05 Accounting & business ethics English for economics: Geoff Cockayne 2011
What is accounting? The maintenance and auditing of business records and the preparation of financial reports. (WordNet) management accounting internal: ledgers, budgets, forecasts financial accounting internal + external: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
Ledger example audit- trail
Profit & loss account revenue & expenditure over a period trading overheads profit
Profit & loss example
Balance sheet financial situation at a specific time assets = liabilities + owners’ equity balance
Balance sheet example
Business ethics
business purpose is profit businesses must obey the law corporate social responsibility
Theories of ethics deontology rules and duty consequentialism consequences/utility virtue moral character
References Blackburn, S. (2003) Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP. Blackburn, S (2002) Being Good: A Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP.
Homework You are an accountant with a large company. Your boss asks you to hide some bad debts so that they do not appear on the accounts. He tells you that if you do not do this the company may go bankrupt. Consider what you will do in terms of the ethical principles of deontology, consequentialism and virtue.