The Conceptual Framework of Resource Accounting

Abstract

This article explains the underlying principles of resource accounting in UK central government and some of the theoretical and practical complications involved in meeting the requirement that it should be based on company accounting. The author argues that the principles of resource accounting are very different from those underlying company accounting, and that accounting for the effects of changes in the general level of prices might be being stifled only because there is no parallel in company accounting. The implication is that competition will arise between resource accounting and company accounting for dominance.