...Running Heading: Full disclosure financial reporting Full disclosure financial reporting Mary Miller ACC/421 Intermediate Financial Accounting 1 University of Phoenix Cathy Reed October 8, 2012 Full disclosure principle in accounting The full disclosure principle in accounting is the action of revealing or reporting every detail of economic transactions, which can affect the financial position of the business and other people who use the financial statements, such as investor, creditors, etc. (What is the full disclosure principle? web -site). Why has disclosure increased substantially in the last ten years? During the last ten years, the full disclosure increase substantially because the FASB has issued several substantial disclosure provisions, such as Complexity of the Business Environment, Necessity for Timely Information, Accounting as a Control and Monitoring Device with the purpose to protect investors and the public security. Need for full disclosure in financial reporting Full disclosure in financial reporting is necessary because this report reflects the financial activities of the business, if this report is not accurate, and if information omitted or altered affects the decisions of the person using or reading the reports. The government created the SEC and FASB; these two organizations set guidelines to ensure that companies and business disclose the information required by the law. A full disclosure of a financial...
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...Full Disclosure August 8, 2012 Organizations and regulators are interested in information made publicly to investors. The form in which the information is presented in financial statements is an important aspect. The full disclosure principle is a tool used to establish how financial information is presented on financial statements. The full disclosure principle in accounting is an important part of financial statements. Full disclosure “calls for financial reporting of any financial facts significant enough to influence the judgment of an informed reader” (Kieso, Weygandt, Warfield, 2010, Chapter 24, pg. 1 para. 3). According to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), organizations should present an essential statement that identifies the accounting policies embraced and complied by the reporting body (Kieso, et al.). Full disclosure statements should be the first notes compiled on the financial statements. Purposes of the full disclosure principle include: * Provide ethical and honest conduct * Provide accurate and fair disclosures and financial statements * Provide compliance and accountability The full disclosure principle must be exercised to financial officers and executives with justifiable business judgment and faith. The full disclosure principle is not easy to implement in an organization. The full disclosure principle can be costly to an organization, and the benefits are often hard to assess. Disclosure requirements have increased...
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...Full Disclosure Principle Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require certain information be disclosed in the audited financial statements of businesses. The full disclosure principle was adopted by the accounting professionals to ensure financial reporting of any financial facts significant enough to influence the judgement of an informed reader;” (Wiley & Sons, 2013). This principle is relevant to materiality and requires the full information be disclosed in the financial statements or in the notes to the financial statements. Need for Full Disclosure Full disclosure in financial report is necessary to help establish consistency in reporting from one company to another. It also standardizes accounting definitions, methods, and assumptions. The full disclosure principle exists to make sure the accounting policies are disclosed so users can understand what the basis of accounting in the company is, what the contingent liabilities are and how the company handled significant events or the details of property, plant and equipment. In short, the full disclosure principle is necessary so investors and other interested parties, who are familiar with reading financial information, have all the information to make informed, sound decisions about the company. The footnotes in the financial statements will disclose accounting policies regarding such things as revenue recognition, property depreciation policies, income tax and inventory accounting practices, Effects...
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...The objective of this individual assignment is to understand the relationship between accounting assumption, principles and how does they assist in financial reporting. It is also to understand what types of accounting theory that relevant with the accounting principles. Going concern assumption is one of accounting assumptions which is about financial activities of a business are assumed to be in operation for long period of time. This assumption is allows a business to operate in long term view. This assumption is very critical where there is no short term end of point. (Simple studies, 2010). Full disclosure principle is one of accounting principles that constitute with going concern assumption. The principle is about all past, present and future information that may have made an impact on the financial performance of the company needs to be fully disclosed. Even though the historical performance of company is readily available, but the numbers does not always provide the entire picture of company. Full disclosure of information is need because it is reflect the economic condition of company. This principle is also important in order to assist decision maker to make decision. (Simple studies, 2010). In this condition where full disclosure principle is coherent with going concern assumption can be relate with accounting rule FRS136, which is about impairment of assets. This standard is to ensure the values of assets are disclosed in the balance sheet, where the carrying...
