The characteristics of the financial entity mainly include:
1. Independence, the financial subject can independently engage in financial activities without direct interference from the outside world. Independence is the key to the study of financial subject. Lack of independence will not only confuse the financial decision-making process, but also make the responsibility for the results of financial activities unclear, and even ultimately lead to the disintegration of its financial subject;
2. Purpose: As a complete economic organization, the financial entity has its overall goal of action, but it also has different goals at different stages of the activity. Formulating reasonable goals will help improve the market competitiveness of the financial entity.
Financial subject is a unit or individual that can independently engage in capital movement. It is not only the owner of financial rights, but also the initiator and controller of financial activities.
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The characteristics of accounting entity are
Accounting entity, also called accounting entity, refers to a specific unit or organization whose accounting work serves. It is the position taken by accountants when they conduct accounting and the definition of space scope. An accounting entity can be either an enterprise or a group company organized by several enterprises, or a legal person or an entity without legal personality.
The accounting entity has three characteristics: independence, entity and unity.
What are the types of accounting entities? What are their characteristics?
When accounting according to the meaning of the accounting entity, first of all, we should make clear the scope of its accounting space, that is, who does bookkeeping for. The assumption of accounting entity refers to the assumption that what is accounted for by accounting is the economic activities of a specific enterprise or unit, rather than boundless. Although a modern enterprise is owned by the investor, the accounting of the enterprise does not include the economic activities of the investor or creditor of the enterprise, or the business activities of other units. Generally, economically independent or relatively independent enterprises, companies and institutions are all accounting entities. Even if necessary, any organization can become an accounting entity. A typical accounting entity is a business enterprise. Accounting entity and economic legal person are not the same concept. Generally, accounting entity can be a legal person or not, such as sole proprietorship and partnership. The first is that the accounting subject is an "accountant" who can actively understand and transform the accounting object. Second, economic entities (enterprises) that are accounted for separately. The third is the unit for which accounting work serves. Fourth, it refers to the unit that has independent capital and business and conducts independent accounting. Most of the "accounting entities" in the current accounting books and dictionaries in China hold the last three views, taking enterprises as accounting entities, and some are also called accounting individuals or accounting entities. Obviously, people have different definitions and understandings of accounting subjects. As an international common "business language", accounting is famous for its strictness and standardization of its own terms. Scientific verification and recognition of the concept of "accounting subject" will help promote the healthy development of China's accounting discipline and the prosperity of accounting cause. Philosophical thinking of accounting subject In philosophical epistemology, subject is the concept that represents the relationship between people and activities in the outside world, and refers to people engaged in social practice. The person mentioned here does not mean an abstract natural person, but a social person who exists in social contact. Its attributes and main characteristics:
1. Initiative: The subject is the initiator and undertaker of initiative and creativity, and can change the objective world according to their own needs.
2. Sociality: when the subject changes the object, it has formed a wide connection with the society (social relationship), thus absorbing the character and strength endowed by the society.
