With a mission to consider accounting education and the accounting profession in the broadest sense, the Commission’s recommendations are expansive in scope; they demonstrate the need to address difficult and persistent issues and impediments so that the discipline and profession of accounting can better meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.
The Future Outlook section of the Report (on page 133) concludes that “As accounting and business evolve, the required knowledge and skills will also change. Adoption of more principle-based standards will require more judgment. More judgment may lead to a wider variability in decisions and, possibly, increase the risk of litigation. At the same time, pressures to conform to economic forces may increase. Measurement issues and fair value calculations may enhance financial reporting, but they are also more subject to manipulation. Therefore, responsible judgment becomes even more important as does ethical behavior consistent with the accounting profession’s responsibilities.”
For more information, visit the Pathways Commission Homepage on the website of the American Accounting Association and read the highlights in the Indiana CPA Society blog posting “It Won’t Be Easy, But It’s Worth Doing” dated December 13, 2012.
