by poor liquidity, appeared the phenomenon of serious run behind one's expenses; at the same time, the bank strengthened the business loan recovery efforts, making enterprises financing channels are affected, resulting in low economic benefits of business. The enterprise assets shrunk, so will the financial statements will cover some substantial losses, especially the listed companies is to resort to every conceivable means for accounting fraud. The distortion of accounting information has become a widespread phenomenon, make the accounting integrity system has been questioned, investors lost confidence, rethinking the accountant occupation moral construction problem is crunch time. But accountant occupation moral deterioration also exacerbated by the outbreak of the financial crisis.
What is ethical accounting? The idea of accounting ethics deals with the moral and values-based judgments and decisions an accountant or accounting agency confront daily in their practice. Due to the nature of their work as communicators of financial information to business managers, shareholders, and the general public, as well bookkeeping and auditing of business entities, accountants and accounting agencies are held to the highest standards of transparency and morality in regards to their research and the information they convey. Accounting can be used as a way to study how and why a business may succeed or fail, but above all it is a public service; those who practice it must make judgments and decisions that can sometimes supersede the interests of their clients in favor of the interests of the public at large.
Failure to apply ethical standards to accounting creates the opportunity for manipulation of facts and information that, if used to mislead, could cause a person to invest under false pretenses, or a business to represent its finances fraudulently to its shareholders. It is of the utmost importance that the public be able to trust accountants and accounting, because their financial future, and that of their family or business, could be at stake.
As an accountant, you are going to come face-to-face with plenty of ethical issues. Deciding whether someone's business practices and their actions are ethical is something that can be fairly difficult, but holding ethical standards is a vital part of your job. Many people in the accounting and banking industry often find it hard to
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recognize a serious ethical problem. It is not that they are unethical people, but frequently they are simply aware that an ethical problem is presenting itself. Nearly everything that you do in your line of work has an ethical side of things.
Why is it important that accountants and accounting firms be ethical?
You hold a very important role in each customers and companies life . Accountants play a key part in keeping the integrity and credibility of their clients. Accountant must be not only competent at his job like every other worker, but he must hold the knowledge and experience to keep his professionalism, even at the most difficult times.Keeping your clients integrity means that you have to communicate deeply to avoid all problems, and make sure that everyone knows what is going on with their own finances. Sometimes people forget that confidentiality is the strength of any professional accountant, and it can be hard. You must keep your clients information completely confidential unless the other party has a legal right to view it. It can be uncomfortable to face that sort of pressure.Over the years there have been several large accounting scandals in the United States, and in the world at large, which caused private investors and public shareholders to lose billions of dollars, and giant businesses and accounting firms to fold, because of falsified or incorrect information given out about the companies in which the money was invested. The Enron scandal is perhaps the most recent and glaring example of unethical accounting causing widespread negative effects, including the loss of $25 billion in shareholder assets, the closure of the Arthur Anderson auditing firm, and the subsequent loss of 85000 jobs when the unethical practices were reported and the company dissolved.
I do not think I am going to face any ethical issues? You might think. I know what I would do if I were faced with a hard choice. Think again, because as an accountant, you are going to face countless issues that require you to be clear headed and of sound judgment. More people then you think attempt to take the unethical route, and lie to their company.For example, going through the records of your firm,air max 90, you stumble on a huge discovery , a coworker is withholding money from the firm, and has been for a while. How do you approach this situation? The most likely solution is to follow your own firms policy to resolve the issue. Every
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firm has some sort of ethical guidelines that state how to react and treat a situation like this. Maintaining a professional and ethical business practice should be the firms main priority.If for some reason your firm does not have a policy that dictates how you should treat this situation, your responsibility is to go to your manager. If you feel that he is also part of the issue, then you need to go to the next level of management.
