‘It’s essential to have a common accounting language’

Louis Ménard, FCPA, was not too long ago inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in recognition of his substantial contributions to the occupation (Image equipped)

Louis Ménard, FCPA, put in his occupation as a professor in the Office of Accounting Sciences of the University of Management Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

For approximately three decades, he has applied his one of a kind skills in accounting and economical terminology investigation to generate, as major creator, three editions of the Dictionnaire de la comptabilité et de la gestion financière, an accounting and monetary administration dictionary that has turn into an invaluable reference operate for the occupation. Through the French-talking accounting world, the publication is simply just referred to as “le Ménard.”

A short while ago, Ménard was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in recognition of his appreciable contributions to the job. We questioned him to inform us more about his enthusiasm for accounting and the importance of shared language.

CPA Canada: Dictionary authors are seldom CPAs. How did you get started out in this area?
Louis Ménard (LM): My desire in using the right word in fact goes back again a very long way—especially since it has always bothered me when industry experts use jargon or technical language when talking to non-professionals. Of course, it’s fantastic when they use it amid themselves.

Prior to I commenced my 30-year vocation at UQAM, I labored for four decades at Commission des valeurs mobilières du Québec (now the Autorité des marchés financiers). Right from the time I started there, operating towards bettering the good quality of monetary reporting in the French language grew to become my mission, because free of charge-flowing info is critical to economical marketplaces. Corporations need to converse evidently, with a concentration on good quality and consistency.

CPA Canada: Could you convey to us additional about the Accounting and Monetary Management Dictionary and how it arrived to be?
LM: It’s not the only dictionary of its variety on the market but, with no seeking to brag, I can say it is the most extensive.

It was initial posted nearly 30 many years in the past as the result of a joint exertion led by a legacy physique of CPA Canada (the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants), in collaboration with the Institut des Réviseurs d’Entreprises (Belgium), the Ordre des Gurus-Comptables and the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes (France).

In all, I have been liable for three editions (1994, 2004 and 2011) and 3 updates (2006, 2014 and 2020). The newest version, which is offered on line, involves nearly 9,000 key entries, with 21,400 French terms and 16,600 English phrases.

CPA Canada: There are less French speakers in Canada than there are in other nations around the world these kinds of as France. Did this pose a dilemma when selecting wherever to develop the dictionary?
LM: I was astonished at first when our French co-authors, who arrive from a country with 65 million people, agreed to have the Dictionnaire made right here, but they showed humility and respect and regarded our high amount of experience in the area—something I am even now grateful for today.

We all agreed—Canadians, French and Belgians—that we required to harmonize the language applied in accounting, financial administration and related disciplines. It was not just a matter of speaking the similar language, but of adopting a widespread language in once-a-year experiences, for illustration, as we do for expectations.

CPA Canada: What has modified from one particular edition to the next?
LM: There have been various waves. At a single issue, there were all the conditions similar to globalization that essential to be extra, then IT, figures, cryptocurrencies and so on.

The most current edition also incorporates new terminology applied in numerous benchmarks, this sort of as the International Economic Reporting Benchmarks (IFRS) of the Intercontinental Accounting Benchmarks Board (IASB), in Accounting Requirements for Private Enterprises (ASPE) and other Canadian criteria, as well as the Canadian Auditing Criteria (CAS) and Canadian Conventional on High-quality Regulate (CSQC) and the equivalent worldwide benchmarks of the Worldwide Auditing and Assurance Expectations Board (IAASB).

In addition, techniques have improved. We have provided these that are frequently utilized, but also people that have been topic to criticism or uncovered to be flawed. We didn’t do that in the initially editions. My collaborators and I wished the dictionary to be practical, so that a human being seeking for an respond to would locate it.

Just acquire the word dépense in French, for illustration (“expense” or “expenditure” in English). Everyone is familiar with that a dépense is an outflow of money. Yet, in accounting, the word has long been utilised to include prices that are not outflows of dollars, these as amortization or poor debts. So, we replaced dépense with charge.

CPA Canada: How have your study solutions progressed?
LM: At first, our operate concerned an exhaustive look for of academic and terminology guides, English-French and American dictionaries, laws, organization books, tutorial or specialist journals, databases and so on.

Then the world wide web arrived together, which created research much easier because you can research for any expression and straight away see how generally it is used. You then make your mind up on which is the best use for the e-book, holding in mind that there is no issue in making an attempt to invent new words when there are currently various present types that are right.

CPA Canada: You also had a aspect in one more properly-recognised dictionary. Can you notify us a tiny about it?
LM: You are referring to the Dictionary of Derivatives and Other Money Instruments (2009), which I co-directed and drafted. The strategy for this dictionary arrived from the Autorité des marchés financiers (fiscal markets authority) and was posted by the Ordre des CPA du Québec—it is obtainable cost-free of cost on their web site. Although it involves only 700 entries, it discounts with a specialised industry that is rich in new terminology for which it was needed to uncover the proper expressions in French.

CPA Canada: Your appointment to the Accounting Hall of Fame is the end result of a extensive academic career. How do you see it?
LM: I experience privileged to have obtained this honour, but I have constantly worked as element of a group. My colleagues and I begun in this spot back in the 1980s and 1990s to guarantee that college students had accessibility to more French-language sources for highly developed accounting programs and it was not uncomplicated. At the time, a lot of pupils experienced to go through U.S. textbooks or variations produced in English Canada, even though number of of them mastered the language. I felt it was essential for them to have entry to the very same sources as their English-speaking colleagues, specially when it came to getting ready for the Widespread Last Examination (CFE).

Now, when I glance at the ongoing good results of the Dictionnaire, it undoubtedly indicates that the need to have for significant-excellent and regular terminology in accounting and finance is however extremely significantly there.

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