The Reporting Entity Concept Of The Australian Accounting Standards Board

An accounting entity is an organization for which financial data are to be collected (separate and distinct from its owners).

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

The base for both Australian for-profit and not-for-profit requirements are based on IFRS. AASB is supporting IFRS standard setting to apply in more

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.

Just for clarity, according to "Governmental Accounting Standards Board" (2013), the financial reporting entity consists of (a) the primary government; (b) organizations for which the primary government is financially accountable; and (c) other organizations for which the nature and significance of their relationship with the primary government are such that exclusion would cause the reporting entity 's financial statements to be misleading or incomplete (Summary of Statement No. 14 The Financial Reporting Entity (Issued 6/91)).

To enhance a user’s ability to understand and compare an entity’s operating results, reporting entities are required to describe all significant accounting policies in their financial statements. As such to decide if an accounting principal is significant, is the management’s decision.

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

Financial reports consist of a statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows, notes, directors' declaration, directors' report and the auditor's report. The financial statements need to be prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards, making the necessary disclosures in order to be transparent and fully inform readers about the activities and financial situation of the entity.

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)

A reporting entity as defined by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), Statement of Accounting Concepts SAC 1 "Definition of the Reporting Entity" is as follows;

This paper will analyze these views as they apply to the discloser of segment information for public entities as required by topic 280 of the FASB accounting standards codification, and discussed in Statement of Financial Standards No. 131 (“SFAS 131). The paper is structured as follows: Section II provides an overview of the objective and general purpose of financial reporting and the qualitative characteristics off useful financial information as determined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), section III introduces the concept of segment reporting and outlines the requirements for disclosures of segment information for public companies, section IV evaluates the relevance of

IASB. 2010, "The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting" IFRS, pp. A21- A38, viewed 23 April 2014,

News Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, may be deemed a non-reporting entity, in instances where dependent users are virtually non existent. Paragraph 19 of SAC1, defines subsequent SAC1 sections 20 & 22, whereby identifying factors are considered in determining as to whether or not a reporting entity exists. Section 20 indicates that in instances where the spread of ownership/members is large, it is more likely that dependent users rely on general purpose financial reporting, for decisions regarding resource allocation. Moreover, Section 22 indicates that in instances where indebtedness or resource allocation is vast, general purpose financial reporting is also imperative for external users.

Like IFRS, reports prepared under US GAAP are presented: (i) statement of financial position, (ii) statement of comprehensive income, (iii) statement of changes in equity, (iv) statement of cash flows, and (v) notes including accounting policies.