what are some critiques of accounting principles 
critics of principles based accounting systems say they can give companies far too much freedom and do not prescribe transparency they believe because companies do not have to follow specific rules that have been set out their reporting may provide an inaccurate picture of their financial health in the case of rules based methods like gaap complex rules can cause unnecessary complications in the preparation of financial statements these critics claim having strict rules means that companies must spend an unfair amount of their resources to comply with industry standards the bottom lineaccounting principles are rules and guidelines that companies must abide by when reporting financial data which method a company chooses at the outset or changes to at a later date must make sound financial sense whether it s gaap in the u s or ifrs elsewhere the overarching goal of these principles is to boost transparency and make it easier for investors to compare the financial statements of different companies without these rules and standards publicly traded companies would likely present their financial information in a way that inflates their numbers and makes their trading performance look better than it actually was if companies were able to pick and choose what information to disclose it would be extremely unhelpful for investors 