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...Consequences of Failing to Provide Full Disclosure There is a wide range of potential outcomes for failing to provide full disclosure in accounting. At the very least, failing to provide full disclosure is unethical, especially if the intention is to mislead about the true nature of business operations. A company could seriously damage its relationship with creditors, investors, regulators, and other third parties if they are found to be willfully withholding important information. In some cases, this could lead to a lawsuit if it resulted in damages to the third party. For example, if a company withheld information from it’s creditors and then defaulted on a loan, the creditor could likely sue for damages. Public companies are sued on a regular basis for failing to disclose relevant information to investors. On the other end of the spectrum, failing to provide full disclosure could be a criminal act under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Executives who failing to disclose information could be criminally liable if this was done with the intention of defrauding investors. This is a relatively new penalty that was implemented after many major corporate scandals, such as Enron and Tyco, among others. Although it takes an extreme disregard for the full disclosure principle to reach criminal penalties, it ensures that executives at publically traded companies are held to a high standard of financial reporting and honesty. Statement of Cash Flows The statement of cash flows is essential...
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...Introduction Reporting standards for public and privately held companies, presently up for debate as specific standards of disclosure for each type of business differ. Even though the understanding of full disclosure requirements for the user required by publically held companies, the question of full disclosure for privately held companies still lingers. When it comes to financial reporting and the regulations that govern the reports, all companies should report in the same manner, including total disclosure. This paper will focus on one set of GAAP standards utilized for all companies regardless of whether they are public or private. Throughout this paper, we will explore the aspects of why it would be cost effective for all organizations to report with one GAAP standard, consistency in reporting, and the importance of less confusion (relevance versus reliable) by utilizing one set of standard for both public and private companies, rather than the creation of separate standards. Cost Effectiveness The adoption of one GAAP set of standards for public and private companies still remains supported by several accounting groups. A modification created by the GAAP for private companies, this could lead to changes in the disclosure, presentation, and recognition standards. According to California CPA Education Foundation, “Cost has been one of the main issues for proponents of modifying the standards for private companies.” The panel has discovered that it is very difficult...
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...Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva Article information: Downloaded by University of Strathclyde At 07:57 17 October 2014 (PT) To cite this document: Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva, (2008),"Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 337 - 361 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570810863932 Downloaded on: 17 October 2014, At: 07:57 (PT) References: this document contains references to 70 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 10839 times since 2008* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: Jeffrey Unerman, (2008),"Strategic reputation risk management and corporate social responsibility reporting", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 362-364 Carol A. Adams, (2008),"A commentary on: corporate social responsibility reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 365-370 Pekka Aula, (2010),"Social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 38 Iss 6 pp. 43-49 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 117974 [] For Authors If you would like to...
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...Subject: Reduced Disclosure Regime (RDR) The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to the company request about a new initiative of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) known as the Reduced Disclosure Regime (RDR). The following clarifies what RDR is, its purpose, who it applies to, how it fits within the Corporations Act and any adoption issues which could be considered. In summary, the Reduced Disclosure Regime (RDR) has been created to allow for the preparation of less intricate and more useful general purpose financial reports for non-publicly accountable entities through the removal of unnecessary disclosures. It consists of two Australian Accounting Standards AASB 1053 Application of Tiers of Australian Accounting Standards and AASB 2010-2 Amendments to Australian Accounting Standards. These standards indicate the framework for preparation of financial reports and disclosures which may be omitted. Although RDR is expected to be beneficial to preparation of financial reports there are adoption issues surrounding compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). RDR is a direction for reporting entities (not publicly accountable) to prepare general purpose financial reports that are less complex with exemptions of certain disclosures which are deemed unnecessary; without diminishing relevance and increasing the consistency and transparency of information. This is part of a movement to make reports more meaningful and useful to the user...
