1第一节 会计确认的定义与特征

第一节 会计确认的定义

一、会计确认的定义与分类

“确认是将某一项目，作为一项资产、负债、收入、费用正式地记录或记入某一主体财务报表的程序（过程），它包括同时用文字和数字描述某一项目，其金额则包括在报表总计之中。对于一项资产或负债，确认不仅要记录该项目的取得和发生，还要记录其后发生的变动，包括从财务报表中予以取消的变动"（FASB第5号概念公告，1984）。

6. the process of formally recording or incorporating an item in the financial statements of an entity as an asset, liability, revenue, expense, or the like. Recognition includes ① For an asset or liability, recognition involves recording not only acquisition or incurrence of the item but also later changes in it, including changes that result in removal from the financial statements. .

根据以上讨论，借鉴FASB的成果，我们认为，确认是一种基于会计准则的规定对经济活动是否应纳入会计报表核算以及纳入会计报表核算的资产、负债价值变化的判断，并且要以文字或数据反映这种判断。前者为初次确认，后者为重新确认（再确认与

终止确认）。

第一，“要将某一项目记入某一主体财务报表”，从会计实务来讲，需要做两件事：首先是对记录经济业务发生的原始凭证的合法性与合理性的判断，他是项目应否列入财务报表某一要素的第一道关口。其次是对该项目类别的判断。就会计工作而言，会计确认就是审核原始凭证、编制记账凭证。

第二，由于确认“要用文字和数字来描述一个项目，且其金额必须包括在财务报表的总计之中”。那么用其他方法（如注释，正文中加括号，辅助信息等）在财务报告中披露的信息与事实，就不是确认。

第三，确认的范围限于会计报表项目，而不考虑会计报表项目以外的内容。

第四，确认的分类

确认是会计程序中的某种会计行为发生前，会计人员基于特定标准的专业判断。因此，确认贯穿于整个会计程序中：

确认涉及对记录和报告两个层次的决策，一切交易和事项都要经过初始确认（Initial Recognition）作成记录（depiction of an item in both words ），然后通过再确认（第二步确认）予以报告（）。（记录层面与报告层面）

对记录层面的确认，又可以分为三类：

确认包括初步确认（Initial Recognition）与再确认（第二步确认Subsequent Recognition）以及中止确认三种类别：

1.初次确认（Initial Recognition）

每当一项交易、事项发生、就要识别是否应在会计上正式记录（对合法性与合理性的判断，以及分类的判断）；对记录来说，确认主要指：

（1）是否有项目（哪些项目）应作为要素进入会计系统正式记录；

（2）这些项目应记录为什么要素?

（3）何时应予记录。

对第一个问题的回答是：“交易观(transaction approach)”与“事项观(events approach)”；

①“交易观(transaction approach)”；即会计只反映那些对企业的经济利益(现在的或未来的)确实产生了影响或导致企业资产和负债要素发生了变动的交易或事项。这些交易或事项可以是发生在不同主体之间，也可以是发生在同一个主体内部。

②“事项观(events approach)”，也称“非交易观”。

美国财务会计准则委员会的第6号概念公告将事项界定为包括一主体所买卖物品或劳务上物价的变动(par．135)；

Transactions, Events, and Circumstances

135. This Statement commonly uses transactions and other events

and affecting an entity to describe the sources or causes of changes in assets, liabilities, and equity or net assets. An event is a happening of consequence to an entity. It may be an internal event that occurs within an entity, such as using raw materials or equipment in

production, or it may be an external event that involves interaction between an entity and its environment, such as a transaction with another entity, a change in price of a good or service that an entity

buys or sells, a flood or earthquake, or an improvement in technology by a competitor.52 Many events are combinations. For example,

acquiring services of employees or others involves exchange

transactions, which are external events; using those services, often simultaneously with their acquisition, is part of production, which involves a series of internal events (paragraph 79, footnote 40). An event may be initiated by an entity, such as a purchase of

merchandise or use of a building, or it may be partly or wholly

beyond the control of an entity and its management, such as an

interest rate change, an act of vandalism or theft, the imposition of taxes, or the expiration of a donor1-imposed time restriction.

