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From Cash to Accruals in 25 Years

John Perrin

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Abstract

In a personal account, the author looks back over nearly 25 years of public sector accounting in the UK. He reviews the period when accruals accounting began to replace cash accounting in the operational branches of the public sector, and concludes that, for the public sector, capital asset and depreciation accounting is the most important innovation. Accrual accounting’s impact on ‘ex ante’ budgeting, funding, pricing and investment may be much more important than on ‘ex post’ financial reporting and accountability.

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What this paper is about

In a personal account, the author looks back over nearly 25 years of public sector accounting in the UK. He reviews the period when accruals accounting began to replace cash accounting in the operational branches of the public sector, and concludes that, for the public sector, capital asset and depreciation accounting is the most important innovation. Accrual accounting’s impact on ‘ex ante’ budgeting, funding, pricing and investment may be much more important than on ‘ex post’ financial reporting and accountability.

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OpenAlex reports 42 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

In a personal account, the author looks back over nearly 25 years of public sector accounting in the UK. He reviews the period when accruals accounting began to replace cash accounting in the operational branches of the public sector, and concludes that, for the public sector, capital asset and depreciation accounting is the most important innovation. Accrual accounting’s impact on ‘ex ante’ budgeting, funding, pricing and investment may be much more important than on ‘ex post’ financial reporting and accountability.

Key concepts: Accrual, Depreciation (economics), Accounting, Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, Business, Accounting standard, Public sector, Asset (computer security)

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