Intäktsredovisning i tjänsteföretag ? En studie över olikheterna i intäktsredovisningen för onoterade tjänsteföretag med liknande tjänster
FöretagsekonomiBusiness administration - management controlGod redovisningssedService revenueAccruals accounting?true and fair view?Revenue recognitionComparability of accounting
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. The empirical material has
been collected by the central accounting policies related to the court case RÅ
1999 ref 32, where new practices in Swedish accounting was established, which
allowed accrual of service revenue. The method has been through qualitative
interviews with four unlisted service companies supplemented with secondary
data in the form of corporate annual reports, as well as regulations and
guidelines of the standard-setting bodies.
The results have shown that companies that have chosen to defer their income,
do it from the view that the agreed performance is not performed until the end
of the contract and also because they under the regulations shall defer or
defers because the parent company in accordance with international rules should
defer. The companies reporting under other methods and principles have
justified their choice with ease and less expense, which seems to be based in
self-interest on their part. The study has shown that it is problematic to
compare companies which not defer with the companies which defer. Revenue tends
to vary more strongly in non-accrual business, and it becomes difficult for the
reader of the financial statements to determine what revenue development
depended on. Underlying factors that have been shown to be important for the
true and fair view is changes in accounting policies based in self-interest on
their part and not for it to reflect the company's business better as well as
the consequence of not disclose their accounting policies in the financial
statements, as the study shows that it is more difficult to get a true and fair
view of the companies at these events.