B. Financial statements Flashcards
What is the ‘Framework’?
The Conceptual Framework of Financial Reporting
- transactions are becoming more complex
- IASB developed Framework to law out broad principles that should be applied when developing accounting standards and treatment
Purpose of IFRS Framework?
- assist IASB to develop IFRS Standards that are based on consistent concepts
- assist preparers to develop consistent accounting policies that are new
- assist all parties to understand and interpret IFRS standards
What is prioritised between Framework and IFRS Standards?
Standards prioritised as Framework is not an accounting standards
What does the Framework cover?
- objs of the general purpose of financial reporting
- qualitative characteristics of useful financial reporting
- financial statements and the reporting entity
- elements of the financial statements
- recognition and derecognition
- measurement
- presentation and disclosure
- concepts of capital and capital maintenance
What is the objective of financial reporting?
provide information about the reporting entity that is useful to users in making decisions relating to providing resources to the entity
Who uses financial statements?
- existing and potential investors
- lenders
- other creditors
What decisions are made in relation to resources and financial statements?
- buy, sell of hold equity and debt instruments
- provide or settle loans and other forms of credit
- exercise the rights to vote on management actions
- assessment of stewardship of directors
What are the two qualitative categories of the Framework?
fundamental-‘must have’
- relevance
- faithful representation
enhancing- ‘would be nice to have’
- comparability
- verifiability
- timeliness
- understandability
What is the fundamental quality characteristic ‘relevance’?
- when it influences an economic decision by helping them evaluate past, present or future events
- affected by nature or materiality
- according to Framework, info is material if its omission or misstatement could influence the decision of its users
What is ‘materiality’?
- entity specific aspect of relevance
- depends on size of item/entity in context of specific financial statements
- takes different forms and values so Framework does not attempt to quantify it
What is the fundamental quality characteristic ‘faithful representation’?
- info must be accounted for and presented in accordance with substance and economic reality
- not merely legal form
- concept of applying substance over form
What are the 3 characteristics of ‘faithful representation’?
- completeness:full picture, understandable
- neutrality:no bias, prudence
- free from error:within bounds of materiality
What is prudence?
- accounting mindset
- favours caution in situations of uncertainty and judgement
- tied to neutrality of faithful representation
What is measurement uncertainty?
- estimate used and described clearly and accurately as an estimate
- free from error does not mean perfectly accurate in all respects
- tied to free from error of faithful representation
What is the enhancing quality characteristic ‘comparability’?
- compare fin stmts over time to identify trends
- compare to different entities
- must treat similar items in a relevant, reliable and consistent matter
- disclose accounting policies
What is the enhancing quality characteristic ‘verifiability’?
- if info can be independently confirmed or verified i.e audited
- verification can be direct or indirect e.g counting cash or checking inputs
What is the enhancing quality characteristic ‘timeliness’?
- providing info to decision makers in timely manner
- older info is less useful
What is the enhancing quality characteristic ‘understandability’?
- info needs to be readily understandable by users
- include all useful info
- need to consider format and audience
What does the Framework state that financial statements provide?
provide information about economic resources of the reporting entity
- claims against the entity
- changes in those resources and claims that meet the definitions of the elements of financial statements
What is the going concern assumption?
- foreseeable future is considered to be >12 months
- fin statements are prepared under the assumption that entity neither has an intention to liquidate or significantly reduce scale of operations
- if business was not deemed to be a going concern, the financial statements would be prepared on the break-up basis
- -e.g all assets values using realisable values and no -non-current-classifications can be used
What is the accruals concept?
states that events should be dealt with in the accounting period they occur, rather than the period in which cash flows occur
- no longer considered to be an underlying concept of financial statements
- still considered by Framework as important concept
What is the reporting entity?
entity that chooses to or is required to prepare financial statements
-can be single or be composed of multiple
What is a consolidated financial statement?
-statements including both parent and subsidiaries
What is a unconsolidated financial statement?
-reporting parent alone’s financial statements
What are the 5 elements of a financial statement?
assets liabilities equity income expenses
What are assets?