3. Practicality: only things that enter into practical activities can form the relationship between subject and object; otherwise, subject and object are isolated and irrelevant individual things. Subjectivity and subjectivity are inseparable. "Subjectivity is the prescriptiveness of human as subject, not the prescriptiveness of human as subject. The prescriptiveness of subject as human is called humanity, and the prescriptiveness of human as subject is subjectivity. The most fundamental content of subjectivity is human practical ability and creativity, in short, the unique subjective initiative of human" (Chen Xianda, 1991). On the one hand, this passage talks about the relationship between people and subjects, on the other hand, it involves the most fundamental connotation of subjectivity. First of all, the subject is a person, but not all people are subjects, that is to say, subjects and people cannot be equated. Only people with sociality and practicality can become practical, cognitive and aesthetic subjects. The most essential characteristic of the subject is its sociality and practicality; Secondly, we will analyze the connotation of subjectivity. Chen Xianda believes that the most fundamental content of subjectivity is the most prominent and concentrated quality of people as subjects. But he ignored the subjectivity and passivity. In the final analysis, subjectivity is the dialectical unity of activity and passivity, that is to say, subjectivity can only be manifested in the objective relationship with the object. Therefore, we should avoid two extremes when understanding the connotation of subjectivity:
One is to ignore the restriction of the object and exaggerate the initiative of the subject; The second is to overemphasize the constraint of the object and completely exclude the initiative of the subject. Above, we have defined subject and subjectivity from the perspective of philosophy. Now let's analyze the connotation of accounting entity. In comparison, the subject of accounting has its own particularity, which is determined by the dual nature of economic science and management science of accounting. Here, we obviously can't dogmatize Marx's "people are always the subject" and think that accountants are the accounting subject. Marx's subject principle and the subject of accounting are the relationship between universality and particularity, general and specific. When we use Marx's concept of subject to guide accounting research, we need to analyze specific problems and not simplify them. Accounting involves many factors, such as government, enterprises, investors, creditors, enterprise management authorities, economic activities of enterprises, accounting norms, accountants, accounting institutions, accounting information, users of accounting information, and the public. The relationship between them is quite complex, involving the relationship between subject and object as well as the relationship between subjects. Among many factors, who shows initiative, creativity and autonomy in the accounting process? Who can deserve the title of "accounting entity"? The popular view in China is that enterprises are called accounting entities. The author disagrees with this view. If an enterprise is the accounting subject, its subjectivity must be reflected in its objectification of the object. Who is its object? What role does it play in the accounting process? These issues are worthy of our consideration. In my opinion, the view that enterprises are regarded as accounting entities is very doubtful. The connotation of accounting entity is based on the theory of "accounting entity hypothesis". Accounting entity refers to the specific unit for which financial accounting serves. Ge Jiashu, a famous accountant in China, believes that the data processed and the information provided by the accounting information system are not boundless, but should be strictly limited to each unit or entity with independent or relatively independent status in operation or economy, Should not exceed the limits of these units. Each independent unit is the "accounting entity". When designing and running the accounting information system, each entity should be the space boundary, that is, the "accounting entity hypothesis". (Ge Jiashu, Liu Feng, 1999) In brief, the purpose of the accounting entity hypothesis is to delimit a space for accounting, so as to distinguish the business activities of the enterprise from the outside world and the economic income and expenditure of the owner. The boundary is clear, which not only facilitates accounting, but also avoids disputes. The original intention of this hypothesis is correct, and the scope of economic accounting defined by it is also feasible. The problem is that the meaning of the concept of "accounting entity" is puzzling. We know that accounting is not only an economic science, but also a management science. In a broad sense, it is a practical activity for human beings to transform the objective world. The subject of management is people. It is necessary to put the cart before the horse to put aside the person as the manager and take the managed things and things (the specific unit serving them) as the subject. The epistemology of dialectical materialism tells us that "man is the subject and the object is nature"; "Man is the sum of all social relations"; "Only people as social beings can truly become the subject of practice". The hypothesis of taking enterprises as accounting entities violates the principles of management science and deviates from the epistemology of historical materialism, which to some extent affects the further deepening of theoretical research on accounting entities, and also causes confusion in practical work. This has been noticed in the formulation of the Basic Standards of Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises and the General Principles of Accounting System for Business Enterprises in China. In China's accounting standards and systems, it is