Accounting as an information basis for reflecting the social component of the company: modern problems and past experience of building accounting in the system of Western Ukrainian cooperation during the times of Austria-Hungary and interwar Poland

Abstract

The importance and existing problems of recording information about the social component in the enterprise’s activities by the accounting system are discussed. The views of scientists on the disposition of «social accounting» as a self-contained type or an accentuated component of the accounting system are analyzed.
 The author has formulated the position that the introduction into practice of the basic provisions of socially responsible business and new requirements from civil society to the activities of companies require a reliable formalized information base, which can be formed in the general accounting system by highlighting financial and economic operations related to social and public criteria.
 The existing practice of reporting (public presentation of information) by domestic enterprises about the financial and economic operations of a social nature carried out by them is presented and critically evaluated. It has been proven that the publicly presented non-financial and integrated reporting of Ukrainian enterprises with its information array only reveals facts about social expenses and income, but does not contain information about the formation of social capital (acquiring a higher image position by corporate entities).
 The expediency of turning to the experience of the past has been argued and certain aspects of taking into account the social component in the construction of accounting practice within the framework of the association of Ukrainian cooperatives, which can provide solutions to some aspects of modern problems, have been revealed. Based on the application of a new historical-institutional methodological approach for profile research and the method of historical-retrospective analysis, an analysis of approaches to the reflection of the social component in the accounting system for the needs of managing the integral institutional complex of Ukrainian cooperation in Galicia in the period of the second half of the 19th and up to the middle of the 20th century was carried out.
 The formulated proposals mostly relate to the expected organization in the post-war period of economic entities within the framework of professional associations, industry associations or unions, which will require coordination and interaction among themselves in the implementation of processes of a social nature.