3.4 Accounting Period or Periodicity Assumption (PA) believes that the continuum of time can be subdivided
into a number of discrete time periods (accounting periods) (British Institute of Management Information (BIMI,
1984). According to Keynes (1980), in the long run we are all "dead", implies that the net income of a firm
prepared under this assumption (discrete time period), may not after all be realistic because of the presence of
inflation and changes in price level. He asserts that the net profit usually has the components of unrealized profit
or uncollectible realized revenue that may eventually go bad in the form of bad debts. The provision for losses
may however not cover the total debtors during the accounting period. Similarly, the fundamental problem, be it
in the short or long run, is the method of stock valuation. Stock valuation could be based on full cost or marginal
cost, straight-line or declining method, especially when the firm is operating either at full-capacity or undercapacity.
Where there is under-capacity utilization the absorption rate is likely to be high if the depreciable
amount is always high, it reduces the profit figure in the financial statements, vice-versa.