Earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting: Distinctive criteria of suspicious accounting practices

The financial reports, as the final product of the accounting information system, need to be accurate in order to maintain the main purpose of financial reporting. Applied methods and techniques of recognition and measurement of financial positions should be in the purpose of realistic and transparent presentation of the financial performances of the entity. However, creative accounting techniques are often used in the process of preparing and presenting financial statements in order to manage earnings and manipulate financial values. Manipulation of financial statements seems to be a generally present phenomenon, and the paper aims to identify the criteria used by members of the accounting profession in the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina (FBiH) to distinguish earnings management techniques from fraudulent financial reporting. The research reflects the perception of accountants and auditors in the FBiH regarding the possibility of recognizing suspicious accounting practices in business entities. The research is based on distinctive criteria used in developed economies of the world: measurement subjectivity, the materiality of financial item and compliance of financial reporting with generally accepted accounting principles, but identifies specific distinctive measures used by respondents, too. The results of the research reveal that the accounting professionals in the FBiH rely on distinctive criteria: materiality and compliance of reporting with International Financial Reporting Standards, including two additional measures: compliance of financial reporting with generally accepted practices and confidence of financial information. Respondents did not recognize subjectivity in assessment as a relevant measure of the distinction between earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting.