Manipulation of financial information which is called by several terms such as earnings management, income smoothing, creative accounting practices, aggressive accounting or account manipulation, prevents the allocation of resources in the most efficient areas in the economy. The scope of this paper is to relate the causes, the main motivations behind their application, the objectives, the methods and the consequences of manipulation in financial reporting. Creative accounting is not a new technique, but it can be seen as a costly one. Businesses feel the pressure to appear profitable in order to attract investors and resources, but deceptive or fraudulent accounting practices often conduct to drastic consequences.

creative accounting, window dressing, fraud, account manipulation