SEGMENT ACCOUNTING INFORMATION FOR THE ACTIVITY OF THE ENTERPRISE – SIGNIFICANCE AND KEY PROBLEMS RELATED TO ITS CREATION

Abstract

The increasing globalization of the world economy provides more and more opportunities for modern enterprises to diversify their activities by combining operations in various business spheres and in different geographical regions of the world. This, in turn, leads to an increase in the significance of segment accounting information for the various activities being developed, both for the purposes of enterprise management and for external users of information from its financial statements. The main goal of this scientific article is to systematize the key problems related to the creation of segment accounting information for the activities of enterprises carrying out diverse business operations in different geographical territories on a global scale. The specific tasks that are determined to be solved in order to achieve the main goal are as follows:  to argue the growing importance of segment accounting information for the activity in two aspects - for internal management purposes within the enterprise and for external users of financial information about its activities;  to examine the requirements of the current accounting legislation regulating the creation of segment accounting information;  to emphasize the fundamental problems arising in the creation of segment accounting information;  to highlight the advantages of the segmentation approach based on the internal management organizational structure of the enterprise. An important role in achieving the goal and tasks in the study of the issues in the article is played by the application of the systematic and historical approach, as well as the methods of observation, comparison, analysis, synthesis, inductive and deductive methods, etc. The historical approach is applied in the study of the development of accounting legislation over the years in accordance with the growing needs of segment accounting information for the activities of enterprises. Through the systematic approach, the segments are considered as constituent components of the activity carried out, and the segment information as a constituent part of the accounting information for the overall activity of the enterprise. The significance of segment information disclosed by enterprises is confirmed by the results of numerous studies worldwide, which show that for users of financial statements it is one of the most important disclosures. In today's global world, segment financial disclosure is considered a critical area that is constantly in the focus of the attention of regulatory authorities, the enterprises-compilers of the financial statements and the users of the information from them