USING FORMAL ONTOLOGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSISTENT AND UNAMBIGUOUS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

Marthinus C. Gerber, Aurona J. Gerber, Alta van der Merwe

2011

Abstract

The purpose of accounting is to gather financial data of a business or entity, to interpret this data and to report the results in financial statements to the different users thereof. The interpretation of financial data is regulated by financial accounting standards including a conceptual framework that were developed to facilitate the reporting of financial information of entities. Due to the history of standards development as well as the mechanisms used, inconsistencies in the standards, framework and interpretations are part of the common legacy accountants are confronted with every day. The development of unambiguous and principle based financial accounting standards is therefore a key initiative at present of international accounting standards bodies such as the FASB and the IASB. This paper is concerned with the question of how recently developed computer science technologies could assist in dealing with and eliminating inconsistencies and ambiguities within and between different financial accounting standards. In our research we developed a formal ontology for some of the basic elements, and in this paper we report on our findings as well as make some suggestions for a formal approach to the conceptual framework and financial accounting standards development.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

C. Gerber M., J. Gerber A. and van der Merwe A. (2011). USING FORMAL ONTOLOGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSISTENT AND UNAMBIGUOUS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2011) ISBN 978-989-8425-80-5, pages 419-424. DOI: 10.5220/0003658404190424

in Bibtex Style

@conference{keod11,
author={Marthinus C. Gerber and Aurona J. Gerber and Alta van der Merwe},
title={USING FORMAL ONTOLOGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSISTENT AND UNAMBIGUOUS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2011)},
year={2011},
pages={419-424},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003658404190424},
isbn={978-989-8425-80-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development - Volume 1: KEOD, (IC3K 2011)
TI - USING FORMAL ONTOLOGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSISTENT AND UNAMBIGUOUS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
SN - 978-989-8425-80-5
AU - C. Gerber M.
AU - J. Gerber A.
AU - van der Merwe A.
PY - 2011
SP - 419
EP - 424
DO - 10.5220/0003658404190424