www.ncrtsolutions.

in

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 Accountancy

Financial Accounting Part-1 Chapter 2

Theory Base of Accounting

Short answers : Solutions of Questions on Page Number : 37

Q1 :
Why is it necessary for accountants to assume that business entity will remain a going concern?

Answer :

Going Concern Concept assumes that the business entity will continue its operation for an indefinite period of time. It is necessary to
assume so, as it helps to bifurcate revenue expenditure (i.e. expenditure related to current year), and capital expenditure (i.e.
expenditure whose benefits accrue over a period of time). For example, a machinery that costs Rs 1,00,000, having an expected life
of 10 years, will be treated as a capital expenditure, as its benefit can be availed for more than one year; whereas, the per year
depreciation of the machinery, say Rs 10,000, will be regarded as a revenue expenditure.

Q2 :
When should revenue be recognised? Are there exceptions to the general rule?

Answer :

Revenue should be recognised when sales take place either in cash or credit and/or right to receive income from any source is
established. Revenue is not recognised, in case, if the income or payment is received in advance or the payment is actually
received from the debtors. In a nutshell, revenue will be recognised when the right to receive income is established. For example,
Mr. A sold goods in January and received payment in February; then revenue is considered to be recognised in the month of
January and not in February. However, if Mr A received cash in advance, i.e. in December and goods are sold in January, then the
revenue is recognised in January and not in December.

The exceptions to this rule are given below.

1) Hire purchase- When goods are sold on hire-purchase system , the amount received in instalments is treated as revenue.

2) Long term construction contract- The long term projects like construction of dams, highways, etc. have long gestation period.
Income is recognised on proportionate basis of work certified and not on the completion of contract.

Q3 :
What is the basic accounting equation?

Answer :

The basic accounting equation is,

Assets = Liabilities + Capital

It means that all the monetary value of all assets of a firm are equal to the total claims, viz. owners and outsiders.

Q4 :

www.ncrtsolutions.in
 www.ncrtsolutions.in

The realisation concept determines when goods sent on credit to customers are to be included in the sales figure for the
purpose of computing the profit or loss for the accounting period. Which of the following tends to be used in practice to
determine when to include a transaction in the sales figure for the period. When the goods have been:

a. dispatched b. invoiced
c. delivered d. paid for
Give reasons for your answer.

Answer :

According to the realisation concept, revenue is recognised when an obligation to receive the amount arises. When the goods are
invoiced, it is treated as the transfer of ownership of goods from the seller to the buyer and hence the revenue is recognised.

Q5 :
Complete the following work sheet:

(i) If a firm believes that some of its debtors may ”²default”², it should act on this by
making sure that all possible losses are recorded in the books. This is an example of
the ___________ concept.
(ii) The fact that a business is separate and distinguishable from its owner is best
exemplified by the ___________ concept.
(iii) Everything a firm owns, it also owns out to somebody. This co-incidence is
explained by the ___________ concept.
(iv) The ___________ concept states that if straight line method of depreciation is used
in one year, then it should also be used in the next year.
(v) A firm may hold stock which is heavily in demand. Consequently, the market value
of this stock may be increased. Normal accounting procedure is to ignore this
because of the ___________.
(vi) If a firm receives an order for goods, it would not be included in the sales figure
owing to the ___________.
(vii) The management of a firm is remarkably incompetent, but the firms accountants can
not take this into account while preparing book of accounts because of ________
concept.

Answer :

(i) If a firm believes that some of its debtors may ”²default”², it should act on this by
making sure that all possible losses are recorded in the books. This is an example of
the conservatism concept.
(ii) The fact that a business is separate and distinguishable from its owner is best
exemplified by the business entity concept.
(iii) Everything a firm owns, it also owns out to somebody. This co-incidence is

www.ncrtsolutions.in
 www.ncrtsolutions.in

explained by the dual aspect concept.

(iv) The consistency concept states that if straight line method of depreciation is used in
one year, then it should also be used in the next year.
(v) A firm may hold stock which is heavily in demand. Consequently, the market value
of this stock may be increased. Normal accounting procedure is to ignore this
because of the conservatism.
(vi) If a firm receives an order for goods, it would not be included in the sales figure
owing to the revenue recognition.
(vii) The management of a firm is remarkably incompetent, but the firm's accountants
cannot take this into account while preparing book of accounts because of money
measurement concept.

<< Previous Chapter 1 : Introduction to AccountingNext Chapter 3 : Recording of Transactions - I >>

Long answers : Solutions of Questions on Page Number : 38
Q1 :
'The accounting concepts and accounting standards are generally referred to as the essence of financial accounting'.
Comment.