136. Circumstances are a condition or set of conditions that develop from an event or a series of events, which may occur almost imperceptibly and may

converge in random or unexpected ways to create situations that might otherwise not have occurred and might not have been anticipated. To see the circumstance may be fairly easy, but to discern specifically when the event or events that

caused it occurred may be difficult or impossible. For example, a debtor's going bankrupt or a thief's stealing gasoline may be an event, but a creditor's facing the situation that its debtor is bankrupt or a warehouse's facing the fact that its tank is empty may be a circumstance.

137. A transaction is a particular kind of external event, namely, an external

event involving transfer of something of value (future economic benefit) between two (or more) entities. The transaction may be an exchange in which each

participant both receives and sacrifices value, such as purchases or sales of goods or services; or the transaction may be a nonreciprocal transfer in which an entity incurs a liability or transfers an asset to another entity (or receives an asset or cancellation of a liability) without directly receiving (or giving) value in

exchange. Nonreciprocal transfers contrast with exchanges (which are reciprocal 1 n.捐赠人n.[化] 原料物质

transfers) and include, for example, investments by owners, distributions to

owners, impositions of taxes, gifts, charitable or educational contributions given or received, and thefts.53

138. This Statement does not use the term internal transaction (which is

essentially contradictory). Transferring materials to production processes, using plant and equipment whose wear and tear is represented by depreciation, and other events that happen within an entity are internal events, not internal

transactions.

英国会计准则委员会在讨论交易外的其它事项时，举例说明，尽管企业所拥有的土地或其他财产的未来利益没变(从使用角度看)，但其市场价格水平已发生变动，如果证据充足，就应该确认。由于谨慎考虑，最后所确认的主要是物价变动的损失而不是收益(par．4．24)。但是到目前为止，仍然没有迹象表明：由于主体长期有效努力而产生的超额盈利能力——它实际上是大量的交易累积影响的结果——可以正式进入确认程序。也就是说，目前会计实务所允许的非交易观的确认，仍然是不全面的。

2. 再确认（第二步确认Subsequent Recognition））

再确认是将初始确认已经记入账簿的事项记入会计报表前的判断，是在初始确认的基础上，筛选什么信息应列入财务报表，什么样的信息在报表外列示。它所代表的是会计的决策行为。包括：

（1）有无项目应进入报表系统；

（2）该项目应列入何种要素；

（3）何时应当在报表中表述并将其金额列入报表总计。

（4）并且还应考虑：效益是否大于成本，所应计入报表的项目是否符合重要性原则。

至于如何在财务报表中表述（除确认外还包括披露），那也意味着财务会计的活动进入了最后的程序--报告。

3.后续确认（Subsequent Recognition）

后续确认主要是对已在会计报表中反映的项目，在后一个会计期间发生

了价值或产权上的变化，而在会计记录或会计报表中反映之前，由会计人员所做出的基于事实的合理合规的判断。

作为一个程序和过程，确认对大多数交易和事项所应予记录和报告的项目可以一次完成。例如发生的费用如电费，由于购入的该项劳务（能源）当时就能消耗掉，已记录的项目不可能发生后续的变动，因此这类交易和事项只需要一次确认即可完成 。

有一些交易和事项的确认，其已记录和已报告的项目嗣后可能发生变动，而需要后续确认甚至不再符合确认标准而需要终止确认，比如：

固定资产按历史成本确认为资产后，由于价值变动而批准进行重估，则重估价的记录与报告的确认，应属于后续确认。

按现行成本或公允价计量的某些项目在其交易开始时是通过初始确认，在初始确认后如现行成本或公允价值发生变动时，一般于下一个报告年度开始按变动后的成本或价值重新确认，即所谓后续确认。

如果已确认的某个项目不再符合某一要素的定义，例如已确认的资产由于作为其他企业的抵押（担保）而当做担保品被偿付债务进行处置，本企业对它不再保持控制的能力，这时，对该项资产，就要在会计记录和财务报表中终止确认（Derecognition）

第四，确认的标准

在第5号概念公告中，还提出确认的四项基本标准：定义性、可计量性、相关性、可靠性(par．63)“。

Fundamental Recognition Criteria

63. An item and information about it should meet four undamental

recognition criteria to be recognized and should be recognized when the criteria are met, subject to a cost-benefit constraint and a

materiality threshold. Those criteria are:

Definitions—The item meets the definition of an element of

financial statements.

