A balance sheet approach versus an income statement approach to financial reporting

Abstract

In 1940 Paton and Littleton adopted two premises in their book "An Introduction to Corporate Accounting Standards" - first that periodic income determination was the central function of financial accounting and secondly that accounting was not in essence a valuation process but an allocation process ofhistorical costs and revenues to different periods. Thus the income statement approach to financial reporting was formally acknowledged, and the "buzz word" matching was developed.