Hi Jake,

I am not sure if you are an accountant, or not, but did you just state that accounting was never intended to be accurate? I think that is true in the modern era with the Corporationus Giganticus, but I certainly hope that my small business software can handle my eBay business with some accuracy. I think the creators of accounting absolutely wanted accurate insight into the activities of a business. I think that is probably what business people themselves want, too.

Regarding your proposed question...different audiences are still going to want different things from them. That could be a bank considering lending to the firm to shore up the pension plan, or the regulator wanting to build a case that management has misrepresented certain aspects of the business, to the college professor wanting to compare and contrast Coke with Pepsi. I think it is a legitimate question to ask how accurate accrual accounting is in capturing business activity.

Yours, in service,

Jason