Accruals are not a flaw; they are how the income-statement gives a more useful picture than a cash ledger. But they are estimates, and estimates are where discretion lives. Every large accrual is a judgement that could have gone another way.
The research finding that matters to investors is that high accruals predict weaker future returns, because the estimates tend to reverse. That is the basis of the accruals-ratio screen.
Example: Northwind Tools reports $78M of net income and $164M of operating cash flow, so total accruals are negative $86M, a conservative position driven by depreciation exceeding capex needs.
Related: accruals-ratio, earnings-quality, operating-cash-flow, net-income, allowance-for-doubtful-accounts