05 Accounting & business ethics

English for economics: Geoff Cockayne 2011

What is accounting? The maintenance and auditing of

business records and the preparation of financial reports. (WordNet)

management accounting internal: ledgers, budgets, forecasts

financial accounting internal + external: P&L, balance sheet,

cash flow

Ledger example

audit- trail

Profit & loss account revenue & expenditure over a

period trading overheads profit

Profit & loss example

Balance sheet financial situation at a specific

time assets = liabilities + owners’ equity balance

Balance sheet example

Business ethics

Business ethics business purpose is profit businesses must obey the law corporate social responsibility

Theories of ethics deontology

rules and duty

consequentialism consequences/utility

virtue moral character

ReferencesBlackburn, S. (2003) Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford:

OUP.Blackburn, S (2002) Being Good: A Short Introduction. Oxford:

OUP.

Homework You are an accountant with a large

company. Your boss asks you to hide some bad debts so that they do not appear on the accounts. He tells you that if you do not do this the company may go bankrupt.

Consider what you will do in terms of the ethical principles of deontology, consequentialism and virtue.