The field of critical accounting has expanded rapidly since its inception and has become recognised as offering a wealth of provocative insights in the wake of the global financial crisis. It is now firmly embedded within accounting literature and in how accounting is taught. Surveying the evolving field of Critical Accounting, including theory, ethics, history, development and sustainability, this Companion presents key debates in the field, providing a comprehensive overview. Incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting, the volume concludes by considering new directions in which critical accounting research may travel. With an international array of established and respected contributors, this Routledge Companion is a vital resource for students and researchers across the world.

The Meaning of Company Accounts first appeared in 1971 and quickly achieved recognition among managers, financial and non-financial alike. It is now seen as the standard text in the subject. It aims to help anyone using company accounts to gain a firm grasp of what they mean and how they relate to business activities. Throughout the book, ideas are developed in a logical, structured sequence, involving a high degree of reader participation, while at the same time being extremely flexible. The workbook approach, including examples to be worked through, enables readers to achieve understanding of topics they may previously have found difficult. This eighth edition has been thoroughly revised to ensure that the text and appendices are current. It includes up-to-date references of both international and UK accounting standards.

In the field of marriage and family therapy, the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) tool can be used to meet the needs of the client, therapist, managed care workers, and contractual payers. It can also provide therapists with assessment data for guiding their clinical work and outcome data for verifying treatment success to outside evaluators. This sourcebook outlines the basic elements of GARF as described in the DSM-IV. These elements include: solving problems and negotiating goals, rules and routines within the practice, organizing roles and responsibilities, and establishing a positive emotional environment for everyone. In order to fulfil these basic elements, the authors provide clinicians with some necessary tools including structural knowledge, process charts, and growth-producing environmental proposals. In the first portion of the book, clinicians will find a quick understanding of the GARF and how it can produce effective outcomes from different treatment approaches. In addition, this sourcebook provides clinicians with a start-up manual to using the GARF in marriage and family therapy. Managed care needs are discussed later in the book and a comparison of major family assessment tools is also included for the experienced clinician.

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Foundations in Accountancy (FIA) awards are entry-level, core-skill focused qualifications from ACCA. They provide flexible options for students and employers, and as an ACCA Approved Content Provider, BPP Learning Media s suite of study tools will provide you with all the accurate and up-to-date material you need for exam success.

The Routledge Companion to Intellectual Capital offers a comprehensive overview of an important field that has seen a diverse range of developments in research in recent years. Edited by leading scholars and with contributions from top academics and practitioners from around the world, this volume will provide not just theoretical analysis but also evaluate practice through case studies. Combining theoretical and practice perspectives, this comprehensive Companion addresses the role of IC inside and between organisations and institutions and how these contribute to the IC of nations, regions and clusters. Drawing on an extensive range of leading contributors,The Routledge Companion to Intellectual Capital will be of interest to scholars who want to understand IC from a variety of perspectives, as well as students who are seeking an authoritative and comprehensive source on IC and knowledge management.

This title was first published in 2003. Based on psychological research, auditing studies have focused on 'belief revision' as a way of understanding how auditors evaluate evidence. Moreover a belief revision process is consistent with US auditing standards. UK standards on the other hand do not appear to give guidance on the process to follow when evaluating evidence. Research in the US indicates that auditors do in fact follow a belief revision process in accordance with US standards. Employing survey research (based on personal interviews with a number of experienced UK auditors) this book demonstrates how auditors prefer to be described as following the open mind approach. Building on the findings of the interviews the book then describes an experimental study to investigate the differences between the belief revision and open mind approaches in terms of their effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. The book concludes that the belief revision approach would improve the efficiency of the audit process without affecting its effectiveness or outcomes.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Traditionally, the study of financial decision making in law enforcement and criminal justice entities has been approached from the perspective of tax revenues and budgeting that focus only on the past and present. Capital investments of cash flow provide future benefits to all organizations, and among courses in business administration, these notions of long-term financial management are critical to a sound understanding of organizational finance. Strategic Finance for Criminal Justice Organizations examines capital budgeting techniques from a quantitative perspective that targets the strategic future of revenues within the criminal justice and law enforcement sectors. Explaining capital budgeting concepts through the use of practical examples, this volume discusses: Economics and the use of money as a tool to facilitate the exchange of goods and services Human decision making, impediments to rendering objective decisions, and methods for improving decision objectivity The consequences of making capital budgeting decisions, the concept of risk, and the time value of money The rendering of decisions using the payback time method and the mathematical formula necessary to use it The concept of discounting and decision rules for net present value How to make an internal rate of return financial decision The mathematical formula for the profitability ratio/index method and using it to make financial decisions In all organizations, it is essential that financial decisions are made through informed insight considering all relevant factors. This volume contributes to improvements of the skills that are required to robustly render beneficial, long-term strategic decisions within the law enforcement and criminal justice environment.

First Published in 1998. The area examined in this book falls loosely under the category of 'accounting integration' where research should explain how the accounting systems in both countries are designed to integrate cost and financial accounting. The authors of this book had previously been working independently on the early development of accounting for industrial enterprises within their own countries. They claim that in order to understand modern day similarities and differences, it is necessary to understand how the current practices and systems have come into being.

This monograph is concerned with individual, though related, aspects and economic implications of historic cost (HC) accounting indices. The conceptual basis of the model that is advocated as a yardstick for assessing such implications, including potential corporate financial policy consequences, namely, a multiperiod cash flow-market value (CF-MV) model, is elaborated and evaluated at some length.

First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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Savvy managers no longer look at contracting processes and documents reactively but use them proactively to reach their business goals and minimize their risks. To succeed, these managers need a framework and A Short Guide to Contract Risk provides this. The foundation of identifying and managing contract risk is what the authors call Contract Literacy: a set of skills relevant for all who deal with contracts in their everyday business environment, ranging from general managers and CEOs to sales, procurement and project professionals and risk managers. Contracts play a major role in business success. Contracts govern companies' deals and relationships with their suppliers and customers. They impact future rights, cash flows, costs, earnings, and risks. A company's contract portfolio may be subject to greater losses than anyone realizes. Still the greatest risk in business is not taking any risks. Equipped with the concepts described in this book, business and risk managers can start to see contracts differently and to use them to find and achieve the right balance for business success and problem prevention. What makes this short guide from the authors of the acclaimed Proactive Law for Managers especially valuable, if not unique, is its down-to-earth managerial/legal approach. Using lean contracting, visualization and the tools introduced in this book, managers and lawyers can achieve legally sound contracts that function as managerial tools for well thought-out, realistic risk allocation in business deals and relationships.

The Making of Shareholder Welfare Society traces and accounts for the debates and discussions between law and economics scholars and mainstream legal scholars, management theorists, and economic sociologists. This is done in detail to demonstrate that the shareholder welfare society was built from the bottom up, beginning with theoretical propositions regarding alleged market efficiencies and leading all the way to the idea that a society characterized by economic freedom and efficiency maximization pave the way for uncompromised shareholder welfare, in turn being good for everyone. This book is of relevance for a variety of readers, including graduate students, management scholars, policy-makers, and management consultants, as well as those that are concerned about how the economic system of competitive capitalism is now in a position where it is riddled by doubts and concern, not the least as the levels of economic inequality is soaring. It addresses the topics with regard to corporate governance, accounting and society and will be of interest to researchers, academics, students, and members of the general public that are concerned about the economic system of competitive capitalism.

This title was first published in 2001: Product and particularly customer profitability are black holes in most managers' understanding of their business. Identifying customer revenue is easy but identifying what they cost - so we can understand whether or not they are profitable - is difficult. In a world in which competition, regulation and the increasing use of the Internet put ever greater pressure on margins it is vitally important to understand both product- and customer-profitability. Activity Based Management (ABM) enables you to do this. This book explains the power of using ABM to increase the profitability of your business. It provides step-by-step guidance on basic principles, comparisons between traditional methods, definitions of processes, activities and cost-drivers as well as details of data collection techniques and implementation steps. Through the book's numerous detailed examples a logical picture builds up of how to obtain the benefits that ABM can deliver. On its own ABM will change management decision-making: by showing how ABM also supports other profit improvement initiatives such as Business Process Reengineering, Shareholder Value Added and Customer Relationship Management, managers will learn how they can use the best possible toolkit to put their business firmly on the road to leaps in profitability.

