Profit interpretation in the accounting and information support of enterprises

Abstract

Introduction. Both the national legislative and regulatory framework and the scientific economic literature employ different definitions of “profit”. That’s causes some problems for management in understanding this term and looking for ways to use it in accounting and information practice for making effective management decisions regarding the formation and distribution of financial results.The analysis of the concept “profit” in existing definitions by scientists and its agreed upon usage with accounting regulators for compiling reports information is the target of the research in the article.Methods. The methods of analogy, comparison, concretization and abstraction, analysis and synthesis, classification and grouping, structural-logical and tabular were used here.The work of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, domestic legislation, as well as our own experience and observations are used as an information base for research.The results. The main theories of profit are analyzed, and a personal view of their features is provided. The definition of the concept of “profit” by domestic scientists is compared in terms of its characteristic properties: sources of formation, directions of usage, and calculation formulas. I gave my own definition of the concept of “profit”. Also, I propose to expand the term “net profit” to include “profit for distribution”.Prospects. Further research should be aimed at harmonizing the terminology regarding financial results, taking into account classical economic theories, modern scientific developments, and the current practice of determining profit based on accounting and reporting data in order to most fully satisfy the information needs of various users.