Measurability—It has a relevant attribute measurable with

sufficient reliability.

Relevance—The information about it is capable of making a

difference in user decisions.

Reliability—The information is representationally faithful,

verifiable, and neutral.

All four criteria are subject to a pervasive cost-benefit constraint: the expected benefits from recognizing a particular item should justify perceived costs of providing and using the information.38 Recognition is also subject to a materiality threshold: an item and information about it need not be recognized in a set of financial statements if the item is not large enough to be material and the

aggregate of individually immaterial items is not large enough to be

material to those financial statements

(1)定义性：所确认的项目要符合财务报表中某一要素的定义；

(2)可计量性：所确认的项目要能予以量化；

(3)相关性：因所确认的项目所生成的信息，对使用者的决策有影响；

(4)可靠性：所确认的项目是真实、可验证、中立的。这四条标准缺一不可，因为，总的确认标准可以概括为：一个项目符合于会计要素的定义并能可靠地计量，同时对信息使用者相关。

在第2号公告中，论述会计信息的质量特征时，将相关性、可靠性做了展开：

第一，相关性（Relevance）。相关性指与决策相关，所提供的会计信息具有揭示差异、影响决策的能力。一项信息是否具有相关性，主要由三个因素决定，即预测价值（Predictive Value）、反馈价值(Feedback Value)和及时性(Timeliness)。其中，预测价值指信息具有帮助决策者预测过去、现在或未来事项可能结

果的能力；反馈价值指信息能使决策者证实或更正过去决策时的预期结果；及时性指信息应当在失去影响决策的能力之前提供给决策者。这三个概念对会计准则的制定产生了重大影响，原因在于预测价值和反馈价值是选择确认和计量政策的依据，及时性则与披露政策密切相关。

RELEVANCE

46. In discussions of accounting criteria, relevance has usually been defined in the dictionary sense, as pertaining to or having a bearing on the matter in

question. That broad definition is satisfactory as far as it goes—information must, of course, be logically related to a decision in order to be relevant to it. Mistaken attempts to base decisions on logically unrelated information cannot convert irrelevant information into relevant information 5 any more than ignoring relevant information makes it irrelevant. However, the meaning of relevance for financial reporting needs to be made more explicit. Specifically, it is information's capacity to "make a difference" that identifies it as relevant to a decision.

47. To be relevant to investors, creditors, and others for investment, credit, and similar decisions, accounting information must be capable of making a difference in a decision by helping users to form predictions about the outcomes of past, present, and future events or to confirm or correct expectations. "Event" is a happening of consequence to an enterprise (Exposure Draft on elements,

paragraph 67), and in this context can mean, for example, the receipt of a sales order or a price change in something the enterprise buys or sells. "Outcome" is the effect or result of an event or series of events and in this context can mean, for example, that last year's profit was $X or the expectation that this year's profit will be $Y. The event in question may be a past event the outcome of which is not already known, or it may be a future event the outcome of which can only be predicted.

48. Information need not itself be a prediction of future events or outcomes to be useful in forming, confirming, or changing expectations about future events or outcomes. Information about the present status of economic resources or

obligations or about an enterprise's past performance is commonly a basis for expectations (Concepts Statement 1, paragraph 42).

49. Information may confirm expectations or it may change them. If it confirms them, it increases the probability that the results will be as previously expected. If it changes them, it changes the perceived probabilities of the previous possible outcomes. Either way, it makes a difference to one who does not already have that information. Decisions already made need not be changed, nor need a course of action already embarked on be altered by the information. A decision to hold rather than to sell an investment is a decision, and information that supports holding can be as relevant as information that leads to a sale. Information is

relevant if the degree of uncertainty about the result of a decision that has already been made is confirmed or altered by the new information; it need not alter the decision.

