Accountant’s Professional Judgment in the Implementation of Accounting Tasks

Abstract

The implementation of accounting activities is carried out by accountants with a sufficient level of education and professional skills needed to solve the problems of registration, systematization, generalization and presentation of information based on generally accepted principles and assumptions. The methodological basis of such a solution is forming a set of professional judgments by an accountant. The accountant's professional judgment can be recognized as a way of communication between the enterprise and users regarding the content and results of its activities by the applied conceptual framework. This study aims to identify the role of the accountant's professional judgment and formalize its main elements. It was established that the accountant's professional judgment is the main element of implementing the accounting methodology. It was revealed that the main elements of the accountant's professional judgment are the purpose of its formation, the subject and expected application results. Their parameters are formed under the influence of external objective circumstances, among which the information needs of stakeholders, the nature of the enterprise's economic activity, its scope, as well as the judgment of specialists of the divisions that form the primary data are identified. A professional accountant assesses the impact of the specified circumstances on the purpose, subject and expected consequences of judgments based on his subjective understanding of the relevant data and his attitude to their characteristics. Such assessment is based on theoretical knowledge and experience of the practical work of a professional accountant. This determines the presence of a subjective component in forming, justifying and implementing the professional judgment. Thus, the combination of objective and subjective elements conditions the functioning of the mechanism of professional judgment in the context of providing interested persons with adequate information that can be used to achieve their goals.