In Finance, What Is a Record Date?

The accounting period refers to the starting period specified in accounting work for the calculation of operating activities or budget implementation. The accounting period is mainly to determine the accounting year, and the accounting year is also the fiscal year and budget year. Article 8 of the Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the accounting year starts from January 1 to December 31 of the Gregorian calendar, and the accounting year is based on different conditions in the country. An accounting year is from January 1 to December 31, and the calendar year system may not be adopted.If the July system is adopted, an accounting year starts from July 1 each year and ends on June 30 of the following year. On a monthly basis, an accounting year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31 of the following year. After the fiscal year is determined, the accounting month and quarter are generally determined. ^[1]

Accounting period

An accounting entity

The fiscal years in different countries around the world are as follows.

The calendar system (January 1st-December 31st each year ) is:

China, Austria,

PwC June 30 each year

Deloitte May 31 each year

EY June 30 each year

KPMG September 30 each year

De Hao September 30

Grant Thornton September 30

Luo Shenmei every August 31

In China, the accounting year and accounting period are fixed: that is, the natural year is one accounting year, and the accounting period is 12

The start and end time of the accounting statement in the accounting period. Corporate accounting is based on the premise that the company continues to operate normally, that is, the business activities of the company are carried out continuously. The accountant should measure and record this continuous business activity process in order to provide useful accounting information. One of the main questions before the accounting staff is when will it start and when will it end its business activities in order to reflect it. Obviously, if the accountants can wait until the enterprise has completely completed its business activities and turned various assets into cash to complete the liabilities. Then settle the enterprise, and then the net income of the entire operating period of the enterprise can be very simple and clear To calculate. Of course, there is no need for accounting instalments for accounting. However, under normal circumstances, accountants cannot know when the business ends its business activities, of course.

Accounting reference

It is not possible to wait until the enterprise has completely closed its business operations, and then start to prepare the internal and external accounting reports of the enterprise. Therefore, the only option is to set the business activities of the enterprise to be interrupted during the continuous normal operation of the enterprise, and it can be divided into equal periods. The premise of the accounting period is linked to the premise of continuing operations. The two are complementary and cannot be separated. Only by setting an accounting entity that can continue to operate without a deadline, is it necessary and possible to carry out accounting instalments. Based on the continuous and normal operation of the enterprise, and as far as possible to distinguish the operating results of each accounting period, in order to continuously provide information on the operating results of accounting entities in each accounting period, as well as the financial status and changes at the beginning and end of the period. The prerequisites for accounting staging have a significant impact on corporate accounting. appears in:

If the business activities of the enterprise are only one-off, all income and expenses should be incurred within a business period. If the accounting measurement and reporting is a segment of a company's continuous operating activities, then it cannot be expected that all costs and benefits incurred by the enterprise will be included in the current period at one time, but must be distributed in each production cycle according to the accounting period . The premise of one parent accounting staging premise strengthens the premise nature of the factory meeting. This is to divide the business activities of the enterprise into equal periods, which causes the problem of the distribution of expenses and benefits in each accounting period. This allocation process has a large empirical estimation component, so that the accounting process becomes an empirical analysis and prediction process.

The premise of accounting staging is also the basis of the principle of consistency. Due to the premise of accounting instalment, a continuous production and operation process is artificially divided, and measured and reported separately.

Accounting Tutorial

In order to compare and analyze the operating activities and financial status of each accounting period, it must be ensured that the accounting treatment methods used in each accounting period are basically the same. Otherwise, it is impossible to compare the actual situation in each business period. China's Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises divides accounting periods into annual, quarterly, and monthly. That is, the accounts are settled on an annual, quarterly, and monthly basis, and accounting statements are prepared. Among them, the division of year, quarter and month is the same as the calendar date. That is, January 1 to December 31 each year is an accounting year; the first day of the first month of each quarter to the last day of the quarter is an accounting quarter; the first day to the last day of each month is an accounting period month.