Introduction: It has been suggested that the AASB should reclassify the meaning of a reporting entity to include all companies and businesses across Australia as well as internationally by the IASB due to the current confusion of who a reporting entity really is by some professionals.
The current reporting entity concept adopted: In Australia the current reporting entity concept to abide by for reporting entities is the Corporations Act 2001. It and AASB101 determine who must compile financial reports (SAC 1), what financial statements companies must produce (AASB101.10), when (AASB101.36) & details of the company 's financial records (AASB101.112-124) are to be reported to its shareholders & customers. There is no one way to display this information, an entity can choose from up to 3 different costing methods, and 2 different analysis methods (AASB101.102). (ICAA Financial Reporting Handbook 2014)
Reporting entities must, in accordance with the Corporations Act, prepare financial statements, must comply and must apply the following particular Australian reporting standards:
• AASB 101 - Presentation of Financial Statements
• AASB 107 - Statement of Cash Flows
• AASB 108 - Accounting Policies
• AASB 1031 - Materiality
• AASB 1048 - Interpretation & Application of Standards
(Meade, 2012)
Small proprietary companies are not considered to be reporting entities (Leo et al, 2012), it is assumed that most of the people who need financial information about the business
Publicly traded companies are subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The laws that govern the securities industry were established to provide transparency to investors, creditors and shareholders alike. According to Hoyle, Schaefer & Doupnik, (2015) there are seven major disclosure requirements, the first being a five-year summary of operations to encompass sales, assets, income from continuing operations. Followed by a description of business activities, a three year summary of industry segments to include foreign and domestic operations, a list of company directors and executives, quarterly market price of common stock for the last two years, restrictions on the company’s ability to continue paying dividends, and finally, an analysis of the company’s financial condition, changes in the conditions and results of operation.
It is an important function of any organisation to regulate the external financial reporting. The legislation that governs the external financial reporting is Financial reporting act 2013 (FRA) and The companies act 1993 (Deegan & Samkin, 2013). The Regulation is required to safeguard the interests of those using the financial information but do not directly participate in the business. These users may be both primary and secondary. The information provided by the financial statements are used for making economic decisions by its users (NZASB, 2016a). The regulation of external financial reporting does not only help the external users
SFAC No. 8 addresses the cost constraint on useful financial reporting, “Cost is a pervasive constraint that standard setters, as well as providers and users of financial information, should keep in mind when considering the benefits of a financial reporting requirement.” (SFAC No. 8 BC 3.47) However, the ability to place a dollar value and fully enumerate a cost or benefit is almost an impossible task for standard-setters. Additionally, there is no way to successfully identify and measure all of the economic consequences associated with a new standard. The FASB should be applauded though for advancing uniformity in accounting standards, however; uniform financial reporting suggests a one size fits all approach. “Smaller, non-publicly listed firms (and their auditors) argue that accounting standards are formulated mainly for larger, publicly traded firms” and that “compliance costs are disproportionately higher and the
The requirements of the applicable financial reporting framework relevant to accounting estimates, including related disclosures
Entity-wide disclosures are required under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 280-10-50-40 through 280-10-50-42. The disclosures are required because every corporation does not report information in a similar fashion, and the disclosures would provide comparability of the financial statements among entities. For example, if a corporation uses a geographic approach in its financial statements, disclosing certain information about the products or services sold will make comparability to other companies much easier. The disclosures will also help with comparability within an entity if they decide to choose another method of reporting operating segments in the future. There are three types of entity-wide disclosures; products and services, geographic areas, and/or major customers. Every public company has to comply with the disclosures, even if the company has one reportable segment. The only exception to the entity-wide disclosures is if it is impractical to provide the information, such as it would be extremely costly to the corporation, or if the “internal reporting systems are not capable of gathering financial information by product or service by geographic area.” A disclosure should be made when entity-wide disclosures are impractical.
Considering reporting entities, the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 94 best defines and prescribes the recommended treatment. For example, the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards prescribes that consolidated reporting is the only appropriate method to report.
As the business environment grows and companies find new ways to expand into their respective - or even new – markets, it is important that reporting standards stay up to date with changes and continue to assist companies in providing their users with useful accounting information. Information is labelled as being useful when it meets the
The purpose of this report is to research the accounting and reporting standards of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and report the impact FASB may have on our company. The following research explains the history and purpose of FASB, the accountability requirements on public corporations, the effectiveness of FASB in setting standards in order to improve financial reporting in the public
The FASB mission is to “establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting that foster financial reporting by nongovernment entities that provides decision- useful information to investors and other users of financial reports.” (www.FASB.org)
States. Companies should report income, liability, equity, and assets. Many people (stockholders, investors, etc.) who have a stake in the company want to know this information before providing a service. In this paper, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) will be compared for
This standard outlines the presentation of financial statements for general purpose financial statements, in order to ensure that there is compariablity between the entities reporting periods as well as between other industries reports. The standard discusses the minimum requirement for reporting content and guidelines for the structure in which it is to be set at. Paragraph 117-124 distiguishes the disclosure of accounting policies in relation to judgement. Management’s judgement made in applying accounting policies that may have effected significant amounts found in financial statements and the financial position. Seen in paragraph 125-133 ‘Sources Of Estimation Uncertainty’, it is vital that entities disclose the key assumptions made regarding future prospects and other uncertain estimates that are used in identifying carrying amounts of assets and liabilities. Along side this, the nature and carrying amount must be disclosed at the reporting date.
3.1 How quality is measured in relation to IFRS. The adoption of IFRS and why the change?................................................................................
uses the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as a regulatory requirement for managing financial resources. These are the guidelines and practices that are accepted in the field of accounting internationally in standardizing financial documents such as balance sheets, cash flow statements and income statements. The organization follows these principles in reporting its financial information. The absence of these standards would give the organization staff the privileges in divulging financial information at their individual expense and not at the company’s thus affecting its overall credibility to investors and
In any business operations, full financial disclosure refers to the provision of the necessary information about a company for better decision making by the people accustomed. It is the financial revelation of a given company. There are some financial disclosures in any business that ensure proper understanding of financial statements to the financial readers, or potential auditors. Examples are the annual financial reports and the financial declarations of the company. The annual financial reports of the enterprise are very useful since they discloses the revenues recognized in the business, and the accountability of the inventories plus the income taxes accounted for during that period of operation. Second, is the disclosure of this financial statements which gives the actual revelation of the company 's stock options, liabilities and the effects of foreign currencies?! This disclosure includes the company 's balance sheet of the year, income statements and also the cash statements flows of that year. This information gives a proper understanding of the financial status users about the effects of inflation and price change on property and inventories (Berger, 2011).
Based on the financial ratios given, this section will compare and contrast the financial strengths of Company X and Company Y in order to suggest Tringale Ltd to take decision regarding which of the above companies to chose for investment. This section provides comments on financial performance areas based on the data given, and presents report to the Board of Directors of Tringale Ltd by recommending which of the two investment opportunities is better.