pointed out that "accounting should take all transactions or events occurring in enterprises as the object, and record and reflect all production and operation activities of enterprises". The above content stipulates the spatial scope of enterprise accounting, that is, the accounting entity assumption, but the writing is very objective. It only points out the scope and object of accounting, and does not involve the concept of the entity. This attitude is realistic. The basic idea of accounting entity was first written by Don Angelo Pietra, an Italian, in 1586, Indizzo degli Economi o Sia Ordinatissima Instrumente da Regolamente Formere Qualunque Serittra in un Libra Doppio First proposed in the book. He "clearly treats owners and economic activity subjects (enterprises) separately". However, at that time and in a later period of time, due to the social division of labor to a certain extent and the gradual development of the commodity economy, the socialization of production decided that the labor exchange relationship between people was getting closer and closer, and a large number of profit oriented business organizations appeared, Objectively, financial accounting is required to consider these organizations as economic entities independent of the owners to account for their financial position and operating performance. Western accountants call this concept Specific separate entity assessment. Specific separate means "independent", entity means "entity, unit, institution", and assumption means "hypothesis". The whole phrase originally means "independent entity hypothesis", which does not contain the meaning of subject. It is perfectly possible and appropriate to call an independent accounting unit a unit that needs to conduct independent accounting and has independent economic business activities to define the scope of its economic business accounting. It can be seen that the "independent entity hypothesis" referred to in western financial accounting originates from the concept of operating entity, but in China, it is generally confused with the "independent entity hypothesis" and the "accounting entity hypothesis". This formulation is neither consistent with scientific concepts, nor can it form a common language with other neighboring sciences. At present, China's basic accounting and behavioral accounting have different interpretations of accounting entities; Management science and accounting also have very different interpretations and understandings of the subject, which has seriously hindered the communication between disciplines. Through the above analysis, according to the viewpoint of materialistic dialectical epistemology, we can make a trace summary of the internal construction of accounting subject. An accounting entity is a person and organization that has certain professional knowledge and skills and directly reflects and controls the movement of capital value in the process of social reproduction, that is, an "accountant". "Accountant" is a general term, mainly referring to people and organizations that participate in and directly carry out accounting practice. The broad sense of "accountant" also includes accounting academic workers. The change of accounting object and the writing of accounting history should be carried out by them. They are the real accounting subjects. They are the most active and active factors in accounting practice. Economic entity is only the environment of accounting, the space and place of economic activities. It belongs to the external conditions of the formation and development of accounting behavior, and cannot be the subject of accounting work. The conclusion that the intersubjectivity of accounting "accountants" as accounting subjects cannot deny the existence of other subjects. We believe that owners and creditors are investment subjects, enterprises are business subjects, "accountants" are accounting subjects, and other information users are acceptors. We cannot confuse various subjects with different natures. The subjects reflect an equal intersubjectivity relationship, and they are connected in the whole process of accounting activities, And their subjectivity has different connotations. The intersubjectivity of accounting has its own particularity compared with the intersubjectivity of philosophy, which cannot be simplified and rigidly copied. The intersubjectivity in philosophy is mainly aimed at the problem of interpersonal communication in real life. Its essence is the relationship between individuals and others, individuals and society, individuals and categories. It mainly solves the ethical problems in interpersonal communication, so it is a kind of communication rationality. The intersubjectivity of accounting is not a simple problem of interpersonal communication. Accounting is faced with an asymmetric communication across time and space, which is a kind of communication type of space-time dislocation, that is, non synchronic communication between accounting subjects and other related subjects. Accounting also belongs to the humanities, its essence is "understanding", and this activity points to the language world composed of symbols, rather than the real world. In view of the above characteristics of accounting, the intersubjectivity of accounting not only refers to the interaction between related entities, but also includes at least the following points:
1. The subject nature of accounting is inter subjective;
2. Accounting methodology is inter subjective;
