Adjusting Accounts

If you need to make an ethical decision that you know will change an financial statement, but your boss still wants you to do it, what do you do?

Don't you just love these kinds of questions?

I am new to the world of accounting, so maybe I am a little too excited about questions like this, because I never thought of accounting would have ethical questions? I just always thought that you enter the numbers and get a result. I also really didn't understand the whole Enron thing had something to do with accounting.

This week I am covering financial statements and the adjustments you can make to them to fix the books. The chapter is helping understand how a company like Enron can fix the books to make them look more profitable, even when they are losing money. I also wonder if this is what GM did the last couple years?

Why do I think GM lied about their financial situation, and misstated their liabilities? Because I think they thought in the long-term they could bounce back from the short-term loses. Why all of a sudden they are losing record amounts of money? Sure their cars aren't selling. Sure they are being hung by the unions. Sure they made some bad choices on the products they sold, but don't you think they are using this time in our history to take advantage of the governments willingness to handout money?

My argument is that Ford has the same union, the great UAW, but they aren't looking for a handout? Ford wasn't even number one in car sales, but yet they are surviving. Was Ford more honest when it came to their stated liabilities? Just a question I don't think we will ever get an answer to, but like a naive student, I am going to holdout hope that we get answers.

First Post

Welcome to my first post. It is going to be short, but you can expect more as I continue my pursuit of an accounting job.