Research On NPO Accounting Theory System In China

With the development of public service, the number of Not-for-Profit Organizations(NPOs)has greatly increased, and they have become a social force very closely related to people's life. Meanwhile, NPOs in China are lack of the excellent and efficient management and are faced with many problems, such as the shortage of funds, the lack of capacity, the irrational structure and imperfect competition and supervision mechanism. Nowadays, the problems which exist in the theory and practice are not only out of harmony with the current vigorous realization, but also unfavorable for the development of NPOs in the future. The significance of the research of the NPO accounting theory system is below. From the theoretical perspective, this research can rich accounting theory and fill some gaps of the accounting theory; it can improve accounting theory to build scientific NPO accounting theory system; from the viewpoint of development, the NPOs'unique character leads to constructing their own theoretical system. From the practical perspective, this research is necessary for the market economy innovation and NPOs'efficiency management; the raising level of people's life requires higher quality of social welfare service; and it is also necessary for Harmonious Society Composing and Scientific Development Perspective. This paper, based on domestic and foreign NPO accounting theory, study the problems of NPO accounting theory system. The paper included 10 parts. Part 1 explains the background of the paper and provides domestic and foreign development, research significance and research focus of NPO accounting theory. Part 2 summarizes the basic concepts of NPO, and then the paper describes the concepts of NPO in all directions and defines NPO from 5 perspectives of theoretical basis, Concepts distinction, organization characteristics, organization classification and management and development problems of NPOs by order. Part 3 distinguishes the same points and differences between NPOs and Enterprises and prepares for the accounting theory system construction behind. Part 4 demonstrates the framework of NPO accounting theory system and the logical relationship among main contents. Part 5 explains that the target of NPO accounting, which is starting point of the following contents, is the combination with stewardship and decision usefulness. Part 6 is the designation of NPO accounting standards system building. Part 7 studies NPO accounting calculation basis and discusses it by the example of assets and liabilities. Part 8 is NPO accounting reporting. The information exposure of NPOs should be leaded by performance evaluation and abide by the principle of full exposure. Part 9 provides budget management in NPO. Accounting and budget should be two side of the same system and explain each other. Part 10 combines NPO strategic mission with performance evaluation and designs the framework of NPO performance evaluation system. In a word, on one hand, on the basis of the target of NPO accounting, NPO accounting theory system in China can learn from the contents of enterprises accounting theory system and be combined with the long-term basic theoretical research results in China, such as accounting standards, accounting measurement and reporting, accounting calculation basis and so on. On the other hand, the paper must considerate NPOs'personality, establish accounting theory system which is suitable for NPO management mechanism and then put budget management and performance evaluation as the contents of accounting theory system into the framework of the whole system. At that time, the function of accounting will be expanded to pre-action and after-action, so it will become integrate NPO accounting theory system, which covers the whole process of pre-action management, on-going management and after-action management.