Nonarticulation in Cash Flow Statements and Implications for Education, Research and Practice.
研究发现许多公司的资产负债表与现金流量表存在非勾稽关系，即资产负债表上流动资产和负债的变化与现金流量表上报告的金额显著不同，这导致基于勾稽假设的先前研究不可靠，并建议FASB要求公司采用直接法编制现金流量表。
Abstract Our anecdotal experience with annual reports unexpectedly showed that many balance sheets and cash flow statements are not articulated in the sense that changes in the current asset and liability account balances presented on the former are often reported on the latter at significantly different amounts. To assess the extent of this phenomenon, we examined a sample of 9,757 sets of public financial statements. This effort revealed many unexplained differences between expected operating cash flow measures and the amounts actually reported in cash flow statements. This finding has important implications for education, research and practice. In particular, it implies that education should be altered to reflect the fact that practice is neither guided nor described by conventional concepts. It also suggests that most previous research about operating cash flows is deficient and unreliable because the calculation of its key variable (operating cash flow) is based on an assumption of articulation. Most significantly, this research implies that the FASB can greatly improve accounting practice by requiring companies to use the direct method for reporting operating cash flows. Our analysis shows that the FASB's conclusions were based on untrue premises about the simplicity of the indirect method and the complexity of the direct method. By requiring the direct method, the FASB will produce benefits for all parties involved with or affected by financial reporting.