> Expense and reimbursement policy is another source of variation, a wild amount. Just nuts and bolts about how you book, are all different. Do you use a corpor

> Expense and reimbursement policy is another source of variation, a wild amount. Just nuts and bolts about how you book, are all different. Do you use a corporate credit card or get reimbursed? >Nevermind entertainment policy. You’re describing incredibly superficial differences because you’re used to a world where businesses all operate very similarly. Those “broad generalizations” like GAAP you hand-waved over did not use to be standard. One of the early appeals of a company listed by the NYSE was an attempt to standardize some of that so you could even try to guess what you were buying into. That still had to be tweaked after Enron with SOX. The fact that you can generally count on there being an HR or accounting department/role at companies is a form of this standardization.