What Are the Proponents of the Integral and Discrete Views?
• Proponents of the integral view argue that unique interim expense recognition procedures are necessary to avoid fluctuations in period-to-period results that might be misleading to financial statement users. Using the integral view results in interim earnings which are indicative of annual earnings and, thus, arguably more useful for predictive purposes. • Proponents of the discrete view argue that the smoothing of interim results for purposes of forecasting annual earnings has undesirable effects. For example, a turning point during the year in an earnings trend could be obscured if smoothing techniques implied by the integral view approach were to be employed.