When trying to work with these ethical issues and resolve them, you as an accountant and an employee of a firm must understand your businesses strategies, and motivations. If you are worried that you yourself may be at risk for some sort of ethical dilemma, then the best option is to call your personal attorney. He can assist you in looking at your options, and with your best interest guide you towards a good result.If you feel that you cannot work with your firm anymore due to ethical conflicts, do not feel bad giving notice for that reason and leaving. If the situation is pressing, or if the concerns are high enough, this is a very valid response.Remember that it is your duty as an accountant to withhold the integrity of not only your clients business practices, but your own. Many people are not as morally sound as idealists would like to believe, and where money is concerned, there will always be someone trying to outsmart you.
Ethical accounting is not only important to private businesses or individuals for reliable information about their respective financial states, but has a responsibility to the public to provide transparent evaluations of publicly held business entities. Ethical accounting can help eliminate the serious problems raised when incomplete or incorrect information about business or individual is disseminated, saving money and jobs and helping to increase stability in financial markets.
With the intensity of anti-corruption work constantly increasing,as accounting staffs who work on the economic front,whose professional ethics building has also been referred to the schedule of anti-corruption work.Analyzing from the occurrence process of a number of corruption cases,not strict or directly involved in committing crime are the directly or indirectly reasons to cause some cases occurred.So it is very important to strengthen the construction of accounting professional ethics and improve the political and professional qualities of accounting staffs.
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Under the influence of the financial crisis, the country's political and economic environment are increasingly complex, management risk, market risk, increasing the risk of accounting. The accountant must always have to have to be very careful in the sense of urgency, further improve the professional quality, to further strengthen the accounting occupation morals construction. Therefore we must establish and improve relevant laws and regulations, audit of accounting. Strengthening the audit organization and the supervision of public opinion, to strengthen the accountant occupation morals education and continuing education, and make it institutionalization, standardization, and establish and perfect the accounting personnel selection and incentive and restraint mechanisms, to create a good environment of accounting.
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附录二 中文翻译
在金融危机下会计职业道德重建问题研究文献综述
金融危机的到来已成为不争的事实，会计职业道德受到了严重的冲击，会计诚信岌岌可危。会计人员在国家、社会利益与单位利益、个人利益发生冲突时，经不起利益的诱惑参与伪造、变更会计资料或串通舞弊，丧失了基本的法制观念，为满足一己私欲而做出了非道德行为，这些都严重影响了会计职业和会计信息的可信度。因此必须进一步加强会计的职业道德建设，建立健全会计、审计相关的法律法规，强化审计机构和社会舆论的监督，加强会计从业人员的职业道德教育和继续教育。
金融危机又称金融风暴，是指一个国家或几个国家与地区的全部或大部分金融指标，急剧、短暂和超周期恶化。而会计职业道德是指会计职业活动中应当遵循的，体现会计职业特征的职业行为准则和规范。金融危机就似催化剂，使已面临严重挑战的会计职业道德面临崩溃底线，特别是我国中小企业面临贸易量急剧下降和资金短缺的双重压力，严重影响到了中小企业的生存发展环境。金融危机爆发这一诱因，导致企业市场风险增大，供需矛盾益发突出，引起市场萎缩资金流动不畅，出现入不敷出的现象严重；与此同时，银行加强了对企业贷款的回收力度，使得企业筹集资金渠道受到影响，最终造成企业经济效益低下。企业资产的严重缩水，那么必在财务报表中就会掩盖一些实质性的亏损，尤其是上市公司更是无所不用其极的进行会计造假。会计信息失真已经成为一个普遍现象，使得会计诚信体系受到质疑，投资者失去信心，重新思考会计职业道德建设问题已是刻不容缓。而会计职业道德的持续恶化也加剧了金融危机的爆发。
什么是会计的道德？会计道德思想涉及道德和价值观为基础的判断和决策会计或会计机构的日常实践。由于其工作性质是作为传播者的财务信息，企业管理者，股东和一般公众，及会计和审计的实体企业，会计和会计机构做出了最高标准的透明度来进行道德方面的研究并传递信息。会计可被用来作为一种研究以及评判企业成功或失败的标准，但它首先是一个公共服务；这些在实践中必须作出判断和决定，有时可以代替客户利益服从于公共利益。
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