‘a present economic resource controlled by the entity as a result of past events
an economic resource is a right that has the potential to produce economic benefits’
What is a liability?
‘a present obligation of an entity to transfer an economic resource due to past events’
What is equity?
‘the RESIDUAL interest in the assets of an entity after deducting all its liabilities’
What is income?
‘increase in assets or decrease in liabilities that results in an increase in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants’
-e.g sales, gains on disposal of non-current assets and unrealised gains
What are expenses?
‘decrease in assets or increase in liabilities that results in a decrease in equity, other than those relating to distributions to equity participants
-e.g expenses such as wages, purchases, depreciation and loses
breakdown of Asset meaning?
right: created through contracts or legislation
potential to produce future economic benefit:right exists and would produce benefits beyond those available to other parties
control:direct use and obtain benefit, restrict others, can be leased or owned
breakdown definition of liabilities?
obligation:duty/responsibility
transfer of economic resource: transfer of cash, property or service
present obligation as a result of past events:entity has already reaped benefits or as a consequence make a transfer
breakdown definition of equity
- residual amount after deducting all liabilities
- may be sub-classified into share capital, retained earnings and other reserves
What criteria must items meet to be recognised in financial statements?
- meet the definitions of one of the elements
- provide relevant info
- provide faithful representation of element
What indicates that information on an element is not relevant?
- uncertain whether asset or liability exists
- it exists but probability of an inflow or outflow of economic benefits is low
What indicated that information on an element provides faithful represenation?
- linked to the ability of measuring element
- high measurement uncertainty(hard to estimate) means inclusion would not provide faithful representation
What is derecogntion?
- removal of all or part of an asset/liability from fin stmts
- occurs when item no longer meets the definition of asset/liability
When is an asset derecognised?
when entity loses control of all/part of recognised asset
When is a liability derecognised?
entity no longer has a present obligation for all/part of the recognised liability
What are the 2 types of ways you can measure elements in financial statements?
historical
current value: fair value, value in use, current cost
What is historical cost?
providing monetary information derived from the price of transaction at the date transaction occurs
- does not reflect change in value except for impairment
- better for stable, long term asset
What is an asset’s historical cost?
value incurred in acquiring/creating asset
(consideration paid +transaction cost)
What is an asset’s liability cost?
value of the consideration received to incur or take on liability - transaction costs
What does current value measure?
monetary value using info updated to reflect conditions at the measurement date
-better for volatile, market sensitive asset
bases include:fair value, value in use, current cost
What is fair value of an item?
price that would be received to sell an asset, or paid to transfer a liability, between market participants at measurement date
What is value in use and fulfilment values?
assets use value in use:present value of cash flow, or other economic benefits, which an entity expects to derive from the use of an asset and from its ultimate disposal
fulfilment value of a liability: present value of cash, or other economic resources, that an entity expects to be obliged to transfer as it fulfils a liability
What is current cost?
cost to acquire(of consideration) equivalent asset(liability) at measurement date, plus(minus) the transaction costs that would be incurred
What features does the historical cost approach have?
- accounting transactions recorded at their original historical monetary cost
- items/events for which no monetary transaction has occurred are usually ignored altogether
- profit for period found by matching income against the cost of items consumed in generating the income for the period
What are the advantages of historical cost accounting?
- easy to understand
- straightforward to produce
- objective and free from bias
- reliable and original values can be verified based on original invoices/accompanying documents
- do not record gains until they are realised
What are the disadvantages of historical cost accounts?
- prices may change significantly over period
- affects accounting ratios and analysis
- not accurate reflection of current value
- difficult to assess year to year results
What factors should be considered when selecting a measurement base for an item?
- should provide most relevant and faithful representation in line with the fundamental qualitative characteristics
- characteristics of asset should be considered when selecting the measurement base e.g more volatile->use current value, longterm and stable->use historical
- judgement applied when deciding
Where does the Framework outline that income and expenses should be included?