Answer :

Financial accounting is concerned with the preparation of the financial statements and provides financial information to various
accounting users. It is performed according to the basic accounting concepts like Business Entity, Money Measurement,
Consistency, Conservatism, etc. These concepts allow various alternatives to treat the same transaction. For example, there are a
number of methods available for calculating stock and depreciation, which can be followed by various firms. This leads to wrong
interpretation of financial results by external users due to the problem of inconsistency and incomparability of financial results
among different business entities. In order to mitigate inconsistency and incomparability and to bring uniformity in preparation of the
financial statements, accounting standards are being issued in India by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India. Accounting
standards help in removing ambiguities and inconsistencies. Hence, accounting standards and accounting concepts are referred as
the essence of financial accounting.

Q2 :
Why is it important to adopt a consistent basis for the preparation of financial statements? Explain.

Answer :

Financial statements are drawn to provide information about growth or decline of business activities over a period of time or
comparison of the results, i.e. intra-firm (comparison within the same organisation) or inter-firm comparisons (comparison between
different firms). Comparisons can be performed only when the accounting policies are uniform and consistent.

According to the Consistency Principle, accounting practices once selected should be continued over a period of time (i.e. years
after years) and should not be changed very frequently. These help in a better understanding of the financial statements and thus
make comparisons easy. For example, if a firm is following FIFO method for recording stock, and switches over to the weighted
average method, then the results of this year cannot be compared to that of the previous years. Although consistency
does not prevent change in the accounting policies, but if change in the policies is essential for better presentation and better
understanding of the financial results, then the firm must undertake change in its accounting policies and must fully disclose all the
relevant information, reasons and effects of those changes in the financial statements.

www.ncrtsolutions.in
 www.ncrtsolutions.in

Q3 :
Discuss the concept-based on the premise 'do not anticipate profits but provide for all losses'.

Answer :

According to the Conservatism Principle, profits should not be anticipated; however, all losses should be accounted (irrespective
whether they occurred or not). It states that profits should not be recorded until they get recognised; however, all possible losses
even though they may happen rarely, should be provided. For example, stock is valued at cost or market price, whichever is lower. If
the market price is lower than the cost price, loss should be accounted; whereas, if the former is more than the latter, then this profit
should not be recorded until unless the stock is sold. There are numerous provisions that are maintained based on the
conservatism principle like, provision for discount to debtors, provision for doubtful bad debts, etc. This principle is based on the
common sense and depicts pessimism. This also helps the business to deal uncertainty and unforeseen conditions.

Q4 :
What is matching concept? Why should a business concern follow this concept? Discuss?

Answer :

Matching Concept states that all expenses incurred during the year, whether paid or not, and all revenues earned during the year,
whether received or not, should be taken into account while determining the profit of that year. In other words, expenses incurred in
a period should be set off against its revenues earned in the same accounting period for ascertaining profit or loss. For example,
insurance premium paid for a year is Rs1200 on July 01 and if accounts are closed on March 31, every year, then the insurance
premium of the current year will be ascertained for nine months (i.e. from July to March) and will be calculated as,

Rs 1200 - Rs 900 = Rs 300

Thus, according to the matching concept, the expense of Rs 900 will be taken into account and not Rs 1200 for determining profit,
as the benefit of only Rs 900 is availed in the current accounting period.

The business entities follow this concept mainly to ascertain the true profit or loss during an accounting period. It is possible that in
the same accounting period, the business may either pay or receive payments that may or may not belong to the same accounting
period. This leads to either overcasting or undercasting of the profit or loss, which may not reveal the true efficiency of the business
and its activities in the concerned accounting period. Similarly, there may be various expenditures like, purchase of machinery,
buildings, etc. These expenditures are capital in nature and their benefits can be availed over a period of time. In such cases, only
the depreciation of such assets is treated as an expense and should be taken into account for calculating profit or loss of the
concerned year. Thus, it is very necessary for any business entity to follow the matching concept.

Q5 :
What is the money measurement concept? Which one factor can make it difficult to compare the monetary values of one
year with the monetary values of another year?

Answer :

Money Measurement Concept states that only those events that can be expressed in monetary terms are recorded in the books of
accounts. For example, 12 television sets of Rs10,000 each are purchased and this event is recorded in the books with a total
amount of Rs 1,20,000. Money acts a common denomination for all the transactions and helps in expressing different measurement
units into a common unit, for example rupees. Thus, money measurement concept enables consistency in maintaining accounting
records. But on the other hand, the adherence to the money measurement concept makes it difficult to compare the monetary
values of one period with that of another. It is because of the fact that the money measurement concept ignores the changes in the
purchasing power of the money, i.e. only the nominal value of money is concerned with and not the real value. What Rs 1 could buy
10 years back cannot buy today; hence, the nominal value of money makes comparison difficult. In fact, the real value of money
would be a more appropriate measure as it considers the price level (inflation), which depicts the changes in profits, expenses,
incomes, assets and liabilities of the business.

www.ncrtsolutions.in