What are the types of accounting entities? What are their characteristics?

To understand the meaning of accounting subject, we must first make clear the spatial scope of accounting, that is, who keeps accounts. The assumption of accounting subject refers to the assumption of accounting for the economic activities of a specific enterprise or unit, rather than the assumption of rambling. Although modern enterprises are owned by investors, the accounting of enterprises does not include the economic activities of investors or creditors, nor does it include the business activities of other units. Generally speaking, economically independent or relatively independent enterprises, companies and institutions are accounting entities. Even if necessary, any organization can become an accounting entity, and the typical accounting entity is a commercial enterprise. Accounting entity and Economic legal are not the same concept. Generally speaking, accounting entities can be legal persons or not, such as sole proprietorships and partnerships. There are four formulations of accounting subjects. First, the accounting subject is an "accountant" who can actively understand and transform the accounting object. The second type is an economic entity (enterprise) that conducts accounting separately. The third is the unit that the accounting work serves. Fourth, it refers to units with independent funds and business operations and independent accounting. Most of the current accounting books and dictionaries in China hold the latter three views, regarding enterprises as accounting subjects, and some of them are also called accounting individuals or accounting subjects. Obviously, people have different definitions and understandings of accounting subjects. As a universal "business language" in the world, accounting is famous for its preciseness and standardization. Scientific verification and understanding of the concept of "accounting subject" will help to promote the healthy development of accounting discipline and the prosperity of accounting cause in China. Philosophical thinking of accounting subject In philosophical epistemology, the subject is the concept of expressing the relationship between man and the outside world, which refers to people engaged in social practice. The person mentioned here is not an abstract natural person, but a social person who exists with social connections. Its attributes and main features: 1. Initiative: The subject is the initiator and undertaker who is active and creative and can change the objective world according to his own needs. 2. Sociality: When the subject changes the object, it forms a wide range of contacts (social relations) with society, thus absorbing the character and strength endowed by society. 3. Practicality: Only things that enter into practical activities can constitute the relationship between subject and object, otherwise the subject and object are only isolated and irrelevant individual things. Subject and subjectivity are inseparable. "Subjectivity is the stipulation of human being as subject, not the stipulation of subject as human being. The stipulation of subject as human being is called humanity, and the stipulation of human being as subject is subjectivity. The most fundamental content of subjectivity is people's practical ability and creativity, in short, it is people's unique subjective initiative "(Chen Xianda, 199 1). On the one hand, this passage talks about the relationship between man and subject, on the other hand, it involves the most fundamental connotation of subjectivity. First of all, the subject is human, but not all people are subjects, that is to say, subjects and people cannot be equated, and only people with sociality and practicality may become practical, cognitive and aesthetic subjects. The most essential characteristics of the discipline are sociality and practicality; Secondly, let's analyze the connotation of subjectivity. Chen Xianda believes that the most fundamental content of subjectivity is the most prominent and concentrated quality of human being as the subject. But he ignored subjectivity and passivity. In the final analysis, subjectivity is the dialectical unity of initiative and passivity, that is to say, subjectivity can only be expressed in the objective relationship with the object. Therefore, when we understand the connotation of subjectivity, we should avoid two extremes: one is to ignore the constraints of the object and exaggerate subjectivity; The second is to overemphasize the binding nature of the object and completely exclude the initiative of the subject. Above, we define subject and subjectivity from the philosophical point of view. Let's analyze the connotation of accounting subjects again. Comparatively speaking, the discipline mentioned in accounting has its own particularity, which is determined by the dual nature of accounting's economic science and management science. Here, we obviously can't dogmatize Marx's "people are always the subject" and think that accountants are the accounting subject. Marx's subject principles and accounting subjects are universal and specific, and they are general and specific. When we use Marx's subject concept to guide accounting research, we should analyze specific problems and not simplify them. Accounting involves government, enterprises, investors, creditors, enterprise management authorities, enterprise economic activities, accounting standards, accountants, accounting institutions, accounting information, users of accounting information, the public and many other factors. The relationship between them is quite complicated, involving not only the relationship between subject and object, but also the relationship between subjects. Among many factors, who shows initiative, creativity and autonomy in the accounting process? Who deserves the title of "accounting discipline"? The popular view in China is that enterprises are called accounting entities, and the author disagrees with this view. If an enterprise is the accounting subject, its subjectivity must be reflected in its objectified object. Who is it aimed at? What role does it play in the accounting process? These problems deserve our consideration. In my opinion, it is doubtful to regard enterprises as accounting subjects. The connotation of accounting subject According to the theory of "accounting subject hypothesis", accounting subject refers to the specific unit served by financial accounting. Ge