In the preparation of financial statements, there are some legal accounting techniques that can affect the presentation of a company's financial situation. Although these techniques are legal in themselves, they may be used to mislead investors and analysts. Common techniques include: 1. **Timing of revenue recognition**: Companies can adjust the timing of revenue recognition within the scope of applicable accounting standards to increase revenue in a certain reporting period. However, this must be done under the premise of complying with relevant accounting standards. 2. **Inventory valuation method**: Using different inventory valuation methods (such as first-in, first-out or last-in, first-out) can have different effects on the company's costs and profits. 3. **Depreciation method and period**: Choosing different depreciation methods (such as straight-line method or accelerated depreciation method) and depreciation period will affect net asset value and current expenses, thereby affecting net profit and balance sheet. 4. **Bad debt provision and inventory impairment provision**: Management's estimates of bad debt and inventory impairment provisions are subjective and can affect expenses in the income statement. 5. **One-time items and non-recurring gains and losses**: Sometimes companies classify certain expenses or income as non-recurring items to highlight the performance of their recurring operations. 6. **Expense capitalization**: Some expenses can be capitalized (recorded as assets) rather than expensed, thereby deferring the amortization of costs to future periods. Although these measures comply with accounting standards in certain circumstances, if they are overused or financial results are intentionally manipulated, they may violate the principle of fairness in financial reporting. Therefore, investors and analysts generally need to interpret financial statements with caution and combine company disclosures, market conditions and other independent analyses to assess the true financial condition of the company. Companies have a responsibility to ensure the transparency and fairness of their financial reports, and experienced investors and analysts will pay attention to possible signs of financial reporting manipulation.