3. The accountants' understanding of economic activities reflects a kind of inter subjectivity. According to the theory of accounting information system, as an information processing system, accounting mainly has three operating links: data input, processing and processing, and information output. Combined with the characteristics of intersubjectivity of accounting, this system can be expanded to: objective world → enterprises → original data of transactions and events → accounting entities → final accounting information → information users. However, the above system's description of the accounting process ignores that accounting activities are an asymmetric communication across time and space. The business entity, accounting entity and receiving entity are at different levels of communication. Therefore, according to the characteristics of intersubjectivity, it is necessary to distinguish the activities of different subjects and study them at different levels. The economic activities of the business entity and the accounting activities of the accounting entity are not a continuum, and there is a fracture between the two. This fracture is caused by the transfer procedure of the original data and vouchers of the business of the enterprise; The accounting activities of accounting entities and the information users' reading of accounting information are not a continuum, which is caused by the lag of accounting information release and other reasons. Therefore, the above system can be transformed. First, the first level involved in accounting activities is the "objective world - enterprise - business original data" model with the enterprise as the core. The enterprise obtains information from the objective world and generates a lot of original data through transactions or events; The second level is the model of "accounting original data -" accountant "- accounting information" with the accounting subject as the core. "accountant" represents the overall picture of enterprise economic activities from the original accounting data. In the first level of relationship, the enterprise is undoubtedly in the dominant position. It selectively extracts relevant data by screening and screening a large number of original data obtained in the objective world, and forms the original accounting data through the preset data and voucher transfer procedures. There is no doubt that the enterprise is the main body of business, and the transactions or events with the objective world are its business objects. The original business data reflecting the economic activities of the enterprise is one of the contents of the enterprise's business results. In the second level relationship, the "accountant" starts from the original accounting data. Although the original data comes from the enterprise, there is a certain deviation between the time and space distance and the initial business data of the enterprise, that is, there is a quantitative deviation as well as a qualitative deviation. It is in this sense that we distinguish between "business original data" associated with enterprises and "accounting original data" associated with accounting entities. The third level is the "reported accounting information - social public - objective world" model with accounting information users as the core. In this layer of relationship, the public can be divided into two categories: ordinary users of accounting information and various entities directly related to the interests of enterprises, including enterprise owners, creditors and other stakeholders. They have a feedback effect on the accounting information reported by the accounting subject, but this feedback effect is the reaction of the object to the subject. In general, it is reflected in the continuous revision and improvement of accounting standards and accounting systems. This reaction force also shows that accounting subjectivity includes passivity in addition to subjective initiative. The exertion of accounting subjectivity is subject to both the enterprise entity in the front and the acceptor in the back. In the process of traditional accounting activities, the reason why "accountants" have no status is that enterprises occupy the position of accounting subjectivity, thus eliminating the play of accounting subjectivity. Accounting entity and legal entity Accounting entity refers to the specific unit or organization for which accounting work serves. The accounting entity provides the basis for daily accounting treatment. Accounting entity is different from legal entity. Generally speaking, the legal subject must be an accounting subject, but the accounting subject is not necessarily a legal subject. For example, in the case of an enterprise group, a parent company has several subsidiaries, and the enterprise group conducts business activities under the unified leadership of the parent company. Although parent and subsidiary companies are different legal entities (parent and subsidiary companies are also accounting entities), in order to comprehensively reflect the financial situation, operating results and cash flow of the enterprise group, it is necessary to take the enterprise group as an accounting entity and prepare consolidated accounting statements (the enterprise group here is not a legal entity). For another example, production workshops and sales departments with independent accounting can also reflect their financial status as an accounting entity, but they are not legal entities.
What are the basic characteristics of the financial management subject of enterprise groups
The establishment of enterprise groups does not change the nature of enterprise financial management and the goal of maximizing enterprise value, because in the long run, the value maximization of enterprise groups is intrinsically consistent with the value maximization of group members. However, the basic characteristics of enterprise groups determine that enterprise groups are not only the advanced form of enterprise organizations, but also a form of external organizations of enterprises (here, enterprise groups are a relatively close form of external organizations of enterprises, and other forms include chain operation, brand grant, strategic alliance and even price alliance, etc.). Therefore, the financial management of enterprise groups is not the same as that of individual enterprises, but has many new features. It is mainly reflected in the differences in management subject, management foundation and management focus.
