- Economics is an art not a science
- End of year accounts are an art not a science.
- Computer programming is an art not a science.
These things being an art means choosing what is best to do – applying principles – rather than following a set of rules … and working backwards from that previous point: one needs to have a vision – and to understand the value of each overall process – before being able decide on principles that apply to them.
End of year accounts are a particularly good example: there used to be a thing where (particularly as a small business) you could fill in a few boxes and complete your accounts but now there are literally hundreds of boxes on the HMRC forms (to cover all eventualities) and the skill is in knowing which boxes can be safely ignored.
The language used is incredibly complex and not for the faint-hearted so specialists are needed to interpret the forms. This is not a complaint – I understand why HMRC have had to do this – but the outcome is something that is overly complex for the vast majority of businesses and therefore costs an unfeasible amount of money and involves an unacceptable loss of control (e.g. someone else’s principles are applied – in this case: an accountant’s).
If one tries to complete the forms oneself they initially appear to be impenetrable. The only way I can see that it can be done is to decide in advance how the accounts should eventually appear (I would hope that “fair & reasonable” is the ideal – this will mean different things to different people) – then apply the principles one has decided on to any work done on the accounts.