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...|Topic in Mastery of the |Chapter 3 - Building Your |Chapter 4 – Brain Teasers: Using|Chapter 5 – Cases to Accompany | |Financial Accounting Research |Business Vocabulary: Defining |FARS to Untangle the Mystery |FARS [Related Assignments at End| |System (FARS) Through Cases 2nd |Terms and Solving Problems |[See Introduction and Example |of Cases] | |Edition by Wallace [Chapter 1 |Through FARS [See Introduction |pp. 4-1 to 4-7] | | |and 2 where noted] |and Example pp. 3-1 to 3-7] | | | |FASB, Standard Setting; GAAP; |Table 3.1 Accounting Standards; |1: How Many Standards Have Been |Case 12: Emerging Issues: The | |Governance; FARS [Chapter 1 – |Table 3.39 Regulated Industry; |Issued by FASB?; 2: Dissents |Agenda of FASB; [Case 8 Related:| |The Financial Accounting |Table 3.40 Specialized Industry |Portending Future?; 32: What |Does It Matter Where Guidance Is| |Research System (FARS) Primer.] |Considerations |Makes One GAAP Preferable to |Located?]; [Case 12 Related: Are| | | |Another?; 30: When Can Analogies|Accounting Rules to Blame?] | | | |Be Used?; 31: What Are the 10 | | | ...
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...ADVANCE FINANCIAL REPORTING EXAM QUIZZES Which of the following is not a required component of financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles? 1. Balance sheet. 2. Notes to financial statements. 3. Income statement. 4. President's letter to shareholders. When should an expenditure be recorded as an asset rather than an expense? 1. Always 2. If the amount is material. 3. When future benefit exists. 4. President's letter to shareholders Recognition of expense related to amortization of an intangible asset illustrates which principle of accounting? 1. Historical cost. 2. Expense recognition. 3. Full disclosure. 4. Revenue recognition. Allowing firms to estimate rather than physically count inventory at interim (quarterly) periods is an example of a 1. Trade-off between timeliness and verifiability. 2. Neutrality and consistency. 3. Verifiability and faithful representation. 4. Faithful representation and comparability. Which accounting assumption or principle is being violated if a company is a party to major litigation that it may lose and decides not to include the information in the financial statements because it may have a negative impact on the company's stock price? 1. Going concern. 2. Historical cost. 3. Expense recognition. 4. Full disclosure. What is the general approach as to when product costs are recognized as expenses? 1. In the period when the vendor invoice is received. 2. In the period when the...
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...Convention of Consistency According to the convention of consistency the accounting practices employed should be consistent, that is, applied without change in the coming periods also. In other words the practices should not be changed without sufficient reason. For example if stock is valued on the basis of 'cost or market price whichever is lower' the same method should be employed year after year. If depreciation is charged on straight line method, the same method of computing depreciation should be used thereafter. Consistency of the methods employed should be maintained due to various reasons. First of all it will help the users to make comparative study of financial statements by employing methods of intra-firm and inter-firm comparison. Again consistency increases the acceptability of the financial statements since the users are averse to frequent changes. Consistency should not be maintained at the cost of accounting development. There should be flexibility in the methods and practices employed. Otherwise it will stifle the growth of accounting thought. But full disclosure of the changes effected and its effect on the working results and financial statements of the business should be disclosed. This will help the users to ascertain the impact of the changes on the performance of the business. Convention of Full disclosure The very purpose of accounting is to facilitate the preparation of the income statement and the statement of financial position so that the operating...
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...Is the RDR the future in differential reporting for for-profit entities? By Scott Sharp In March 2012, the External Reporting Board (XRB) proposed a number of changes to the New Zealand Accounting Framework, which enabled them to come to a decision in terms of differential reporting for for-profit entities. The XRB have chosen to align New Zealand with Australia and implement NZ IFRS Reduced Disclosure Regime (RDR). Is this the right decision moving forward in differential reporting? There is to be a four-tier structure with different reporting standards applying to each tier, however the bottom two tier are only transitional which will be removed according to legislative changes enforced. This allows us to focus on tier 2 for differential reporting which in order to qualify for the new RDR approach entities must be not publicly accountable or non-large public sector entities which elect to be in tier 2. Entities that are publicly accountable either trade in the capital markets and/or holds assets for a broad group of outsiders as one of its primary businesses. For a for-profit public sector entity to be considered “large” and thus placed in tier 1, it must have expenses exceeding $30 million. Under the current approach to differential reporting that was issued in 1994, entities must; not be publicly accountable, have all of its owners as member of the governing body at the end of the reporting period, and be not large. The criteria for “large” is a little different being that...
