THE ACCOUNTING PROFIT – A MEASURE OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BUSINESS ENTITY

Profit is believed to be the main indicator for measuring the performance of the business entity, but performance cannot come down to the mere identification of the economic profit. Profit is a value that has been created for the business entity while performance is a reference term used by the managers and employees of a company. Economic performance means that the attained results should exceed the defined objectives, the competition and the results arrived at during the previous years. The first stage of our research will focus on ascertaining whether the performance of the business entity is influenced by the moment when the economic profit is recognized. A second stage will comprise an analysis of the effects of recognising R&D costs as assets on the economic profit and on the performance of the business entity. The third stage of our research consists in proving that, while the net worth can be altered through creative accounting techniques, the economic performance stays the same. The importance of the going concern, prudence and time period principles for the measurement of the accounting profit and for the economic performance of the company is highlighted towards the end of the paper.