Discretionary accruals are adjustments to cash flows selected by the
manager. The manager chooses discretionary accruals from an opportunity set
of generally accepted procedures defined by accounting standard-setting bodies.
For example, the manager can choose the method of depreciating long-lived
assets; he can accelerate or delay delivery of inventory at the end of the fiscal
year; and he can allocate fixed factory overheads between cost of goods sold
and inventories.