What is so creative about creative accounting? a discussion of its techniques, motivations and mitigations

Creative accounting leverages the flexibility of accounting standards to manipulate financial statements to meet managerial goals such as hitting profit targets or sustaining investor confidence rather than reflecting true economic reality (Peta, 2025; Sartika et al., 2026). As outlined by Blue et al. (2025), it encompasses ten key techniques ranging from off-balance sheet financing and revenue manipulation to stock valuation changes that, over time, can gradually normalize within an organization and transform discretionary accounting choices into routine standard practices.