The following are some differences between the changes in assets and/or liabilities and the inflows and outflows definitions of income:
- The changes in assets and/or liabilities approach determines earnings as a measure of the change in net economic resources for a period, whereas the inflows and outflows definition views income as a mea sure of effectiveness.
- The changes in assets and/or liabilities approach result in the depend on the definition of assets and liabilities to define earning, whereas the inflows and outflows approach depend on definitions of revenues and expenses and matching them to determine income.
- The inflows and outflows approach results in the creation of deferred changes, deferred credits, and reserves when measuring periodic income; the changes in assets and/or liabilities approach recognizes deferred items only when they are economic resources or obligations.
- Both approaches agree that because investors look to financial statements to provide information, from which they can extrapolate future resource flows,
- The changes in assets and/or liabilities approach limits the population from which the elements of financial statements can be selected to net economic resources and to the transactions and events that change measurable attributes of those net resources. Under the inflows and outflows approach revenues and expenses may include items necessary to match costs with revenues, even if they do not represent changes in net resources.3
An important distinction between revenues and gains and expenses and losses is whether or not they are associated with ongoing operations. Over the years’ this distinction has generated questions concerning the nature of income reporting desired by various financial statement users. Two viewpoints have dominated this dialogue and are termed the current operating performance concept and theall-inclusive concept of income reporting. These viewpoints are summarized in the following paragraphs.