ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Barry Barnes's finitism throws light on a domain quite different from that in which it was developed: accounting, and specifically financial reporting. It then explores the main tenets of finitism, and gives a couple of simple illustrations of their application to rule following. The chapter discusses that finitism offers an appropriate viewpoint from which to analyze financial reporting. It illustrates the analysis by drawing on an empirical case study of accounting and financial reporting in a UK mid-market company. An area in which finitism is of particular importance both in social theory and in the case of accounting is following a rule. For a listed company in the European Union, the relevant rules are those of the International Financial Reporting Standards' (IFRSs) and International Accounting Standards' (IASs). Accounting is crucial to the economic governance of modern societies, but it cannot be made orderly by meanings and rules alone.