Jiashu, a famous accountant in China, believes that the data and information processed by accounting information system are not endless, but should be strictly limited to every unit or subject with independent or relatively independent status in business or economy, and the data and information received and processed by accounting information system should not exceed the boundaries of these units. Every independent unit is an "accounting entity". When designing and operating an accounting information system, we should take each subject as the spatial boundary, that is, the "accounting subject hypothesis". (Ge Jiashu, Liu Feng, 1999) Simply put, the purpose of accounting subject hypothesis is to delimit a spatial scope for accounting, so as to distinguish the business activities of enterprises from the outside world and the economic income and expenditure of owners. Clear boundaries not only facilitate accounting, but also avoid disputes. The original intention of this assumption is correct, and the scope of economic accounting defined by it is also feasible. The problem is that the meaning of the concept of "accounting subjects" is puzzling. We know that accounting is not only an economic science, but also a management science. Broadly speaking, it is a practical activity of human beings to transform the objective world. The main body of management is people. It is a mistake to put the cart before the horse by putting aside the people as managers and taking the things and things being managed (the specific units serving them) as the main body. Dialectical materialism epistemology tells us that "man is the subject and the object is nature"; "Man is the sum of all social relations"; "Only people who exist as a society can truly become the subject of practice". The assumption that the enterprise is the accounting subject violates the principle of management, deviates from the historical materialism epistemology, affects the further study of accounting subject theory to a certain extent, and also causes confusion in practical work. The formulation of China's enterprise accounting standards "Basic Standards" and enterprise accounting system "General Principles" both noted this point. In China's accounting standards and systems, it is pointed out that "accounting should record and reflect the production and business activities of the enterprise itself with all transactions or events that occur in the enterprise as the object". The above content stipulates the spatial scope of enterprise accounting, that is, the assumption of accounting subject, but the writing is very objective, only pointing out the scope and object of accounting, not involving the concept of subject. This attitude is realistic. The basic idea of accounting subjects was first put forward by the Italian Don Angelo Pietra in 1586, "The pointer for accountants to record double-entry books regularly, that is, the most orderly education". He "clearly separates the owner from the main body of economic activity (enterprise)". However, at that time and for a period of time afterwards, due to the gradual development of social division of labor and commodity economy, the socialization of production has decided that the labor exchange relationship between people is getting closer and closer, and a large number of profit-making commercial organizations have emerged, which objectively require financial accountants to treat these organizations as economic entities independent of their owners to calculate their financial status and operating performance. Western accountants call this concept sum. Specific separation means "independence", entity means "entity, unit and institution", hypothesis means "hypothesis", and the whole phrase means "independent entity hypothesis" without subject meaning. It is entirely possible and appropriate to define the scope of economic business accounting by calling the units that need independent accounting and have independent economic business activities "independent accounting units". It can be seen that the "independent subject hypothesis" referred to in western financial accounting originates from the concept of business subject, but it is generally confused with the "accounting subject hypothesis" in China, which does not conform to the scientific concept and cannot form a * * * language with other adjacent sciences. At present, basic accounting and behavioral accounting in China have their own explanations of accounting subjects; There are also great differences in the interpretation and understanding of disciplines between management science and accounting, which seriously hinders the communication between disciplines. Through the above analysis, according to the viewpoint of materialist dialectical epistemology, we can make a track summary of the internal structure of accounting discipline. Accounting subjects are people and organizations with certain professional knowledge and skills who directly reflect and control the movement of capital value in the process of social reproduction, that is, "accountants". "Accounting personnel" is a general term, which mainly refers to the personnel and organizations who participate in and directly carry out accounting practice activities. "Accounting" in a broad sense also includes accounting academic workers. The change of accounting objects and the compilation of accounting history should be carried out by them, and they are the real accounting subjects. They are the most active and active factors in accounting practice. Economic entity is only the accounting environment, the space and place of economic activities, which belongs to the external conditions for the formation and development of accounting behavior and cannot be the main body of accounting work. The conclusion that accounting is the accounting subject cannot deny the existence of other subjects. We believe that the owners and creditors are the investment subjects, the enterprises are the business subjects, "accounting" is the accounting subjects, and other information users are the receiving subjects. We can't confuse subjects of different natures. The subject embodies an equal inter-subject relationship, which is interrelated in the whole process of accounting activities, and its subjectivity has different connotations. Compared with philosophical intersubjectivity, accounting intersubjectivity has its particularity and cannot be simplified mechanically. The intersubjectivity of philosophy