Accounting standards: the ‘too difficult’ box – the next big accounting issue?
从会计提供资本配置决策信息的视角出发，探讨数字资产和气候变化两大新问题如何避免落入“太难”的箱子，并指出会计报告应超越传统财务报表以满足投资者信息需求。
Embracing the perspective of accounting as providing information to support capital allocation decisions could help avoid accounting issues ending up in the ‘Too Difficult' Box. Investors need and use information not contained in traditional financial statements. Thus, focusing on financial statements as the sole accounting output limits the ability of accounting reports to meet investors' information needs. Two issues on the horizon—accounting for digital assets and the effects of climate change—reveal how embracing this perspective could help avoid the ‘Too Difficult' Box. These issues reveal pitfalls arising from trying to fit newly created assets into categories—and consequent accounting—designed for previously identified assets. The issues also reveal potential benefits of substituting non-financial information for unavailable financial information rather than omitting the items from accounting reports. Both issues reinforce investors' need for information about risk. Digital assets, climate change, risk, and—more broadly—whether and how accounting reports should be broadened beyond financial statements motivate many interesting research questions. Insights from this research are vital as accounting faces potentially revolutionary changes in investors’ information needs.