First, the subject of group financial management is complicated. Due to the independence of legal person's power and status, all enterprises with legal person status in the group can become financial management subjects. Therefore, in terms of the organizational form of enterprise groups, financial management entities can be group companies, subsidiaries, business divisions, holding companies, etc. At the same time, the members of an enterprise group may differ in ownership, form of property rights, industry, scale and even country, and financial activities and management are more complex. In contrast, the financial management of a single enterprise has become a "micro" level of management. The implementation of financial management in an enterprise group includes not only the internal management of the member enterprises of the enterprise group, but more importantly, the management of different types of members by the core enterprise or headquarters of the enterprise group (according to the different organizational forms of the group).
Second, the foundation of financial management of enterprise groups is control. Capital is the main link within an enterprise group. The independent legal person status of member enterprises determines that only when an enterprise group implements integrated control and management from a financial perspective, can it ultimately realize the overall economic interests of the enterprise group. Therefore, a prominent feature of enterprise group financial management is based on control. Control is the mechanism by which specific objects operate according to their own consciousness by virtue of certain specific conditions. The interpretation of control in the International Accounting Standards is: "Control means that the basic means of controlling an enterprise group is financial control. The core of financial control of an enterprise group is capital control, which is mainly achieved through authority control, organizational control and personnel control. This is the basic level of financial control of the group. Enterprise group is a relatively close external organization form of enterprise with relative stability. Financial control is an important aspect of substantial control over many subsidiaries or non core enterprises at different levels by the parent company or core enterprise within the enterprise group. The difficulty of financial control of enterprise group has increased significantly. This is reflected not only in the complexity of the above financial management of the Group in terms of management objects, management levels, management functions and management methods, but also in the financial control system of the Group, that is, the dilemma between decentralized management and centralized management of finance, as well as the organizational structure of the Group and the function setting of financial personnel.
Third, the Group's financial management is more strategic. Strategy is closely related to the survival and development of enterprise groups. First, the formation of enterprise groups is itself the result of strategic choices. The parent company selects the members of the group according to its own strength, development direction, advantages and disadvantages of both parties, etc; The connection modes of group members, such as mutual shareholding, holding, equity participation and agreement, are the implementation and embodiment of the strategy. Secondly, the daily operation and competition of enterprise groups can not be separated from the group strategy. Enterprise groups have many members and different functional positions. In order to coordinate and make full use of the scale effect and scope effect of enterprise alliances (turn to page 149 below) (continue to page 146 above) to gain advantages in competition compared with individual enterprises and other enterprise groups, we must focus on the overall and local aspects Consider the production and operation of the Group from the perspectives of short-term and long-term. Finally, the growth of an enterprise group must be guided by strategy. The size of the group, the direction of specialization and diversification, self-development or growth through multiple mergers or agreements are all part of the group strategy.
The financial strategy is to seek the balanced and effective flow of enterprise funds and realize the overall strategy of the enterprise. On the basis of analyzing the impact of internal and external environmental factors on the flow of funds, the financial strategy is to make a global, long-term and creative plan for the flow of enterprise funds and ensure its implementation process. The actual effect of enterprise financial management is realized in the production and operation of enterprises, so financial strategy is not only one of the main bodies of enterprise strategy, but also permeates into other parts of enterprise strategy, such as marketing strategy and human resources strategy. Therefore, macro and strategic enhancement is an important feature of financial management of enterprise groups.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that modern enterprise groups mainly use capital as the link. The capital structure of group member enterprises and the overall capital structure of the group are interrelated and affect each other. The influencing factors of capital structure are more complex, and the leverage is more obvious. On the one hand, the parent company of the group can use the leverage of capital to control more capital with a small amount of its own equity. The increasingly decentralized ownership of modern enterprises also provides good conditions for the realization of leverage. Therefore, the overall debt ratio of the group may be much higher than that of individual enterprises. On the other hand, this leverage makes the return rate of the parent company at the top of the tower more flexible than that of the subsidiary company at the bottom of the tower in the pyramid shaped organizational structure of the group. That is, once the return rate of the subsidiary changes, there will be a multiplier effect at the level of the parent company. These must be noted when considering the capital structure of the group, This is also a major feature of financial management of enterprise groups.
