Candace Dymally
15 September 2015
Professor Miller
ACC 4321

Case Study 3-5
International versus U.S. Standards

Financial information presented in financial statements require key elements that make it valuable to users to derive meaningful conclusions about the trends in an entity's financial performance and position over time. The conceptual framework categorizes these elements into fundamental or enhancing qualitative characteristics, depending on how they affect the decision usefulness of information. One of the qualitative characteristics stated is comparability. For accounting information to be comparable, accounting standards and policies must be applied consistently from one period to another and from one region to another. In this case, the financial statements of a company operating in Australia would comparable to a U.S. company’s financial statement. IASB is attempting to bridge the gap between U.S. GAAP and international accounting principles which would make it easier for companies to interact with one another despite the location. Reliability is another characteristic of financial accounting information. Information is reliable when a user can depend upon it to be materially accurate and faithfully represent the information that it claims to present. Significant misstatements or omissions in financial statements reduce the reliability of information contained in them. The amounts reported by U.S. companies for property, plant, and equipment would be less reliable than the current cost amounts reported by companies that use revaluation. Information should be relevant to the decision making needs of the user. Relevant information helps users in predicting future trends of a business or confirming or correcting any past predictions they have made. Yes the amounts reported by U.S. companies for property, plant, and equipment is more