Pragmatically, accounting policies are developed and taken on by the head of the public
entity, while in a regulated accounting, such as the one in Romanian public institutions, the responsibility for organizing and managing accounting belongs to the main credit release authority
or to another person who has to obligation to manage that entity.
Among the fields of application of the accounting policies identified by Jean- François Casta
stand out the following (Ristea, 2000): choosing the accounting methods and principles, choosing
the presentation methods of financial statements, determining the volume of published information,
inserting optional financial statements.
Thus, developing accounting policies includes opting between accounting methods, which
may be structured as follows: accounting measurements and evaluation methods; methods for
keeping track and organizing control documents and control procedures and for validating
accounting entries; methods for summarizing, preparing and presenting financial statements;
methods for measuring and assessing costs and analytical results (cost control, orientation of
decision-making).
The users must be able to compare the financial statements of a public institution for a
certain period of time in order to check the trends of its financial position, its performances and its
cash flows necessary for various activities. For this, one must use the same accounting policies that
will be adopted for each year (the principle of permanent methods).
A change in accounting policies should be implemented only if it’s stipulated by an IPSAS
or if such a change leads to a more adequate presentation of the events and transactions included in
the financial statements of the public institution.
Changing the accounting policy refers to changing the accounting treatment, the recognition
and evaluation of a transaction, event or condition within an evaluation basis.
Accounting policies may be general (they refer to the substance of financial organization
and reporting: recognition, classification, evaluation, materiality) and specific (they refer to the
particularities associated to specific categories of assets and liabilities, including those contingent).