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Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity.
Relevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to understand. They typically include four basic financial statements accompanied by a management discussion and analysis: [1]
"The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions." Financial statements should be understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable. Reported assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses are directly related to an organization's financial position.
Financial statements are intended to be understandable by readers who have "a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and who are willing to study the information diligently." [2] Financial statements may be used by users for different purposes:
Consolidated financial statements are defined as "Financial statements of a group in which the assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses and cash flows of the parent (company) and its subsidiaries are presented as those of a single economic entity", according to International Accounting Standard 27 "Consolidated and separate financial statements", and International Financial Reporting Standard 10 "Consolidated financial statements". [4] [5]
Different countries have developed their own accounting principles over time, making international comparisons of companies difficult. To ensure uniformity and comparability between financial statements prepared by different companies, a set of guidelines and rules are used. Commonly referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), these set of guidelines provide the basis in the preparation of financial statements, although many companies voluntarily disclose information beyond the scope of such requirements. [6]
Recently there has been a push towards standardizing accounting rules made by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). IASB develops International Financial Reporting Standards that have been adopted by Australia, Canada and the European Union (for publicly quoted companies only), are under consideration in South Africa and other countries. The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board has made a commitment to converge the U.S. GAAP and IFRS over time.
Management discussion and analysis or MD&A is an integrated part of a company's annual financial statements. The purpose of the MD&A is to provide a narrative explanation, through the eyes of management, of how an entity has performed in the past, its financial condition, and its future prospects. In so doing, the MD&A attempt to provide investors with complete, fair, and balanced information to help them decide whether to invest or continue to invest in an entity. [7]
The section contains a description of the year gone by and some of the key factors that influenced the business of the company in that year, as well as a fair and unbiased overview of the company's past, present, and future.
MD&A typically describes the corporation's liquidity position, capital resources, [8] results of its operations, underlying causes of material changes in financial statement items (such as asset impairment and restructuring charges), events of unusual or infrequent nature (such as mergers and acquisitions or share buybacks), positive and negative trends, effects of inflation, domestic and international market risks, [9] and significant uncertainties.
International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's financial performance and position so that company financial statements are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are particularly relevant for companies with shares or securities publicly listed.
The historical cost of an asset at the time it is acquired or created is the value of the costs incurred in acquiring or creating the asset, comprising the consideration paid to acquire or create the asset plus transaction costs. Historical cost accounting involves reporting assets and liabilities at their historical costs, which are not updated for changes in the items' values. Consequently, the amounts reported for these balance sheet items often differ from their current economic or market values.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. The FASB replaced the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Accounting Principles Board (APB) on July 1, 1973. The FASB is run by the nonprofit Financial Accounting Foundation.
Financial accounting is a branch of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions related to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public use. Stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, business owners, and other stakeholders are examples of people interested in receiving such information for decision making purposes.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a multinational professional services network based in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of employees in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with EY, KPMG, and PwC.
A consolidated financial statement (CFS) is the "financial statement of a group in which the assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses and cash flows of the parent company and its subsidiaries are presented as those of a single economic entity", according to the definitions stated in International Accounting Standard 27, "Consolidated and separate financial statements", and International Financial Reporting Standard 10, "Consolidated financial statements".
Materiality is a concept or convention within auditing and accounting relating to the importance/significance of an amount, transaction, or discrepancy. The objective of an audit of financial statements is to enable the auditor to express an opinion on whether the financial statements are prepared, in all material respects, in conformity with an identified financial reporting framework, such as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which is the accounting standard adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Inflation accounting comprises a range of accounting models designed to correct problems arising from historical cost accounting in the presence of high inflation and hyperinflation. For example, in countries experiencing hyperinflation the International Accounting Standards Board requires corporations to implement financial capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power in terms of the monthly published Consumer Price Index. This does not result in capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power since that can only be achieved in terms of a daily index.
