57 St of CI Textbook Flashcards
(99 cards)
The change in a company’s equity during a period of time resulting
from transactions, events, and circumstances other than transactions with owners is known as ____________.
comprehensive income
Comprehensive income does not include new issues of __________ or dividend distributions.
shares.
What two parts is comprehensive income composed of?
net income and other comprehensive income.
What is the formula for comprehensive income?
Comprehensive income = Net income + Other Comprehensive Income
A measure of financial performance resulting from the aggregation of revenues,
expenses, gains, and losses that are not items of other comprehensive income is known as ____________________
net income (also known as net earnings)
Revenues, expenses, gains, and losses that are explicitly excluded from net income in specific accounting standards is Other _______________ income.
Other comprehensive income (OCI)
What do standard setters
specify that other comprehensive income includes?
- unrealized gains and losses on an available-for-sale debt investment portfolio
- unrealized gains and losses on cash flow hedges
- foreign currency translation adjustments
- certain pension adjustments
What are the two ways that entities may report comprehensive income?
- In one statement usually called the statement of comprehensive income, or
- In two consecutive statements: the statement of net income and the statement of comprehensive
income.
The computation of net income and comprehensive income are the same under either
alternative—only the format of the presentation differs.
What are the three ways that income statements provide useful information to financial statement users?
1.** Evaluate past performance.** Income statements enable financial statement users to evaluate the entity’s past performance. By disclosing separate components of revenues and expenses, income statements provide useful information about the entity’s overall past performance (i.e., the earnings) and identify the main factors that influence performance.
2. Predict future performance. Income statements have predictive value because they provide a basis for estimating future performance. Predictive value is an aspect of relevance. For example, a firm with a trend of earnings growth over the last 10 years may continue that growth in the future.
3. Assess risks or uncertainties of achieving future cash flows. Income statements provide information that is useful in assessing the risks or uncertainties of achieving future cash flows. Some items of income are more persistent in nature than others, making them strong indicators of future cash flows. For example, revenue from normal sales tends to persist from year to year. However, a gain from the sale of a specialized piece of equipment is unlikely to reoccur in the following year.
What are three main limitations of income statements?
- **Exclude certain items. **Companies cannot measure certain revenues, expenses, gains, and losses reliably and therefore do not report them on the income statements. Unreliable information would result in financial statements that lack faithful representation, one of the fundamental qualitative characteristics identified in the conceptual framework. For example, assume an entity has been sued and a loss is likely. If the firm cannot reasonably estimate the loss, it would not report it on the income statement.
- Depend on accounting methods selected. The measurement of income is dependent upon the accounting methods selected. For example, identical companies that purchase the same asset but depreciate that asset using different depreciation methods will report a different net income, resulting in reduced comparability.
- Require extensive judgment and estimation. In general, allowing managers to use judgment when making accounting policy choices that best reflect the economic reality of a transaction will enhance the usefulness of the financial statements. However, due to significant subjectivity and estimation uncertainties involved in financial reporting, management can bias their judgments to enhance the entity’s financial performance by manipulating revenues, gains, expenses, and losses. Even if management is not intentionally biasing reported earnings, different judgments will lead to different income numbers, resulting in reduced comparability.
The degree to which reported income provides financial statement users with useful information for predicting future firm performance is known as _________________________.
Earnings quality
What are two factors impacting earnings quality?
- Earnings quality is dependent upon whether the components of earnings presented are permanent or transitory in nature.
- Management will sometimes engage in earnings management by using the discretion afforded under the accounting standards to manipulate earnings to meet desired goals.
In assessing earnings quality, financial statement users gauge the portion of reported earnings that is permanent versus those that are __________________.
transitory.
Permanent components of earnings are likely to continue into the ____________. For example, earnings from sales revenue from regular customers are likely to continue into the ______________.
future.
Transitory components of earnings are unlikely to continue in the _______________. For example, gains or losses from the sale of equipment are usually transitory.
future
Permanent earnings result in ___________ earnings quality whereas transitory earnings result in ____________ earnings quality.
higher; lower
Elements presented _______________in the statement of comprehensive income are typically more permanent than those included _____________ in the statement.
earlier; later
Show a chart of line items commonly viewed as permanent and transitory.
Earnings Management Approaches Used in Practice
A survey of auditors provides a summary of the approaches management uses to manipulate earnings. The most common approach is through the manipulation of expenses and losses (52% of the occurrences of an earnings management attempt) followed by the manipulation of revenues (22% of the occurrences) and opportunities around business combinations (13%), as illustrated in Exhibit 5.2.8
Accounting standards allow managers to make judgments that affect the reported earnings number so that they can report the firm’s financial position and performance in the most accurate and informative manner possible. A company’s management understands the company’s financial position and performance best. Thus, managers who are honest and have
a desire to communicate accurate information to their stakeholders can do so.
However, some managers may use the areas of judgment inherent in financial reporting
to manage earnings in an opportunistic—and sometimes fraudulent—fashion. For example, managers must determine which expenditures for equipment are material enough to record as an asset as opposed to an expense. They will likely expense a stapler but record a tractor as an asset. There is a gray area in this type of decision that provides an opportunity for earnings management. For example, should we expense a chair or record it as an asset? Of course, recording an asset for a material expenditure that the authoritative literature clearly designates as an expense constitutes fraud. Extreme forms of earnings management are fraudulent and thus illegal.
The flexibility in accounting standards gives management the ability to manipulate its reported earnings to meet company objectives.
One of managers’ overriding goals for the earnings presentation is to meet or exceed analysts’ earnings
forecasts. Financial analysts are trained to analyze a company, summarize relevant financial information for investors, and provide an opinion about whether investors should buy or sell stock in
a company. In addition, financial analysts publish forecasts of a company’s sales and earnings. If
the company’s actual earnings fall below this forecast, the market will most often react negatively,
causing a drop in stock price.
Managers are also motivated to manage earnings to:
- Beat benchmarks such as prior-quarter earnings or earnings from the same quarter of a prior year.
- Avoid reporting a loss.
- Present a firm’s earnings as a smooth, upward trend.
- Increase their own compensation when bonus plans are based on the net income (or stock
price) of the firm.