This collection of commissioned papers from some of the world's most renowned scholars in accounting celebrates the academic achievements of Professor Bob Parker. Reflecting his contribution to the history of accountancy, the volume studies the development of accounting in an international context. Basil Yamey analyzes the interesting diversity of accounting in Europe from late medieval times to 1800. The 19th century development of the profession in the UK and Australia is examined by Tom Lee and by Edwards, Carnegie and Cauberg; Lee Parker looks at the topical area of professional conduct; Richard Morris charts the influence of England on Australia in the development of one type of corporate legal form; Bell, Peasnell, Tweedie and Whittington analyze aspects of current value accounting; Steve Zeff adds to his work on political influence on standard setting by looking at a recent US example; Gray and Roberts seek to explain patterns of foreign listing on the London Stock Exchange; finally, Segun Wallace studies the development of accounting research in the UK.

Performance management is key to the ongoing success of any organisation, allowing it to meet its strategic objectives by designing and implementing management control systems. This book goes beyond the usual discussion of performance management in accounting and finance, to consider strategic management, human behaviour and performance management in different countries and contexts. With a global mix of world-renowned researchers, this book systematically covers the what, the who, the where and the why of performance management and control (PMC) systems. A comprehensive, state-of-the-art collection edited by a leading expert in the field, this book is a vital resource for all scholars, students and researchers with an interest in business, management and accounting.

The aim of this book is to take stock of the experiences of Spain and Portugal in the adaptation to the IPSAS, showing the advantages, disadvantages and the main challenges for its implementation. In chapter one, the book analyses the IPSAS and the conceptual framework, as well as the claimed benefits and criticisms of IPSAS. Chapter two makes an analysis of the diffusion of the IPSAS in the international framework and the process of harmonization in development in Europe. Chapter three and four analyze the process of adaptation to IPSAS in Portugal and Spain respectively. In the chapter five, there is a comparative analysis between Spain and Portugal, and the last chapter present the main conclusions. This book can help to understand the level of implementation of the reforms and how governments are applying the IPSAS.

First published in 1996, this book seeks to establish Gabriel A.D. Preinreich as an important accounting theorist and redress the neglect that his work has suffered despite its foundational importance to prominent areas of modern research. Two criteria were used to select the papers included in this volume - papers related to dividends, yield, valuation, goodwill and depreciation were selected while those that were primarily concerned with mathematical economics were omitted. The collected articles and other items were written between 1931 and 1944 and grouped into three sections: accounting from the investor's viewpoint; valuation and goodwill; and depreciation.

Philanthropic foundations are experiencing a crisis of professional identity. They attract considerable hopes due to an unusually high degree of independence and freedom of manoeuvre, which theoretically places them in a privileged position to find novel solutions to societies' most severe and intractable problems. However, the field is said to suffer from a pervasive lack of orientation as to how these aspirations can be realized. Compared to other professions, it can be said that there exists neither reliable knowledge nor established practices which might guide the strategy development and the daily practice of foundations. This void is frequently filled by changing fads which present easy to grasp recipes and often make bold promises of how foundations can change the world. Yet, none of them has ever met these expectations. Philanthropy in Practice shows how philanthropic organizations can effectively address this predicament. Drawing on the public philosophy of Pragmatism, it argues that, to be effective, they need to go for the solution of social problems of middle range. The book puts at center stage the crucial role of niches in terms of bounded, protected and stable social spaces which are rich in resources. They render possible the experiments required to develop effective interventions and facilitate the retention of novel solutions to social problems. The model builds upon, and is illustrated by four in-depth case studies from the UK, Germany and Switzerland. With its sharp analytical eye and substantial evidence, Philanthropy in Practice will reshape the way we think about the questions of what impact philanthropy can reasonably hope to achieve, and by which means.

