FRA Flashcards
Financial reporting
refers to the way companies show their financial performance to investors, creditors, and other interested parties by preparing and presenting financial statements.
Role of financial statement analysis
use the information in a company’s financial statements, along with other relevant information, to make economic decisions.
Financial statement notes (footnotes)
include disclosures that provide further details about the information summarized in the financial statements.
* Basis of presentation
* Accounting methods and assumptions
* Further information on amounts in primary statements
* Acquisitions/disposals
* Contingencies
* Legal proceedings
* Stock options, benefit plans
* Significant customers
* Segment data
* Quarterly data
* Related-party transactions
Management’s commentary
- Nature of the business
- Results from operations, business overview
- Trends in sales and expenditure
- Capital resources and liquidity
- Cashflow trends
- Discussion of critical accounting choices
- Effects of inflation, price changes, uncertainties on future results
Audit
independent review of company’s financial statements
Reasonable assurance that financial statements are free of material errors
Under US GAAP, must provide opinion on company’s internal controls
Ranking of Audit opinion
- Unqualified – “unmodified” or “clean” opinion
- Qualified – exceptions to accounting principles
- Adverse – statements not presented fairly
- Disclaimer of opinion – unable to form an opinion
Standard auditor’s opinion includes
- Responsibilities of management to prepare accounts – independence of auditors
- Properly prepared accordance with relevant GAAP – reasonable assurance that the statements are free from material misstatement
- Accounting principles and estimates chosen are reasonable
Supplementary sources of financial information
- Quarterly, semi-annual reports – updates of major financial statements and footnotes; SEC filings
- Proxy statements – issued when shareholder vote is required; contain information on board elections, management compensation, stock options
- Corporate reports, press releases – written by management
- Economic, industry data from trade journals, reporting services, government agencies
steps in the financial statement analysis framework
- Purpose and context of analysis
- Collect data
- Process data
- Analyse/interpret data
- Conclusions and recommendations
- Update analysis periodically
Objective of financial reporting
provide financial information about the reporting entity that is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders, and other creditors in making decisions about providing resources to the entity – IASB Conceptual framework (relevance and timely)
Standard setting bodies:
- Financial Accounting standards board (FASB) U.S.
- International accounting standard board (IASB) most other countries
Financial reporting requirements and regulation:
- Securities exchange commission (SEC)
- International Organization of securities commission (IOSCO)
SEC Fillings/forms
- S1 – registration of securities for public sale
- 10K – annual report
- 10Q – quarterly reports
- DEF 14A – proxy statements
- 8K – material event
- Form 144 – Issuance of unregistered stock
- Forms 3,4, &5 – share transactions with corporate insiders
IFRS conceptual framework, two qualitative characteristics
- Relevance
- Faithful representation
Characteristics that enhance relevance and faithful representation
- Comparability
- Verifiability
- Timeliness
- Understandability
IFRS required reporting elements
- Balance sheet (statement of financial position).
- Statement of comprehensive income.
- Cash flow statement.
- Statement of changes in owners’ equity.
- Explanatory notes, including a summary of accounting policies.
Differences remain between US GAAP and IFRS
treatment of development costs, use of LIFO for inventory, reversal of inventory write downs
Types of income statement
single step (operating expense), multi-step (split out COGS and SGA)
Revenue Recognition Standards – five step model:
- Identify contracts with customers
- Identify performance obligations in contracts
- Determine transaction price
- Allocate transaction price to performance obligations
- Recognise revenue when/as performance obligations are satisfied
Revenue Recognition standards
- Input percentage (% of total estimated costs incurred to date)
- Output percentage (units produced or milestones achieved)
Agent vs principal revenue recognition
There is a distinction between acting as an agent (revenue) vs acting as a principal (revenue + expenses)
Expense recognition:
- Accrual basis – matching principle – match costs against associated revenues. For example, inventory, depreciation/amortization, warranty expense, doubtful debt expense
- Period expenses – expenditures that less directly match the timing of revenues. For example, admin costs.
Double declining depreciation (DDB) formula
= (2/useful life)(cost – accumulated depreciation)
Bad debt expense and warranty expense recognition
must estimate bad debts expense/warranty expense. Firm recognises this expense in period of sale rather than later period
Discontinued operations
operations that management has decided to dispose of but (1) has not done so yet or (2) did so in current year after it generated profit or loss. Reported net of taxes after net income from continuing operations (below the line). Assets, operations, and financing activities must be physically and operationally distinct from firm
Accounting changes and finacial reporting
change in accounting policy (e.g., revenue recognition method) requires retrospective application; adjust any prior year’s financials included in the current statement
changes in accounting estimates impact of financial reporting
treated prospectively and does not require restatement of prior-period earnings.
Prior period adjustments
correcting errors or changing from an incorrect accounting method to an acceptable one. Typically require retrospective application. Restate prior years principal financial statements. Must disclose the nature of the error and its effect on net income.