A customer has filed a suit against a trader who has supplied poor quality goods to him. It is known that the court judgment will be in favour of the customer and the trader will be required to pay the damages. However, the amount of legal damages is not known with certainity. The accounting year has already been ended and the books are now finalised to ascertain true profit or loss. The accountant of the trader has advised him not to consider the expected loss on account of payment of legal damages because the amount is not certain and the final judgment of the court is not yet out. Do you think the accountant is right in his approach.

Ruchica’s father is the sole proprietor of ‘Friends Gifts’, a firm engaged in the sale of gift items. In the process of preparing financial statements, the accountant of the firm Mr. Goyal fell ill and had to proceed on leave. Ruchica’s father was urgently in need of the statements as these had to be submitted to the bank, in pursuance of a loan of ₹ 5 lakh applied for the expansion of the business of the firm. Ruchica who is studying Accounting in her school, volunteered to complete the work. On scrutinising the accounts, the banker found that the value of building bought a few years back for ₹ 7 lakh has been shown in the books at ₹ 20 lakh, which is its present market value. Similarly, as compared to the last year, the method of valuation of stock was changed, resulting in value of goods to be about 15 per cent higher. Also, the whole amount of ₹ 70,000 spent on purchase of personal computer (expected life 5 years) during the year had been charged to the profits of the current year. The banker did not rely on the financial data provided by Ruchica. Advise Ruchica for the mistakes committed by her in the preparation of financial statements in the context of basic concepts in accounting.