In this issue of this journal, Christopher Nobes comments on my classification of accounting systems [Accounting Organizations and Society (2001) 26, 327]. He concludes that the classification is unsound because the nature of the data made them unsuitable and they contained errors. I took as a source for my selection process a database that reflects the decisions of the EU directives and the Transnational Accounting (TRANSACC) editors to describe important recognition and valuation rules. This process was made explicit and followed reasonable principles. According to the accuracy issues raised, some discrepancies could be explained by different interpretations. Additionally, the conclusion is still valid as the results are shown to be robust to variations of weightings and methods hence also to unsystematic failures.