 Hello, in this lecture we will define consistency concept. According to fundamental accounting principles while 22nd edition the definition of consistency concept is principle that prescribes use of the same accounting method or methods over time so that financial statements are comparable across periods. So a consistency method will be a method in which it prescribes that we use the similar methods, the similar estimates, the same method, the same estimates over time. We're not changing up the methods, we're not changing the estimates, the reason being that we want consistency to help us to be able to compare financial statements over time. If we change estimates, then the comparability of the financial statements from year one to year two, for example, will not be as good. For example, if we made an assumption in something like inventory, inventory an area where we're going to have cost flow assumptions where allowed to have different estimates, different cost flow assumptions, if we first assume that the inventory will be FIFO, that's what we implement first in first out, meaning the first units we purchased are going to be the first units we sell in terms of an assumption. If that's what we do for year one, the consistency principle would say, hey, we should really do that for year two, we should really do that for year three, we should not be changing from FIFO to, for example, LIFO in year two or to specific identification or to average. All methods are appropriate, we could use any of those methods, but once we pick one, we want to be consistent. Why? Because if we had first in first out at the beginning in year one and switched to last in first out, then it's going to cause timing differences within the income statement. So if we compare the income statement for year one to the income statement in year two, it's going to be distorted if we change methods, estimating methods such as the inventory cost flow assumption from FIFO to LIFO.