Improvement of the essence of the category «economic benefit» and its accounting, as a basis for determining the income and expenses of enterprises and ways of their optimization

Abstract

The categories «income» and «expenses» were considered in the context of NP(S)BO 1, emphasizing the lack of a clear definition of the term «economic benefits». The need to specify it for unambiguous application of accounting standards is indicated. The proposed definition of economic benefit: «it is any benefit that an economic entity receives from its activity, which can be expressed as received money, various benefits (material, immaterial, social), etc.». This definition emphasizes the expediency of taking into account not only material, but also non-material benefits received by the enterprise. This corresponds to the modern realities of business, in which intangible assets play an increasingly important role. A classification of economic benefits has been developed according to various characteristics, namely: according to the form of expression (potential and actual), according to the time aspect of occurrence (short-term and long-term), according to the possibility of measurement in monetary units (objective and subjective). Based on the proposed classification of types of economic benefits, it is recommended to introduce additional sub-accounts to the Chart of Accounts No. 291 for accounting of economic benefits. This will make it possible to more reliably determine the moment of receiving economic benefits, which affects the reliability of determining the company’s income and expenses. Economic benefit is the ultimate goal of the enterprise, and income and expenses are its main components. Therefore, optimizing the amounts of income and expenses is an important task that allows the enterprise to increase its profitability, as well as other forms of economic benefit, such as increasing the market value of the enterprise, increasing competitiveness, improving the quality of products or services, etc. The «Economic Navigator» model for optimizing the amounts of income and expenses of enterprises is proposed for use. The model is based on a developed algorithm of actions, which includes specific strategies to improve the financial performance of enterprises and is relevant for all enterprises, regardless of their size, but may be more useful for micro and small enterprises, which usually have limited resources and a smaller number personnel for analysis and development of optimization strategies. The success of the model application depends on many factors, such as the quality and completeness of the performed analysis, the choice of the right optimization strategies and the implementation of the planned measures. However, even if the company cannot fully implement all the recommendations of the model, it can still help it achieve certain results in the field of revenue and cost optimization.