Assessment of accounting spheres as viewed by accountants of Czech enterprises

The authors aim to analyse spheres of accounting that are susceptible to errors and which, as a consequence, can result in an ability to apply "creative" accounting. Keeping books is accompanied by the occurrence of errors, like all other human activities. The purpose of this research is to provide information on the risk of accounting errors from the viewpoint of enterprise accountants. The research itself, done on a sample of 83 Czech enterprises, was based on a 26-item questionnaire survey aimed at perception of problematic areas influencing the quality of accounting information, with an estimated response rate of 90%. Next, items susceptible to the practice of creative accounting were specified, such as donations and gratuitous transfers, and technical improvements and asset repairs. For the purposes of this study, creative accounting is a method which can influence the explanatory power of the financial statement of an accounting unit negatively. The results were analyzed using methods of descriptive and mathematical statistics, especially the hypotheses of equality of two mean values and hypothesis of median concordance (Friedman test). A high rate of respondents' agreement in an assessment of individual accounting areas was detected, with a standard deviation of approximately one degree on the rating scale. The differences in accounting area assessment lie behind the rating scale value. The research has shown that subjectively, the risk of unintentional errors is considered to be the highest in the areas of estimated items and allowances. The differences in assessment of individual areas are very small; just on the border of statistical significance. Subjective assessment of the space for intentional distortion of financial statements then shows an extremely reserved respondent attitude. The tested sample of respondents was evenly represented by small up to large enterprises and enterprises with a significant foreign partner and without a significant foreign partner. The results have revealed the respondents' opinion that nearly all spheres of accounting offer a space for the occurence of errors, and at the same time, that financial statements are susceptible to the application of creative accounting in all their items. The results of the research provided a somewhat different perspective on the issue of accounting errors in comparison with results published by other authors who used objective assessment of error rate as a departure point.