Comparison of the General-Purpose Water Accounting System and Financial Accounting

Water accounting is inspired by financial accounting, which is grounded in the principle of “we cannot plan and manage what we cannot measure, such as providing information about income and expenses.” The purpose of this study is to compare water accounting and financial accounting in terms of their content, standards, objectives, and reporting frameworks, aiming to highlight the similarities and differences between the two systems. In this study, the Australian General Purpose Water Accounting System was selected, which defends, applies, and presents important standards, registration, and reporting structures related to financial accounting, similar to financial accounting but differentiated from it. In this study, the document examination method was used to determine the similarities and differences between the two systems. Research data were analyzed according to the stages of the document examination method. The account structures, elements, standards, and contents of the two systems were compared. In light of the findings, the format of reports in both systems, the terminology structures used in the accounts, the principle-based standards employed, the fact that the reports are publicly accessible and presented with similar principles, the presentation of information contained in the reports through integrated and standardized formats, and the conducting of audits for report assurance were identified as similarities for providing quantitative and qualitative information about the reported unit for informative users.