50. One of the more fundamental questions raised by the search for relevance in accounting concerns the choice of attribute to be measured for financial reporting purposes. Will financial statements be more relevant if they are based on

historical costs, current costs, or some other attribute? The question must be left for consideration in other parts of the conceptual framework project; but because of lack of experience with information providing measures of several of those attributes and differences of opinion about their relevance and reliability, it is not surprising that agreement on the question is so difficult to obtain.

Feedback 6 Value and Predictive Value as Components of Relevance

51. Information can make a difference to decisions by improving decision makers' capacities to predict or by confirming or correcting their earlier

expectations. Usually, information does both at once, because knowledge about the outcome of actions already taken will generally improve decision makers' abilities to predict the results of similar future actions. Without a knowledge of the past, the basis for a prediction will usually be lacking. Without an interest in the future, knowledge of the past is sterile.

52. The same point can be made by saying that information is relevant to a

situation if it can reduce uncertainty about the situation. Information that was not known previously about a past activity clearly reduces uncertainty about its

outcome, and information about past activities is usually an indispensable point of departure for attempts to foresee the consequences of related future activities. Disclosure requirements almost always have the dual purpose of helping to

predict and confirming or correcting earlier predictions. The reporting of business

results by segments is a good example of accounting reports whose relevance is believed to lie both in the information they convey about the past performance of segments and in their contribution to an investor's ability to predict the trend of earnings of a diversified company. Another example is to be found in interim earnings reports, which provide both feedback on past performance and a basis for prediction for anyone wishing to forecast annual earnings before the year-end.

53. To say that accounting information has predictive value is not to say that it is itself a prediction. It may be useful here to draw an analogy between the financial information that analysts and others use in predicting earnings or financial position and the information that meteorologists use in forecasting weather. Meteorologists gather and chart information about actual

conditions—temperatures, barometric pressures, wind velocities at various altitudes, and so on—and draw their conclusions from the relationships and

patterns that they detect. Success in forecasting the weather has increased as new methods of gathering information have been developed. New kinds of

information have become available, and with greater speed than was previously possible. To the simple sources of information available to our ancestors have been added satellite photographs, radar, and radiosondes to give information

about the upper atmosphere. New information makes possible more sophisticated predictive models. When a meteorologist selects from among the alternative sources of information and methods of gathering information—about existing conditions, since future conditions cannot be known—those sources and methods that have the greatest predictive value can be expected to be favored. So it is with information about the existing financial state of a company and observed changes in that state from which predictions of success, failure, growth, or stagnation may be inferred. Users can be expected to favor those sources of information and analytical methods that have the greatest predictive value in achieving their specific objectives.

54. An important similarity and an important difference between predicting the weather and predicting financial performance may be noted. The similarity is that the meteorologist's information and the information derived from financial reporting both have to be fed into a predictive model 7 before they can throw light on the future. Financial predictions, like weather forecasts, are the joint product of a model and the data that go into it. A choice between alternative

accounting methods on the basis of their predictive value can be made only if the characteristics of the model to be used are generally known. For example, the

econometric models now used for economic forecasting are designed to use as data financial aggregates

(among other things) as those aggregates are compiled at present. They might work less well if price-level adjusted data were used. However, it might be possible to revise the model for use with that kind of data so that even better predictions could be made. The point is that the predictive value of information cannot be assessed in the abstract. It has to be transformed into a prediction, and the nature of the transformation as well as the data used determine the outcome.

55. The important difference between meteorological and financial predictions is that only exceptionally can meteorological predictions have an effect on the

weather, but business or economic decision makers' predictions often affect their subjects. For example, the use of financial models to predict business failures looks quite successful judged in the light of hindsight by looking at the financial history of failed firms during their last declining years. But a prediction of failure can be self-fulfilling by restricting a company's access to credit. The prediction could also bring about a recovery by initiating action by managers or bankers to avert failure. Because information affects human behavior and because different people react differently to it, financial information cannot be evaluated by means of a simple tally of the correct predictions that are based on it. Nevertheless, predictive value is an important consideration in distinguishing relevant from irrelevant accounting information.

