Basic Accounting Principles – What Are They?
There are four basic accounting principles that, along with four basic accounting assumptions and four basic accounting constraints, make up the generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, in the U.S. The GAAP are the accounting rules under which businesses record and report their financial earnings and losses for the accounting period. These rules are issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, usually in conjunction with other government entities. Accountants are not necessarily required to follow the rules, but the rules should be followed as closely as possible as they set standards that should be met to ensure appropriate accounting activity, understandability and comparability of the accounting data for different businesses.