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...Sarbanes-Oxley Act Dr. Hassan Ahmed Assistant Professor at Cameron University Abstract The complexity of business environment necessitates a set of required disclosures in a timely fashion. The full disclosure principle under U.S. GAAP is based on a vague definition that cannot be clearly implemented. The cost of disclosures can be significantly large and can have a negative impact on companies’ future earnings (small businesses). The purpose of this article is to examine the disclosure establishment of pre and post Enron, the effect of those disclosures on both corporations and on potential investors and to examine whether financial reporting quality improved with the passage of SOX. A total of 360 audited annual financial statements of the 500 fortune companies were selected. The paper will specifically concentrate disclosures on financial statements, Notes, supplementary (required or voluntary), and other expanded disclosures required by the SEC. The findings will shed light on our understanding about the intended and unintended consequence of SOX. 1.0 Introduction/Literature Review The purpose of SOX Act is to increase corporate transparency and accountability (Friedman, The Business Forum). Though SOX did not address the full disclosure required by the FASB, it simply expanded disclosures by establishing responsibilities. The company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) have to certify the accuracy of financial transactions and...
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...Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in Healthcare Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP was developed from different accounting entities, one of which was the Financial Accounting Standards Board or FASB. GAAP is a group of standards for accounting with common industry language developed over many years and used by businesses to organize financial information. The main purpose for GAAP is to make a standard way for anyone to pick up a financial statement and be able to compare financials using the same set of rules. GAAP is an accounting method used in health care facilities. These are specific policies that are used when the health care institution must make important financial decisions. To understand financial statements, the importance and relevance of GAAP must be understood. These standards guide accountants in the measuring and reporting of financial events of healthcare entities such as hospitals, clinics, not-for-profit groups, and other healthcare related businesses. The information used in these financial statements must be relevant, reliable, and comparable. Some of the concepts or principles used in the preparation of financial statements by way of GAAP are discussed below. Accrual Principle The accrual principle simply means that accounting transactions should be recorded in the period that they occur rather than when the cash flows related to them occur. In the healthcare field, all revenue earned for in-house patients should be recorded...
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...Accounting Theory • Docent Machteld Van den Bogaerd machteld.vandenbogaerd@kuleuven.be • Cursusmateriaal – handboek (aanbevolen – niet verplicht) Accounting Theory (Godfrey et al., 2010) – Toledo wetenschappelijke artikels, handouts, etc. Accounting Theory • Examen (75% vd score) – schriftelijk examen – gesloten boek – duurtijd: 2 uur – combinatie multiple choice & open vragen Accounting Theory • Opdracht (25% vd score) – literatuurstudie rond een welbepaald thema in groep (5 leden), onderwerpen zie Toledo – inhoud • beknopte bespreking (relevantie) thema • overzicht relevante/gehanteerde theorieën • gehanteerde onderzoeksmethode(n) • overzicht van de onderzoeksresultaten Accounting Theory – vorm • maximaal 5 bladzijden (zonder referenties) • referenties toevoegen in literatuurlijst • minstens 2 wetenschappelijke artikels per groepslid • 2 groepen werken rond hetzelfde onderwerp! Belangrijk: logisch gestructureerd en geïntegreerd verhaal - Peer assessment!! => Meer info: zie document ‘Enkele praktische tips’ op Toledo. Accounting Theory – deadlines • samenstelling groep + onderwerp (via e-mail): maandag 12 oktober 2015 • eerste versie (feedback): 5 november 2015 (enkel via e-mail) • finale versie (op papier + pdf) incl. peer review (op papier): 3 december 2015 • presentaties: 10 en 17 december 2015 + min. 2 vragen voor de parallelle groep. Presentatie: 10-tal minuten (achteraf mogelijkheid tot stellen van vragen door ...
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