Timeliness

56. Timeliness is an ancillary aspect of relevance. If information is not available when it is needed or becomes available only so long after the reported events that it has no value for future action, it lacks relevance and is of little or no use.

Timeliness in the present context means having information available to decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. Timeliness alone cannot make information relevant, but a lack of timeliness can rob information of relevance it might otherwise have had.

57. Clearly, there are degrees of timeliness. In some situations, the capacity of information to influence decisions may evaporate quickly, as, for example, in a fast-moving situation such as a take-over bid or a strike, so that timeliness may have to be measured in days or perhaps hours. In other contexts, such as routine reports by an enterprise of its annual results, it may take a longer delay to

diminish materially the relevance and, therefore, the usefulness of the

information. But a gain in relevance that comes with increased timeliness may entail sacrifices of other desirable characteristics of information, and as a result

there may be an overall gain or loss in usefulness. It may sometimes be desirable, for example, to sacrifice precision for timeliness, for an approximation produced quickly is often more useful than precise information that takes longer to get out. Of course, if, in the interest of timeliness, the reliability of the information is sacrificed to a material degree, the result may be to rob the information of much of its usefulness. What constitutes a material loss of reliability is discussed in later paragraphs. Yet, while every loss of reliability diminishes the usefulness of information, it will often be possible to approximate an accounting number to make it available more quickly without making it materially unreliable. As a result, its overall usefulness may be enhanced. 第二，可靠性（Reliability）。可靠性是指确保信息能免于错误及偏差，并能忠实地反映它所意欲反映的现象或状况。信息如果不可靠，不仅无助于决策而且可能会误导决策。可靠性可由两个标准加以衡量，即可核性（Verifiability）和中立性

(Neutrality)。其中，可核性是指具有相近背景的不同个人，对同一事项加以计量，能够得出相同的结果；中立性是就会计师的立场而言，指在制定或实施各种准则时，应当主要关心所得信息的相关性和可靠性，而不在意新规则对特定利益的影响。

第三，可比性（Comparability）。相关性和可靠性关注的是会计信息本身的质量，可比性关注的是两项信息之间的关系。可比性是指能使信息使用者从两组经济情况中区别其异同的质量特征。

相关性与可靠性是会计信息的质量特征，但并非所有相关可

靠的会计信息都需要提供，而应考虑下面两个限制条件：一是重要性（Materiality）。概念公告认为，如果不严格按照会计准则提供某项会计信息，不会影响决策者作出决策，那么该信息就被认为是不重要的。二是成本效益原则（Cost/Benefit）。成本效益原则是指提供信息所带来的利益必须大于其成本。由于提供财务信息的成本大部分由初始的编制者承担，而编制者和使用者都能得到效益。最终，成本和效益分布得极为广泛。所以，进行成本效益分析时，很难找到量化的标准。

二、会计确认的理论探讨

在美国财务会计准则委员会研究、拟订并发布财务会计概念系列公告后，其它一些国家和组织也纷纷效仿，拟订自己的、用于指导各自国家或组织的财务报表编制的基本概念公告，这些公告也或详或简地论及确认的问题。

加拿大特许会计师协会(CICA)下属的会计准则委员会(ASC)1988年发布了一份题为“财务报表概念”的报告。该报告关于确认的定义是“将某一项目纳入(including)一主体的财务报表的过程，它包括在报表中对该项目的文字叙述(如：‘存货’或‘销货收入’)和将金额加计入报表合计数中。出于揭示的目的，在财务

报表中应将类似的项目归为一类。” (Par．21)“确认不指财务报表附注中的揭示。附注既可以提供财务报表所确认项目的进一步的信息也可以提供那些不能满足确认标准、因而不在报表中予以确认的有关项目的信息”(Par．21)。而确认标准则包括：“(1)该项目具有恰当的计量基础，其金额能合理地予以估计；(2)对那些涉及获取或放弃未来经济利益的项目而言，这些利益的获取或放弃将极有可能会发生”(par．24)。