The Net Present Value (NPV) forecast lies at the heart of the business case on many projects. Martin Hopkinson's guide explains when, why and how NPV models should be built for projects and how this approach can be integrated with the risk management process. NPV models tend to be used during the earliest phases of a project as the business case is being developed. Typically, these are the stages when uncertainty is at its highest and when the opportunities to influence the project's plan are at their greatest. This book shows how project financial forecasting and risk management principles can be used to both improve NPV forecasts and to shape the project solution into one that is risk-robust. The text is sufficiently broad to be practicable for first-time users to employ the methods described. But it also contains insights into the process that are likely to be new to the majority of experienced practitioners. All users should find that the models used in this book will help to provide useful templates for exploiting the techniques that are used.

This unique reference interweaves information on the three major overlapping parts of the total project program: programs (defined as techniques, procedures, and methods), people skills (defined as experience, application, and analytical ability), and the culture of project groups (defined as project commitment and working togetherness). Summarizing the skills necessary for an economic construction program, Effective Project Management Through Applied Cost and Schedule Control presents a detailed evaluation of current project skill levels...reveals a direct correlation between project team-building and cost/schedule control...offers rules of thumb for establishing and developing the scope of a project...suggests value management procedures for creating cost-effective construction designs...delineates a wide range of analytical trending techniques...covers change control and risk analysis...elucidates the procurement needs of a project...and more.

Accountancy as presently practised is tied to the paradigm of modern financial capitalism with its reliance on market solutions and the maximization of the firm's profits, which are the fundamental causes of most these problems. The Social Function of Accounts argues that accountancy, as currently organized and practised, is failing society, both in Britain and in the world as a whole. Examining the current problems afflicting the world: financial crises and instability, global warming, degradation of the environment, growing inequality, this book asks the question - what contribution does accountancy make to the solution of these problems? The book argues that the accountancy profession does not serve the public interest, notwithstanding its claim to this effect. The Social Function of Accounts argues that the moral responsibility of the accountant is analysed with reference to the principal theories of ethics continuing that the individual accountant has a moral responsibility to consider the impact of his actions on other people and on society as a whole. This responsibility is then analysed in a series of chapters dealing with four specific aspects of the matter: Distributive Justice, Sustainability, Financial reporting & the Accountancy Profession. Concluding with a call for the accountancy profession to adopt a new ethic of service to the public The Social Function of Accounts redraws the boundaries of current accounting literature and will be vital reading for academics, researchers and policy makers in accounting and related disciplines.

This book demonstrates the importance of understanding how political rhetoric, financial reporting and media coverage of austerity in transnational contexts is significant to the communicative, social and economic environments in which we live. It considers how aspects of moral storytelling, language, representation and ideology operate through societies in financial crisis and through governments that impose austerity programmes on public spending. Whilst many of the debates covered here are concerned with UK economic policy and British social contexts, the contributions also consider examples from other countries that reflect similar concerns on the ideological operations of austerity and financial discourse. The multiple discursive contexts of austerity demonstrate the breadth of social concerns and conflicts that have developed in societies and institutions following the global economic crisis of 2008. Through its interdisciplinary focus on this topic, this book provides an important contribution across multiple subject areas, with shared interests in critical and analytical approaches to discourse, power and language in social contexts reflecting the healthy collaborative scope of critical discourse studies as a field of research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Discourse Studies.

This book's purpose is to enable educational researchers to make better use of the huge longitudinal and cross-sectional data files that are now readily available. Of value to experienced researchers and undergraduates alike, the book focuses primarily on the planning and design of research rather than implementation of data base information. Its chapters address a variety of vital questions including: * What variables are present in each of the major national data bases? * What are the problems and dangers in making comparisons across data bases? * What factors invalidate comparisons of test scores across data bases? * In what ways can data from certain data bases be physically merged with data from other data bases? This text clearly demonstrates what can be done with large national data bases and, perhaps equally important, what cannot be done -- or done only if certain precautions are taken.