Accounting standards and variance in their application is one of the current topics in economic research. Standardization in accounting represents the accepted organization of financial reporting and being aware of it contributes to making effective business decisions. The purpose of the study is to present the applicable accounting standards for publicly traded companies and for enterprises which do not issue securities, from a global standpoint in general, and for Bulgaria in particular. The results are based on data about the monitored jurisdictions of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and Bulgaria. The research methodology is based on the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization, study of literature and empirical data. The assertions are that the applicable accounting standards have a theoretical nature of working principles, rules, and approaches to financial reporting, and that basic accounting standards are elementary components of methodological accounting tools. It has been established that publicly traded companies apply the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in almost 75% of the states worldwide, while enterprises which do not issue securities adopt IFRS for small and medium-sized enterprises or national accounting standards as a basis for accounting, which constitutes grounds to conclude, that the differences in accounting across the world are not large, and that it is appropriate to perceive the applicable accounting standards as a macroeconomic characteristic. In Bulgaria, the standardization and legal regulation of accounting are in accordance with internationally accepted regulations and established practices of the European Union. The establishment and adoption of global accounting standards is a contribution of accounting to the modern development of mankind.