国际会计准则委员会的 《财务报表编报框架》 的公告(IASC，1989)，由八个部分组成，第六部分的标题就是“财务报表要素的确认”。该公告对确认的表述，与上述美国和加拿大的会计组织的界定只是在个别文字上有所差异，“确认是将符合要素的定义并满足确认标准的某一项目列入资产负债表和收益表的过程。它包括对该项目的文字与货币金额的表述，其货币金额需列入资产负债表或收益表的合计数中。„„一个符合要素定义的项目，如果(1)与该项目有关的任何未来经济利益极有可能将流入或流出该企业；和(2)该项目的成本或价值能够可靠地被计量，这一项目就应被确认”(pars．82—83)。

同样，联合国经社理事会跨国公司委员会秘书长报告——

“财务报告的主要目标与概念”(1988．1)的第六部分“确认与计量方法”中，也将确认定义为“正式地把一个项目载入公司报告的程序。它包括用文字和数据对一个项目进行描述以及把它纳入与之相关联要素的总额之中”；确认的标准包括“(1)一项未来效益与其相关，并且该公司获得或失去这一效益较为确定；(2)它具有某一特定属性，这种属性可以足够可靠地加以计量；(3)提供的信息有能力导致使用者的决策差异。” (pars．53-54)

英国的“原则公告”对确认也作了精心阐述。确认是同时用文字和货币数量对要素加以描述，并将其数量列入报表汇总(par.4.1)。确认分为三个阶段：(1)初始确认(initial recognition)，即某个项目首次进入财务报表。其标准包括：第一，有充分证据表明资产或负债的变化已经发生或未来利益的流入或流出将要发生；第二，能用货币数量进行充分可靠地(sufficient reliability)计量；

(2)期后再计量(subsequent remeasurement)，即改变帐簿上已记录的以前所确认项目的货币数量。当然，进行期后再计量也要符合两项标准：第一，有足够证据表明资产或负债的金额已发生变化；第二，资产或负债的新金额能充分可靠地(sufficient reliabilty)计量；

(3)中止确认 (derecognition)，将一个已确认项目从财务报表上剔除

(par．4.5)，其前提是已没有充足的证据表明主体有(取得)未来经济利益的权利或转移经济利益的义务。

通过上面几份公告对确认的表述，我们可以发现，由于这些公告都企图直接用于指导财务报告(主要是财务报表)的编制，因而，它将确认限定在财务报表影响范围之内，将财务报表之外的信息的挑选、归类、整理过程排除在确认活动之外，同时，对确认标准，普遍采纳的是符合要素的定义、有未来经济利益影响和能可靠地加以计量。

上述关于确认的界定，一个不足之外就是把财务报表之外的事项，不作为确认的对象。众所周知，随着经济环境的复杂、多变，企业的经营活动也日趋复杂，大量经济业务无法在现有的财务报表中得以反映(表外揭示多种金融工具的融资就是一例)，从而使财务报表无法完整地反映企业的财务状况与经营成果，会计信息的相关性(即有用性)随之降低。改善这一状况的方法有： (1)对现有的财务报表的若干要素重新定义、分解，以使这些表外项目能得以列入。这种变革是根本性的、但从执行角度来看，不够稳妥、谨慎，过于激进。处理不当，会极大地影响会计信息的质量。我们认为，恰当的方法应该是；(2)在财务报表外增加提供一

些相关的信息。这种表外信息不是原先那种由企业自愿提供，无限制性要求，而是要做出必要的规定，比如：哪些事项必需要在表外揭示?在表外揭示某一项目应包括哪几方面的内容?表外揭示项目的金额如何确定?等等。

因此，从财务会计的发展观点看，似应扩大目前关于会计确认的内涵，将财务报表之外的一些信息揭示也纳入确认的范围。

此外，其它财务资料的量化过程也应该是确认，当然，对报表外事项的确认，其标准要作相应的调整。