Economic descriptions of enterprises by accountants are based on asset valuations. The usefulness of any valuation method depends upon the scenario in which the valuation takes place. There are two primary scenarios. A buy and sale setting where a single transaction is concerned, and a going concern setting where valuation is made on the assumption that the asset is controlled over a period of time.

Economic concepts such as capital, profit, liquidity or the growth of an enterprise are made concrete by accounting measures. Despite their different constructs, all these measures are constructed in a similar way. They are based on stocks or flows of goods that are measured in monetary terms. The concept of an asset embraces in a narrow sense stocks of goods with a positive value only, such as tangible assets, intangible assets or financial assets; however, it is often expanded to include liabilities or negative assets as well. In accounting terms, the fact that an asset has value derives from the fact that it will provide future benefits and/or disadvantages to the economic entity controlling the asset. Valuation allows the aggregation of different benefits and advantages and thereby allows more complex measures for describing the situation of the business.