Information of any sort is pertinent if it would influence a choice. Accounting information is relevant if it would make a difference in an enterprise decision. For instance, when Colorado Group Ltd issues financial claims, the information in the statements is considered relevant because it provides a basis for forecasting future profits. Accounting information is also relevant to business decisions because it confirms or corrects past prospects. Thus, Colorado Group Ltd's financial claims help forecast future events and provide feedback about prior objectives for the financial health of the business. The relevance of information is affected by its materiality. Information is materials if its omission or misstatement could have an impact on users' decisions. Information that is immaterial do not need to be separately identified. For example, if Colorado Group Ltd sold a coathanger for $1 this would be looked at immaterial; the sales would be saved in the accounting information although it wouldn't normally be separately recognized in the financial assertions.
Reliability of information means that the information can be depended on. For being reliable, accounting information must be without undue mistake. Also, the information must be considered a faithful representation of what it purports to be. If an entity's financial claims article sales of $20 million when it actually possessed sales of $10 billion, then your statements are not a faithful representation of the entity's financial performance. Accounting information must be neutral, that is, impartial - it must not be selected, well prepared or shown to favour one set of interested users over another.
To be reliable, information must be complete. Further. If information is to faithfully stand for transactions and happenings, it is necessary to take into account those orders and events regarding to their element and economic simple fact, rather than only considering their legal form. For instance, if the entity transfers ownership of an asset but continues to take pleasure from the benefits of possession, accountants do not necessarily discover it as a sale. Reliability also incorporates prudence, that is, extreme caution not to overstate income and assets, or even to understate expenses and liabilities.
Comparability
Let's say that you and a friend kept an eye on your height every year as you were growing up. If you measured your height in feet as well as your friend assessed hers in centimeters, it might be difficult to compare your levels. A conversion would be necessary. In accounting, comparability results when different entities use the same accounting principles.
At one level, accounting standards are fairly comparable because they are based on certain qualitative characteristics, basic principles and assumptions. However, expectations still allow for some deviation in methods. For example, there will vary ways to evaluate inventory/goods held for sale. Often these different methods effect in different amounts of profit. To make evaluation across entities easier, each entity must disclose the accounting methods used. Through the disclosures, the external end user can determine if the financial information is comparable and make an effort to make adjustments. Sadly, changing the accounting numbers of entities that use different methods is much less easy as converting your elevation from foot to centimeters.
One factor that make a difference the ability to compare two entities is their choice of balance day. Most entities choose 30 June as their balance date, but other schedules are also used. For instance, check out Colorado Group Ltd's balance time. Retailers often use balance schedules that coincide with the finish of weekly. However, this practice results in some years having 52 weeks whereas in other years (and for other entities) financial claims may be for a 53-week period.
Users of accounting information also want to compare the same entity's financial results over time. For example, to observe Colorado Group Ltd's revenue over several years, you would need to find out that the same ideas have been used from time to year; normally, you may be 'comparing apples with oranges'. Comparability is unhappy unless an entity uses the same accounting ideas and methods from yr to season. Thus, if an entity chooses one inventory accounting method in the first 12 months of procedures, it is expected to continue to use that same method in succeeding years. When financial information has been reported over a steady basis, the financial statements permit meaningful research of trends within an entity.
An entity can transform to a new method of accounting if management can justify that the new method produces more important financial information or if it's required by way of a change in accounting specifications. In the entire year in which the change occurs, the change must be disclosed so that users of the claims are aware of the lack of consistency.
Understandability
Information within general-purpose financial records also needs to be understandable. But whether information is understandable will depend on the capabilities of the individual user. In keeping this qualitative characteristic, preparers should be mindful of users of general-purpose financial records who've the proficiency to comprehend the significance of accounting practices, i. e. users who understand the effect of choice accounting methods on financial assertions. It is not practical to require financial assertions to be understandable to novices. Entitles often need to survey on complex trades that cannot always be simplified to the magnitude that someone with no understanding of accounting could understand them.
