Member-only story
What Accounting and Christianity Have in Common
And how that saved the New York Met.
Christianity has rules. Guidelines. A book of stories, explanations, footnotes, and interpretations. And a rule-keeping mechanism; an entity who those following the rules look to. The Vatican.
Accounting is the same. [kinda — in case a devout christian is reading this!].
Accounting has rules. We call them standards. A book of guidelines. Stories in the forms of exhibits. Lots of footnotes. And many many interpretations.
It also has a rule-keeping entity. In the US, this is the FASB — Financial Accounting Standards Board. A regulator whose job is to make sure the rules are being followed, the rules are up to date with ‘cool’ new life evolutions, and continue monitoring exceptions made to unique situtations when the exact rule does not apply. Just like Christianity.
This is why Malcolm Gladwell compared the FASB to the Vatican in one of his podcast’s episodes. He even attached financial statements to the episode notes — now that, is a proud moment for an accountant like me.
It is also how he uncovered one such unique situation outside of the rules, a shocking fact about museums not even many of us accountants knew.