Russian Accounting Standards (RAS; Russian: Российские стандарты бухгалтерского учёта, РСБУ), also called Russian Accounting Principles (RAP) or Russian GAAP or GAAP (Russia), refer to the body of regulatory documents concerning financial accounting and reporting standards in the Russian Federation.
International Accounting Standard 1: Presentation of Financial Statements or IAS 1 is an international financial reporting standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It lays out the guidelines for the presentation of financial statements and sets out minimum requirements of their content; it is applicable to all general purpose financial statements that are based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
The convergence of accounting standards refers to the goal of establishing a single set of accounting standards that will be used internationally. Convergence in some form has been taking place for several decades, and efforts today include projects that aim to reduce the differences between accounting standards.
International Accounting Standard 10 Events after the Reporting Period or IAS 10 is an international financial reporting standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It contains requirements for when events between the end of the reporting period and the date on which the financial statements are authorised for issue should be reflected in the financial statements.
International Accounting Standard 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors or IAS 8 is an international financial reporting standard (IFRS) adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It prescribes the criteria for selecting and changing accounting policies, accounting for changes in estimates and reflecting corrections of prior period errors.
IFRS 9 is an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It addresses the accounting for financial instruments. It contains three main topics: classification and measurement of financial instruments, impairment of financial assets and hedge accounting. The standard came into force on 1 January 2018, replacing the earlier IFRS for financial instruments, IAS 39.
IFRS 10, IFRS 11 and IFRS 12 are three International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) providing accounting guidance related to consolidation and joint ventures. The standards were issued in 2011 and became effective in 2013. IFRS 10 addresses consolidated financial statements, IFRS 11 addresses joint ventures and IFRS 12 address disclosures of interests in other entities. The standards were developed in part in response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis. During the crisis, accounting rules were criticized for permitting certain risky arrangements to be excluded from company balance sheets. IFRS 10 revised the definition of having "control" of another entity, and thus requiring that entity to be consolidated onto the controlling entity's balance sheet. The revised definition is expected to increase the likelihood that an entity is deemed to have control over another. IFRS 11 largely retained previous accounting guidance for joint ventures, but adopted the IFRS 10 definition of "control," meaning that "joint control" would be deemed to exist in some circumstances where it wasn't previously, and vice versa. IFRS 12 requires the disclosures related to subsidiaries, joint ventures and interests in other entities which are not consolidated to be combined into a single disclosure. It also requires disclosures about judgements used to determine whether control exists, why it determined that control did not exist and its relationship with entities it did not consolidate. These extra disclosures were also in response of criticism of the previous accounting guidance after the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
IFRS 16 is an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) providing guidance on accounting for leases. IFRS 16 was issued in January 2016 and is effective for most companies that report under IFRS since 1 January 2019. Upon becoming effective, it replaced the earlier leasing standard, IAS 17.
IAS 14Segment Reporting is a former International Accounting Standard that was fully withdrawn in 2009 and superseded by IFRS 8 Operating Segments. IAS 14 set guidelines on disclosing information by business segment in a company's financial statements.
International Accounting Standard 23: Borrowing Costs or IAS 23 is an international financial reporting standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Borrowing costs refer to the interest & other costs that an entity incurs in connection with the borrowing of funds. IAS 23 provides guidance on how to measure borrowing costs, particularly when the costs of acquisition, construction or production are funded by an entity’s general borrowings. The standard mandates that borrowing costs that are directly attributable to the acquisition, construction or production of a qualifying asset must be capitalized as part of that asset. Other borrowing costs are recognised as an expense.
IFRS 7, titled Financial Instruments: Disclosures, is an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It requires entities to provide certain disclosures regarding financial instruments in their financial statements. The standard was originally issued in August 2005 and became applicable on 1 January 2007, superseding the earlier standard IAS 30, Disclosures in the Financial Statements of Banks and Similar Financial Institutions, and replacing the disclosure requirements of IAS 32, previously titled Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation.