These techniques artificially inflate the revenue of both the buyer and the seller (Kokoszka, 2003).
Qwest Communication International allegedly was one of the most aggressive users ofswaptransactions – sellinglong-termcapacityonitsfibernetworktoanothercarrier, buying the same amount of fiber on another carrier’s net work, and then booking the contract as revenue. Qwest is also alleged to have boosted sales by selling equipment to another companies and then leasing services back from those same concerns.
3.5 Timing of adoption of mandatory accounting standards Since its formation in 1973 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued 151 accounting standards – an average of five new standards per year. Typically, the FASB standards are enacted with a two-to-three-year transition period prior to mandatory adoption but with early adoption encouraged.
While not all firms are affected by each standard issued, the relative frequency of new standards combined with long adoption windows provides an opportunity for managers to select an adoption year most favorable to the firm’s financial picture (Ayres, 1994).
Ayres (1986) provides the empirical evidence that the firms who adopted the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) #52 “Accounting for Foreign Currency Translation” early had the opportunity to increase earnings with an average of $0.38 per share. In comparison to firms that adopted the standard later, the early-adopting firms were smaller, closer to debt and dividend constrains, and less profitable than later-adopting firms.
Early adoption of accounting standard that increase income may convey an impression that a company needs to find income from wherever possible. Early adoption can lower investors’ perception of earning quality.
3.6 Voluntary accounting changes Another method of managing earnings is to switch from one generally accepted accounting method to another. While a firm cannot make the same type of accounting changes too frequently, it is possible to make several different types of accounting changes either together or individually over several periods.
3.7 Conservative accounting Conservative accounting means choosing the accounting method that keeps the carrying values of the assets relatively low. Therefore, LIFO accounting for inventories is conservative relative to FIFO (if inventory prices are increasing); expensing research and development expenditures rather than capitalizing and amortizing them is conservative; and policies that consistently overestimate allowances for doubtful accounts, sales returns or warranty liabilities are conservative.
Conservative accounting affects not only the quality of numbers reported on the balance sheet, but also the quality of earnings reported on the income statement. When the firm increase investment, conservative accounting leads to reported earnings that are lower than would have been had management made more liberal accounting choices. These lower earnings, however, create unrecorded reserves that provide managers more flexibility to report more income in the future. Management can increase these reserves, and so reduce earnings, by increasing investment.