- in SOPL:as it is primary source of info
- outside SOPL in other comprehensive income
When is the Board allowed to exclude income and expenses from SPL?
in exceptional circumstances, board may choose to exclude from SPL due to change in current value and instead include outside SPL
-only allowed if the result gives a more relevant and faithful view
What does the Framework suggest about aggregation?
need to find balance between summarising large volume of data and concealing detail i.e between insignificant detail or excessive aggregation
What are the 2 concepts of capital?
- financial concept of capital
- physical concept of capital
What is the financial concept of capital?
capital=net assets or equity of entity
- use if main concern of financial statements is the maintenance of the nominal value invested capital
- used by most entities
What is the physical concept of capital?
capital=productive capacity of the entity
- measured as units of output per day
- used if main use of financial statements is operating capacity of the entity
What is capital maintenance?
preserving the value of the capital of the entity and reporting profit only if the capital of the entity has been increased by activities and events in the accounting period
-tried to ensure excessive dividends are not paid in times of changing prices
What are capital maintenance concepts?
Physical capital maintenance (PCM) also known as operating capital maintenance (OCM)
Financial capital maintenance (FCM)
What is Physical capital maintenance?
setting aside profits in order to allow the business to continue to operate at current levels of activity
-adjusting opening capital by specific price changes
What is financial capital maintenance?
set aside profits in order to preserve the value of shareholders’ funds in ‘real terms’ i.e after inflation
-can be measured in monetary terms or in constant purchasing power
What is the purpose of financial statements?
- provide info bout financial position to help make economic decisions
- show how effectively management have looked after the resources of the entity
What does the IAS1 define as a complete set of financial statements?
- SFP
- either SPL and other comprehensive income or SPL plus statement showing OCI
- statement of changes in equity (SOCIE)
- statement of cash flows (SCF)
- accounting policies note and other explanatory note
What was the previous term for SFP & SCF?
previously called balance sheet & cash flow statement
Who is responsible for preparing and presenting financial statements?
the board of directors (and /or other governing bodies)
What does fair presentation of fin statements require?
- FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION of the effects of transactions
- select definitions and RECOGNITION criteria in accordance with framework and apply according accounting policies
- present info in a RELEVANT, reliable, comparable and understandable manner
- provide additional disclosures if the requirements are insufficient
What disclosures should an entity make if they feel compliance to IFRS Standards would be misleading?
- that management have concluded that fin stmts do present fairly the financial position
- entity complies with IFRS Standards except for one
- Standards departed from and the nature of departure
- financial impact of departure
Departure is usually very rare
What does it mean for fin stmts to be prepared on going concern basis?
preparing them on assumption that entity will continue trade for the foreseeable future
-not intending to liquidate assets or cease trading
What does it mean to prepare financial stmts on accrual basis?
transactions should be recorded in the accounting period they relate to regardless of whether or not cash has been received/paid
-expenses recognised in SOFP and other comp income to match against directly related income
What does consistency mean in fin stmts?
presentation and classification of items should be consistent from one period to the next
How are materiality and aggregation handled in fin stmts?
each material class of similar items should be presented separately
immaterial items should be aggregated with amounts of a similar nature and need to be disclosed separately
What are the IAS1 rules on offsetting?
assets and liabilities, income and expenses, should not be offset except when required
What are the IAS1 rules on comparative information?
should be disclosed in respect to previous period for all amounts reported unless IFRS requires otherwise
What are some other requirements of financial statements?
- presented at least annually
- within 6 months are the end of the reporting period for public entities and 9 months for private entities
- no format specified but does provide appendix which sets out illustrative formats
- provides guidance on items that should be disclosed and those that can be relegated to notes
When should an asset be classified as a current asset?
- expected to be realised in normal operating cycle
- held primarily for trading purposes
- expected to be realised within 12 months of the end of the reporting period
- is cash or cash equivalent
When should a liability be classified as a current liability?
- expected to be settled within normal operating cycle
- due to be settled within 12m of the end of the reporting period
- help primarily for the purpose of being traded
- entity does not have unconditional right to defer settlement of the liability for atleast 12m after the end of the reporting period