CFAS Guide for Accounting Students
CFAS Guide for Accounting Students
ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING
USERS OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION No money involved
Primary Users – general purpose financial reports are Only recognized when they occur
primarily directed (must rely) Income when earned and Expense when incurred
o Existing and Potential Investors – risk/return
provided by investment LIMITATIONS OF FINANCIAL REPORTING
o Lenders and Other Creditors – if amounts owing to Don’t provide all information needed by primary users
them will be paid b) Not designed to show value of entity, estimate value of entity
Provide common information, can’t accommodate every request for info
d) Based on estimate and judgment rather than exact depiction
Other Users – reports are not directed to them primarilyMANAGEMENT STEWARDSHIP – predicting how management will use entity’s
o Employees – stability/profitability of entity and their
economic resources in
benefits future periods
o Customers – continuance of entity Your peso today is worth more than tomorrow.” TIME VALUE MONEY
o Governments and their Agencies – allocation of
resources and activities, determine taxation policies CHAPTER 3: QUALITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
o Public – trend and the range of its activities QUALITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
OBJECTIVE OF FINANCIAL REPORTING o Qualities/attributes that make info useful to users
o Forms the foundations of the CF 1. FUNDAMENTAL QUALITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
o Overall objective of Financial Reporting: provide financial info about o Application:
the reporting entity useful to primary users in making decisions about Identify if economic phenomenon is useful
providing resources to the entity Identify type of information (relevant and faithfully
Why, purpose, goal of accounting represented)
o Financial Reporting – provision of financial info about an entity to Determine if information is available
external users useful for economic decisions and effectiveness of entity’s 1. RELEVANCE – capacity of information to influence a decision
management o INGREDIENTS:
Annual financial statements – way of providing FS to external users 1. Predictive Value – forecast/predict future
Nonfinancial information – description of products/listing officers outcome
and directors 2. Confirmatory Value – if it provides feedback
TARGET USERS/PRIMARY USERS about previous evaluations
o Have the most critical and immediate need for financial information o MATERIALITY – practical rule that strict adherence to
o Provide resources to the entity GAAP is not required when items are not significant
enough to affect the FS
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF FINANCIAL REPORTING (to provide information…) 1. Doctrine of Convenience
a) Economic Decisions – investors to buy, sell, hold equity/creditors to 2. Subquality of relevance based on
provide or settle loans nature/magnitude
b) Assessing Cash Flow Prospects – principal and interest payments, 3. Relative size rather than absolute size, may be
future net cash inflows to entity immaterial for another
c) Economic Resources and Claims 4. ITEM OF MATERIALITY - if it could reasonably
Economic Resources – assets affect economic decision
Claims – liabilities and equity 5. Rounding off amounts
Liquidity – availability of cash in near future to cover currently o IMPORTANT ASPECTS
maturing obligation a) Could Reasonably be Expected to Influence
Solvency – availability of cash over a long term to meet financial b) Obscuring Information – FS is not readily
commitment understood/not clearly expressed
Financial Position – financial strength and weakness c) Primary Users – primarily affected by general
d) Changes in Economic Resources and Claims purpose FS
Financial Performance – results of operations, assess ability to o FACTORS OF MATERIALITY
generate future cash inflows from operations 1. Size of the Item
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2. Size of the Entity d) Timeliness – financial info must be available and communicated early
3. Nature of the Item Cost – pervasive constraint on info
2. FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION – represented in words Cost Constraint – consideration of the cost incurred, judgment
and numbers, process
description/figures must match what really existed, Benefit should exceed cost incurred
properly accounted Cost Benefit Principle, financial information is not free
o INGREDIENTS
a) Completeness – facilitates understanding and
avoids erroneous disclosure, all necessary
description/explanation
Standard of Adequate Disclosure – CHAPTER 4: FS AND REPORTING ENTITY, UNDERLYING
principle of full disclosure, clearly ASSUMPTIONS
reported
Notes to FS – narrative FINANCIAL STATEMENTS – info about economic resources, claims
description/disaggregation against entity, changes in economic resources and claims
b) Neutrality – without/free from bias, principle of o Statement of Financial Position - ALE
fairness o Statement of Financial Performance - IE
Prudence – exercise of care and caution, o Other Statements and Notes
deal with uncertainties TYPES OF FS
Conservatism – alternative that has 1. Consolidated FS – both parent and its
least effect on equity subsidiaries
Contingent Loss –reliably 2. Unconsolidated FS – parent alone
measured 3. Combined FS – comprises 2 or more
Contingent Gain – not entities not linked by a parent and subsidiary
recognized, disclosed relationship
c) Free from Error – no errors/omissions, accurately as an estimate REPORTING ENTITY – entity required to prepare financial statements,
Measurement Uncertainty – monetary amount can’t be not a legal entity
observed, estimated REPORTING PERIOD – period when FS are prepared
Substance Over Form – substance prevails o ALE – end of reporting period
o IE – during reporting period
2. ENAHNCING QUALITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS – increase the o Comparative Information for atleast one preceeding reporting
usefulness of the financial period
Information
a) Comparability – ability to bring together, likeness and difference
Horizontal Comparability (Intracomparability) – within an
entity, one accounting period to another ACCOUNTING ASSUMPTIONS (POSTULATES) – basic notions or
Comparability between entities – 2 or more entities engaged in fundamental premises, accounting process is based,
same industry bedrock/foundation of accounting
Dimensional Comparability (Intercomparability) – across 1. GOING CONCERN – continuing in operation indefinitely/
entities foreseeable future
Consistency – uniform application from period to period within very foundation of cost principle
entity, helps to achieve comparability abandoned when there’s persistent losses and operations
Full disclosure of the change terminated
b) Understandability – comprehensible/intelligible, clearly/concisely, for 2. ACCOUNTING CONCEPT – entity is separate from the owner to
users who have reasonably knowledge of business have fair presentation, each business is independent, single
c) Verifiability – implies consensus that is supported by evidence to assure economic entity
users 3. TIME PERIOD – completely accurate report and can’t be
Direct Verification – direct observation obtained until entity is
Indirect Verification – uses formula, technique, recalculating dissolved/liquidated, one year period