The main content of the historical cost principle is that all kinds of property and materials obtained by enterprises should be recorded as the original cost, that is, the actual cost, when they are purchased or built, and this should be used as the basis for sharing and converting them into expense costs. When the price changes, its book value shall not be adjusted unless otherwise stipulated by the state. Pricing by actual cost can prevent arbitrariness, and make accounting information true and reliable, easy to understand and compare.

The historical cost principle is mainly used to determine the entry amount of property and materials.

For example, an enterprise bought an office building on June 65438+1 October1day, 2008, and spent a total of 5 million yuan. Then in the bookkeeping, according to its actual expenditure of 5 million yuan. Suppose that the market price of the building has reached 654.38+million yuan in 2065,438+03,65,438+0/0. At this time, the original recorded value is still not adjusted, but the actual cost of acquiring the building (that is, historical cost) is still on the books. It should be noted that according to this principle, it is not absolutely impossible to adjust the book value. For example, if an enterprise intends to auction off a building, it is necessary to evaluate its assets, which is a special case and can be adjusted.