In this article you will find the great differences that exist between the Conceptual Framework and 2649, the delays that Colombia has compared to the norms of the globalized world.
International accounting with the Colombian
The conceptual framework is a meeting of basic concepts for the preparation, organization and presentation of everything related to international accounting, which is why, it is not an international accounting standard, does not define rules or has derogatory power over any accounting standard. international; When there is a conflict between the international accounting standards and the conceptual framework, the standard will prevail over that framework, but this will continue to be taken into account for the creation of other new standards.
According to the experience that is had with the management of the conceptual framework, this will continue to be reviewed and therefore subjected to modifications for the best manipulation and understanding of the norms and the conceptual framework; In Colombian standards and especially in regulatory decree 2649/93; Colombia has remained in a period of hindering the accounting profession against international standards and practices and as a consequence of this it has not been able to improve the practices carried out for years, which today have become obsolete and with an urgent call for change because they do not respond to the information needs of the different users of said practice.
The international conceptual accounting framework covers all industrial, commercial and business companies, whether private or public; In the Colombian case, the decree has as its scope all people, whether natural or legal, who are obliged to keep accounts and those who are not obliged to do so and will need it as evidence, will also be governed by this Colombian conceptual framework..
The purposes of the international accounting conceptual framework are multiple and complete to be applied by everyone.
1. “The concepts for the preparation and presentation of the financial statements have purposes: To help the IASB to develop and review the standards; Assist the IASB in harmonizing accounting standards and procedures relating to financial statements, Assist national agencies to develop their own standards; Assist preparers of financial statements in applying international accounting standards; Assist auditors such as the preparation of financial statements in accordance with international accounting standards; Assist users in the interpretation of financial statements that have been prepared in accordance with international accounting standards; Provide the methodologies used by the IASB. ”
Its users are diverse and trust what is presented to them because they are the main source of information they have about the entity; “Users are: Investors: They need information about buying, holding or selling the shares; Employees: they need to be informed about the stability and performance of the entity; Lenders: determines if your loans will be paid at maturity, as well as interest; Suppliers and other commercial creditors: they will be able to determine if the amounts owed to them will be paid; Customers: they will see the continuity of the company especially when there are long-term commitments; Government and public organisms: they will be able to know the distribution of the resources and look for information to regulate the activity of the entity; General public:Their interests will be emphasized in the number of people they employ, their purchases for local clients and suppliers. They provide information about recent developments and the trend that the company's prosperity is following. ”
Some of the objectives of the financial statements are:
Provide information about the financial situation of the company, performance and changes in financial position, this is of considerable use to users in making their economic decisions;
Serve to meet the common needs of many users; Measure the results of administration or management; The ability of the company to generate cash, pay employees and fulfill the obligations it contracts; Information from past events assesses the ability to generate cash and its equivalents in the future, this information is useful for predicting future loan needs; Inform about the “liquidity that is the availability of cash in the short term and the solvency that is the availability of cash in the long term” 3 that will be very useful when predicting the ability to pay debts as its expiration.
The objectives according to international accounting fully comply with all the needs that they intend to cover, but in Colombian accounting, although it also covers some of the needs of the users of the information contained in them, they do not play a good role because the standards and parameters that are taken into account for its preparation and presentation.
Understandability is a characteristic that has to do with the easy understanding of information for users, but they must also have a knowledge about economic and business activities so that their understandability is done in a better way, thus not This means that information that is difficult for some users to understand should not be included.
The relevance of the information is useful insofar as it has some influence on economic decisions; the relative importance or materiality is part of this characteristic because its omission or erroneous presentation can influence the bad decision of a particular user and thus cease to be useful to that person.
3. International Accuonting Standard, 2001, page 48
International Accuonting Standard, 2001, page 50
Reliability is information free of material error and bias of prejudice, that is, that the information in the financial statements does not have any major errors or that the information contains something that is being manipulated by those responsible for not showing any event that is happening in the entity, which would lead users of the information to make wrong decisions, therefore it is also part of this characteristic faithful representation, so that the information is reliable. The information will be handled according to its true essence and economic reality so that it is in no other way distorting the information; neutrality is, you cannot seek your own benefit, you must be cautious, which is the precaution you have by means of estimates;These estimates must be made according to their useful life or according to the law.
Comparability is the clarity that financial statements must have to be easily understood by users and thus be able to know the performance that the company has had, users must be informed of the accounting policies that the company uses in its preparation, in order to compare with other companies its performance. The information must be presented before the aspects of the transactions are known to satisfy the relevance, and that is reliable, the neutrality must be sought to satisfy the needs in the decision making of the users. In order for the information to have an image faithful and reasonable presentation, the main qualitative characteristics and accounting standards necessary for the information to contain such quality before users must be developed.
The financial statements present the company's transactions and are given in the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement, the Statement of Changes in the Financial Position and the Income Statement.
The presentation of the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement need a subdivision process according to its nature and the most useful information to users. With all this about international accounting it is evident that the Colombian is at a critical point where management and the bases must be changed, is crying out for a change or modification according to our country but taking into account what is happening in our environment because the world is in full progress and Colombia is one step behind, if not more, compared to the rest of the world; A radical change should also be made in the issuing bodies of accounting standards, since they are people who do not have enough knowledge in this matter to impose standards,rules or bases about something that other people know more about and know the weaknesses it has.
Another scope of the conceptual framework of international accounting is its elements, where it can be seen the important differences between decree 2649/93 of Colombian accounting with international accounting, the essential characteristic of an asset is its probability of providing future economic benefits to the company, decree 2649 defines the asset as the financial representation of the income obtained by the economic entity as a result of past events.
Regarding liabilities, they are a debt or obligation of the company, originated from past events, and which in the future represents payments or deliver company assets for payment. The 2649 defines it as a present obligation of the company, and in the future resources or services must be delivered.
Equity is the difference between assets and liabilities, and their value is established if they are positive or negative for the company. We have memorandum accounts such as income and expenses that can be distributed over various periods.
The result of the assessment of various assessment criteria, guarantees higher performance and better results and the achievement of more useful information for users. The application of each criterion varies with the need for the information requested from one method to another. In the Colombian case, the decree makes a recommendation on the use of the historical value of the assets.
Above all, they are concerned with the informative nature of the results, and they are not concerned with concepts such as heritage protection.
The information is mainly requested for fiscal or tax purposes and the concept of heritage protection is mentioned only by the supervisory entities in charge.
Regarding the treatment given to income, the great difference in terms of the objectives for which the study standards were created should be emphasized. The IFRS conceptual framework is focused on and emphasizes its character as support for the financial information of its organizations, giving a treatment of freedom so that the market as such evolves at the pace required for a more globalized world. In our Colombian case we demonstrate the nature of oversight and control for our organizations, we start from practically given concepts with an emphasis on the tax nature.
All this will lead us to carry out a critical analysis of the limitations of our accounting model compared to the international one and to evaluate the practices that we are implementing on the eve of the internationalization of accounting but adapting it to our country.
Conclusions
The internationalization of accounting is due to the change that the economy is having, which is why there is a permanent and urgent evidence of a change in our regulations in order to be at the forefront of globalization and have a better management of our accounting environment.
Harmonization with respect to international standards is necessary but without losing the characteristics of our country.
While international accounting standards have been - primarily created by private bodies, national accounting regulations have been issued by the government and its oversight bodies.
The shortcomings of accounting standards are the result of the professional incapacity of the people in charge of issuing and creating the standards because they are created by people who seek tax or state benefits.
Bibliography
EUTIMIO MEJIA SOTO.
