Corporation Interim Reporting
Interim reporting refers to “the reporting of the financial results of a period which is shorter than a full financial year” (“IAS 34 — Interim Financial Reporting,” 2019). The interim reporting by publicly listed companies involves the preparation of financial statements including balance sheet, cash flow statement, income statement, and changes in equity statement on a quarterly basis. It is not mandatory for companies to do interim reporting under US GAAP and IFRS and there is no defined frequency of reporting.
However, they provide a checklist that companies must follow for preparing interim financial reports and supporting documentation. IAS 34 and ASC 270 require companies to provide a complete or condensed form of financial statements. It is not possible for companies and auditors to perform extensive reviews of business activities and financial accounts. Therefore, interim reporting is mostly unaudited.
Corporation Financial Statement
The hypothetical financial statement entailing interim reporting is submitted in an Excel workbook.
Corporation: GAAP and IFRS
The requirements of interim reporting by the US GAAP and IFRS are similar. They do not expect all companies to provide interim reports as it is not mandatory for them. They both require companies to follow the prescribed checklist including the application of consistent accounting principles and format and the completeness of financial information. Firstly, there is a difference in the allocation of costs in interim periods as the US GAAP (ASC 270) considers interim periods “as integral parts of an annual reporting period” as opposed to the IFRS (IAS 34) (Ernst & Young LLP, 2018).
The US GAAP requires cost allocation to each interim period, whereas the IFRS requires expected cost benefits over interim periods to be recognized as deferred assets. Secondly, under the US GAAP, companies use the annual worldwide tax rate, whereas the IFRS requires them to use the tax rate applied to a particular jurisdiction where interim reports are prepared (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield, 2016).
Corporation Segments
Segment reporting is a process that allows companies to identify business activities or areas from which they generate revenue and incur expenses (Beams, Anthony, Bettinghaus, & Smith, 2017). The US GAAP (ASC 280) requires matrix-style organizations to report segments based on their products or services instead of geography or other bases.
Furthermore, the disclosure of segment liabilities is not needed. On the other hand, IFRS 8 requires all companies to use the management approach for identifying segments (business or geography) and also disclose segment liabilities. The segment reporting under the US GAAP is submitted in an Excel workbook.
Corporation Transparency
The segment reporting based on products and services is useful for improving transparency. Such reporting helps in tracking the business activities of a company and identifying its high or low performing divisions. Shareholders need disaggregated information that could help them in evaluating the firm’s sustainability and future growth potential. They are better informed about the impact of the firm’s decisions on its financial performance, and they can determine whether its management is responsible for making strategies that will improve its earnings (Beams et al., 2017).
Corporation: Suggestions to Improve
It is suggested that companies should use different measures for segment reporting. A firm, which operates in different markets and sells various products, should not limit its reporting to a single basis of reporting, e.g., geography or business. It should also provide details of strategies and their impact on different segments.
Moreover, companies should also provide details of each segment’s liabilities. It will help in estimating every contribution and evaluating financial performance (Kieso et al., 2016). It is also recommended that companies should report the operational results and details of their international segments’ assets and liabilities before and after foreign currency translation. This will help in assessing the real impact of foreign operations on the group’s business.
Corporation: Impact
The companies, which are operating in multiple markets, are exposed to the exchange rate risk as they have to translate transactions denominated in foreign currencies in their financial accounts reported in their base currency. All such transactions could have different values if the exchange rate changed. Favorable exchange rate movements can increase the value of the company’s assets and earnings from its operations in a foreign market, whereas unfavorable changes increase its liabilities and lower its asset-value and profitability (Kieso et al., 2016).
Corporation: Two Methods
The temporal method uses historical exchange rates for converting foreign currency transactions. It implies that this method records financial transactions by using the exchange rate prevailing on the date of their occurrence. On the other hand, the current-rate method translates all foreign currency transactions by using the current exchange rate on the date of the preparation of financial reports (Kieso et al., 2016). Companies more commonly use this method for reporting purposes. Functional currency refers to the primary currency used in a foreign market. The use of the two currency-translation methods depends on the functional currency of the foreign country is indicated in Table 1.
Table 1. Impact of Functional Currency.
Corporation: Translation Process
The hypothetical example of currency translation is provided in the Excel workbook.
References
Beams, F. A., Anthony, J. H., Bettinghaus, B., & Smith, K. (2017). Advanced accounting (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Ernst & Young LLP. (2018). US GAAP versus IFRS – The basics. Web.
IAS 34 — Interim Financial Reporting. (2019). Web.
Kieso, D. E., Weygandt, J. J., & Warfield, T. D. (2016). Intermediate accounting (16th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.