill have always been an issue. In the search for a more standardised Accounting standard IASB made a series of changes with the implementation of IFRS/IAS, which means that all companies who are listed on any stock exchange in Europe have to follow these new standards. During the process IASB wanted some feedback from the users to get a better understanding of how different participants in the economic market would respond to a number of questions regarding different changes in the accounting. In total IASB got 126 responses for the 'Comment Letters' (CL) they sent out.This paper aims to review these CL and examine how different participants will stand on different questions, mainly regarding the elimination of the pooling method and if goodwill is to be amortised but also any opinions regarding the implementation of the impairment tests. The present study comprises 126 CL, which represent participants from all the corners of the Earth.

The main aim of this paper is to consider the possible effects of a transition to a new Accounting standard for goodwill. According to IASBs Exposure Draft of Proposed Amendments to IFRS 3 Business Combinations there is an inconsistency in the currently used purchased goodwill method. The full goodwill method is considered to be a superior alternative and is therefore suggested to become the standard from 2007. This paper comprises a quantitative study of the effects on certain key ratios for companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, arising due to the proposed transition. The period examined is 2004 and 2005.

One of the most crucial entries in the financial statements is revenue. Despite the importanceof revenue a lot of mistakes are made concerning this entry because of the extensive room forjudgements. Especially in the construction companies where a lot of differences exist due tothe fact that different standards are used for similar business transactions.The research concerning IFRIC 15 and the new upcoming standard for revenue recognition isnot very extensive. Studies including both IFRIC 15 and the new standard are even morelimited. Therefore this study aims to compare the effects of IFRIC 15 and the new upcomingstandard for revenue recognition, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, in three Swedishconstruction companies.

The study describes the problems with analysis of real estate companies after the introduction of IFRS. With the introduction of IFRS (2005) and specially IAS 40 the real estate companies get the ability to appreciate its real estates to real value. With the difference in the accounting, grows the question if it has become some differences for analysts with analysis and valuation of real estate companies. We also look into how well this new standard effect the real estate companies from the view of the accounting quality and its characteristics..

Property companies? results are affected by unrealized changes in value of properties. Since market values are never completely reliable there is always a risk with revaluation with property´s value. The fair value is determined only when a sale is completed. The paper studies how well the Swedish listed property companies reported under the Accounting standard, IAS 40.