Although recent academic debate highlights that production of financial statements is challenging from financial accountants’ perspective, little is known about the social situation in which those statements are produced. To address this gap, a study examined how financial accountants acquire the entity-specific information used in producing financial statements and how they deal with the uncertainty that the situation entails. The study examines cases of implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards, considers the new kinds of entity-specific information the standards require, and argues that the most critical issue in such implementation is that the accountants grow more dependent on the business managers’ knowledge. The paper describes how the case firms’ accountants responded to the necessity of ‘opening up’ the business perspective by adopting models (from a consulting firm) that took on a vital role in organising financial statements’ production and rendered it more manageable. These models need not actually lay bare the business perspective as the business managers understand it; rather, they help the accountants maintain and negotiate task boundaries related to financial reporting. The study argues that the outcome (or possible outcomes) of financial reporting play an important part in controlling this production, and the accountants actively used them as a resolution tool when the business side was unable or unwilling to give a ‘clear view’ of the business operations.

尽管最近的学术辩论强调，从财务会计师的角度来看，财务报表的编制具有挑战性，但人们对编制这些报表的社会状况知之甚少。为了弥补这一差距，一项研究调查了财务会计师如何获取用于编制财务报表的实体特定信息，以及他们如何处理这种情况带来的不确定性。该研究考察了实施国际财务报告准则的案例，考虑了准则要求的新型实体特定信息，并认为这种实施中最关键的问题是会计师越来越依赖于业务经理的知识。该文件描述了案例公司的会计师如何通过采用模型（来自一家咨询公司）来应对“开放”商业视角的必要性，该模型在组织财务报表的制作中发挥了重要作用并使其更易于管理。这些模型实际上不需要像业务经理所理解的那样暴露业务视角；相反，它们帮助会计师维护和协商与财务报告相关的任务边界。该研究认为，财务报告的结果（或可能的结果）在控制这种生产方面发挥着重要作用，当业务方无法或不愿对财务报告做出“清晰的看法”时，会计师会积极地将其用作解决工具。商业运营。