Contabilidad socio-ambiental: conceptos contables relevantes para la dimensión social y los marcos conceptuales normativos

Abstract

The paradigm of sustainable development takes into account the need for a balance between social, environmental and economic and accounting information (clear precise, methodical, systematic and evaluable) becomes indispensable for all economic organizations (public, private and mixed, with and without for profit) in order to know and self-evaluate the social responsibility assumed, promote improvements and manage sustainability. By synergizing the paradigm of sustainable, or sustainable, and traditional accounting doctrine, it helps to adapt certain particularities of the parameters that define the generic economic-financial accounting model to obtain and provide economic, social and environmental knowledge.
It is considered that the patrimonial information with a financial economic approach is very important for the entities, but at present it becomes scarce when having undergone a series of socio-cultural transformations. They have influenced the evolution of the social disciplines and therefore in accounting. One of the ways to meet this new demand for information can be achieved by complementing the information provided by traditional accounting with which provides the socio-environmental accounting specialty.
Although it may be considered as an advance from the FACPCE the acceptance of the relevance of the economic-social-environmental accounting information or Social Balance, which includes the sustainability reports, it is understood that there are still several questions to be resolved in order to establish bases Conceptual aspects of social aspects of development that, beyond economic and financial, help avoid discrepancies and contradictions about key accounting concepts and their relationships. Among such questions is the following: What aspects of the social should contain the key concepts of accounting with a socio-environmental focus? Is it possible to maintain the systematicity provided by the relationships between the key concepts of assets, liabilities and net worth from the economic-financial to the social with a socio-environmental focus? How can the term socio-environmental income be elucidated?
Given these questions, among others, it is the general objective of this paper to contribute to updating, specifying and systematizing relevant knowledge of accounting discourse in order to perfect the socio-environmental accounting approach or specialty, considering differences and similarities with the economic-financial approach traditional. It is the specific objective to contribute to the understanding of key concepts of the social dimension of socio-environmental accounting.
In order to fulfill the proposed objectives, we first carry out a search for concepts and definitions generated in different areas of knowledge of social assets, social liabilities, social assets, social capital, social income, among others. From the search results we select terms and perform critical and comparative analyzes. We select and perform a comparative analysis between the concepts and definitions previously considered with the meaning of equivalent terms contained in Technical Resolution (RT) 16 and the Conceptual Framework of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We detected similarities and differences. Subsequently, we make inferences and infer conclusions that allow us to meet the proposed objectives.
From the developments and considerations made it possible to infer about the importance of the social from the financial patrimony and its variations as well as from the socio-environmental approach, both are interwoven in a mutual interaction. It is also possible to conclude on the need to deepen the key concepts of accounting for the socio-environmental approach. The socio-environmental approach would allow for social and environmental accounting reports of social as well as environmental aspects, considering "Heritage and impacts in a broad sense", classified as Social Assets, Social Liabilities and Net Equity, using Different units of relevant measures and taking into account a "Socio-environmental Capital" to be maintained.
It should be clarified that the present one intends to be the beginning of future developments that contribute to complement the elaborations made for the socio-environmental accounting specialty with the aim of satisfying needs of social accounting information, integrated to the environmental. We interpret that deepening the key accounting terms for the social system would lead to systematic and systematic, mainly quantified and evaluable reports of the organizations to which they belong and interact with them, with similar qualitative components to the traditional economic-financial financial statements.