Accounting has now taken on a new facet, the informative task is no longer the only objective that frames it, the new economic reality has made the accounting profession take on great importance within the current business framework.
In the study of accounting, new expectations and new questions have arisen about the orientation that may be given to this profession due to the rapid economic, technological and social changes of today. These modifications have given way to new ways of seeing and analyzing the role of accountants within companies; not only as the technician of a process of collection and generator of information, but as a thinker who contributes with research and knowledge, ideas that will help improve the functioning of organizations and therefore the foundation of a new accounting technique that adapts to the new world order.
The main objective of this article is to expose the essential parts that govern the accounting profession (theory and practice) and the importance that they acquire within the business field, since the dependence of one on the other forms the basis for consolidation of an efficient system of useful information for the organization.
Normative theories
Normative theories try to describe what accounting should do and how it should do it. This is used to evaluate practice and develop new procedures.
Accounting practice:
"Every generally accepted principle is born from practice", this is the basis and the starting point from which accounting practice takes its foundations, since this is a utilitarian activity that provides immediate solutions to the problems that arise without the slightest theoretical basis, resulting in a set of formulations lacking structure, it can thus be established that the accounting practice is sustained by experiences that satisfy economic needs and that are disclosed and enter a process of acceptance of the people who manage The accounting technique, when evaluated, is collected or rejected, perpetuating itself if by the common consensus of the people they are legalized by formal processes or on the contrary if they are insolvent and inapplicable, they are discarded and a new selection process begins.
The accounting practice in this case is the one that forms the theoretical part of accounting, since it successfully explains the economic and social reality based on what is currently known as the generally accepted accounting principles that are the rules that will govern and guide the accounting practitioner in the performance of their work.
As a consequence of the organizational and institutional change that society in general is presenting, the accounting practice must be assumed as a continuous research approach in which when it is applied, its value grows according to the implementation and consequence that it has with accounting theory, this is, that is demonstrable anywhere and in any situation, bearing in mind that the practice of an accounting model does not ensure its resounding success.
Accounting theory:
The term "accounting theory" in all the sense of its expression, is very extensive to define, since there are many and varied ways of looking at it by accounting scholars, but for clarity an approach to the term made by the American Association of Public accountants (American Accounting Association) have that "Accounting theory is a cohesive set of hypothetical and pragmatic conceptual propositions that explain and guide the action of the accountant in the identification, measurement and communication of economic information" that is, it tries to explain and predict the phenomena that occur in accounting practice.
Taking into account what is exposed in the first part of the article, the question may arise, if the practice leads to structure the theory, what is accounting theory really for? The answer would be very clear, since in reality the one that supports The accounting profession is the application of paradigms that are verifiable, applicable, useful, but most importantly, that they are durable and explain any economic situation.
Accounting theory has a great impact on the application of accounting within organizations, since this is the main tool to solve possible changes that may occur in the future economic reality, thus giving the accountant a new perspective in which he should base your new responsibility on the company.
The accountant based on the experience that the passing of time gives him and the research that he has previously carried out, develops theories that can truthfully predict the changes and the effects that an accounting procedure has implicit.
Descriptive theories
These explain the practice at a specific time to validate a certain procedure. It seeks to find a basis for accepting or refuting a pre-established practice.
Applicability of accounting theory in the new world order:
Accounting theory and practice are not unique and applicable in all places or in all situations that arise in the world economy, a theory cannot be found that predicts all accounting phenomena, this can be explained by the theories being simplifications of reality and the complexity of the world and its constant change.
Many of the assumptions that are taken to make an accounting model are biased, but they are accepted if they are based on common variables, given problems, theoretical assumptions that are given at a given moment in time.
When these exposed theories have some application failure at the time of their use, it is not a reason for the researchers to abandon the theory, since this is the one that helps to strengthen the convictions to continue investigating on the subject, thus improving and perfecting the theory initially accepted or creating a new one that helps to easily identify solutions to problems previously formulated in practice.
For accounting theory to be applicable in economic reality, taking into account that no theory is absolute, it must measure the usefulness of the information provided to users, the conviction of the explanations it gives, and the phenomena it clearly explains.
The need to unite accounting theory and practice:
Accounting has taken a new direction in recent times, the information obtained from the financial analysis has made it become more important day by day in the structural organization of companies. The accountant has acquired greater responsibility for decision-making, this forces him to create new techniques to improve his performance in predicting economic phenomena, but for this he must have excellent training in accounting practice and a great investigative spirit. to prepare and train you as a comprehensive professional.
When there is a fragmentation between theory and practice, it happens that the foundations of the profession tend to weaken, you can think about changing the theoretical compendium entirely, but in reality the problem could be the teaching methodology in the accounting discipline.
When it is intended to teach the accounting foundations on the basis of a merely applicative technique in which processes are mechanized on a principle, the future professional will be more concerned with the practical than with the foundation of the process itself, «More by doing than by to know". The accountant trained under this vision will be poorly prepared to face the changes that economic reality presents, since he will not have the basis to interpret them correctly, remaining subject only to accounting regulations.
On the other hand, when opting for research and theoretical teaching, more effort is required, since accounting is not taken as a set of standardized norms, but rather as « A set of epistemological foundations of rules, knowledge that is apply to a specific case to obtain a standard «. The accounting professional who is trained in this concept will be able to accept or reject certain norms or rules and even create new techniques that over time could become, why not, generally accepted theories.
With the aforementioned, it is not intended to exclude accounting practice from the accounting context, rather what is wanted is that both theory and practice must go hand in hand, must coalesce to form a single strong criterion with which to explain as much as possible the economic reality of the organizations and that facilitates decision making.
Bibliography:
MONTESINOS J., Vicente. "Formation of scientific theories in accounting".
WATTS, RL and ZIMMERMAN, JL «Role of accounting theory».
HENDRIKSEN, Eldon. "Accounting theory". nineteen eighty one.
PEREDA T., Jorge. «Research in accounting. A personal reflection ».