is mainly aimed at the communication between people in real life. Its essence is the relationship between individuals and others, between individuals and society, and between individuals and classes. It mainly solves the ethical problems in interpersonal communication, so it is a kind of communicative rationality. The intersubjectivity of accounting is not a simple problem of realistic communication between people. Accounting is facing an asymmetric communication across time and space, which is a kind of communication type with time and space dislocation, that is, the non-* * communication between accounting subjects and other related subjects. Accounting also belongs to the humanities, and its essence is "understanding", which refers to the language world composed of symbols, not the real world. In view of the above characteristics of accounting, the intersubjectivity of accounting at least includes the following points: 1, and the subject nature of accounting is intersubjectivity; 2. The methodology of accounting is inter-subjective; 3. Accounting's understanding of economic activities embodies a kind of intersubjectivity. According to the theory of accounting information system, accounting, as an information processing system, mainly has three operational links: data input, processing and information output. Combined with the characteristics of accounting intersubjectivity, this system can be extended to: objective world → enterprise → original data of transactions and events → accounting subjects → final accounting information → information users. However, the description of the accounting process in the above system ignores that accounting activities are an asymmetric communication across time and space, and business entities, accounting entities and collection entities are at different communication levels. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish the activities of different subjects according to the characteristics of intersubjectivity and conduct research at different levels. The economic activities of the business entity and the accounting activities of the accounting entity are not a continuum, and there is a break between them, which is caused by the transfer procedure of the original data and vouchers of the enterprise business; The accounting activities of accounting subjects and the reading of accounting information by information users are not a continuum, which is caused by the lag of accounting information release and other reasons. Therefore, the above system can be reformed. First, the first level involved in accounting activities is the "objective world-enterprise-business raw data" model with enterprises as the core. Enterprises obtain information from the objective world and generate a large number of raw data through transactions or events; The second level is the model of "accounting raw data-accounting personnel-accounting information" with accounting subject as the core, and "accounting personnel" reproduces the whole picture of enterprise economic activities from accounting raw data. In the first-level relationship, the enterprise is undoubtedly in the main position. It screens a large number of original data obtained in the objective world, selectively extracts relevant data, and forms accounting original data through preset data and voucher transfer procedures. Undoubtedly, an enterprise is the main body of business, and the transactions or events with the objective world are its business objects, and the original business data reflecting the economic activities of the enterprise is one of the contents of the business results of the enterprise. In the second relationship, "accounting" begins with the original accounting data. Although this original data comes from the enterprise, due to the distance between time and space, it has certain deviation from the original business data of the enterprise, that is, there are both quantitative deviation and qualitative deviation. It is in this sense that we distinguish between "business raw data" related to enterprises and "accounting raw data" related to accounting entities. The third level is the mode of "reporting accounting information-social public-objective world" with accounting information users as the core. In this relationship, the public can be divided into two categories, one is the ordinary users of accounting information, and the other is various subjects directly related to the interests of enterprises, including business owners, creditors and other stakeholders. They have a feedback effect on the accounting information reported by the accounting subject, but this feedback effect is the reaction of the object to the subject. Under normal circumstances, it is manifested in the continuous revision and improvement of accounting standards and accounting systems. This reaction also shows that accounting subjectivity includes passivity besides subjective initiative. The exertion of accounting subjectivity is not only restricted by the former enterprise subject, but also restricted by the latter accepting subject. In the process of traditional accounting activities, the reason why "accounting" has no position is because enterprises occupy the position of accounting subjectivity, thus dissolving the play of accounting subjectivity. Accounting entity and legal entity Accounting entity refers to a specific unit or organization served by accounting work. Accounting subject is the basis of daily accounting treatment. Accounting subject is different from legal subject. Generally speaking, the legal subject must be the accounting subject, but the accounting subject is not necessarily the legal subject. For example, taking an enterprise group as an example, the parent company has several subsidiaries, and the enterprise group conducts business activities under the unified leadership of the parent company. Although the parent company and subsidiaries are different legal entities (the parent company and subsidiaries are also accounting entities respectively), in order to fully reflect the financial status, operating results and cash flow of an enterprise group, it is necessary to take this enterprise group as an accounting entity and prepare consolidated accounting statements (the enterprise group here is not a legal entity). For another example, independent accounting workshops and business departments can also reflect their financial status as an accounting entity, but they are not legal entities.