Companies have a certain level of discretion concerning the methods they use to evaluate and report their financial performance. Investors are often concerned with whether the accounting method used is more aggressive or conservative as this will affect their ability…

Both IFRS and US GAAP stipulate that appropriate disclosures be made in relation to operating and finance leases. Due to the differences between these types of leases, however, some of the disclosure requirements are dissimilar. $$ \textbf{Lessor} \\ \begin{array}{|l|l|l|l|} \hline…

When a company wishes to obtain the use of an asset, it can either purchase or lease it. A lease is a contract between a lessor, the owner of an asset, and a lessee, the other party which is seeking…

Depending on the maturity structure of a company’s debt obligations, its debt (or portions of it) can be reported either in the non-current liabilities section or the current liability section of the balance sheet. Notes to the financial statements can…

Debt covenants are restrictions included in bond indentures that protect creditors by restricting the activities of the borrower. They are beneficial to the borrowers to the extent that they lower the risk to the creditors and thereby reduce the cost…

Typically, companies maintain the historical cost (sales proceeds) of bonds after issuance, and any discount or premium is amortized over the life of the bonds. Some companies report the bonds at their current fair values. Under IFRS, bonds are reported…

Bonds refer to the contractual promises made by a company to pay its lenders or bondholders cash in future in exchange for cash in the present. Generally speaking, bonds involve promises to make two types of future cash payments to…

When financial reporting and earnings quality are combined, the overall quality of financial reports from a user’s perspective may be viewed as spanning a continuum from the highest to the lowest point. Financial Reporting Quality Spectrum A quality spectrum provides…

Financial reporting quality relates to the quality of the information that is contained in financial reports, including note disclosures. High-quality reporting provides relevant, decision-useful information, which objectively represents the economic reality of a company’s activities during the reporting period. Further,…

Based on accounting conventions, certain items of revenue and expense are excluded from the net income calculation. These excluded items are referred to as ‘other comprehensive income.’ Under both IFRS and US GAAP, there are four types of items that…