Model Financial Statements for Public and Private Companies (Paperback, 3rd Revised edition)

The purpose of this book, as set out in the earlier editions, is to help those who either prepare or audit financial statements through the maze of regulations they must comply with. This book continues to do this by setting out model sets of financial statements for different sizes of company (and for the same company under different requirements) with detailed commentaries which cover the disclosure requirements and their derivation, together with disclosure checklists which include all the disclosure requirements for companies in a structure which allows the checklists to be tailored to the company on which they are being used. The 1990s will be seen as a time of two contradictory trends in financial reporting. On the one hand, dissatisfaction with the corporate reporting methods of listed and other public interest companies has led to an increase in the number of rules affecting companies. The chief proponent in this field has been the Accounting Standards Board which has made a number of major changes to the structure of financial statements, including the introduction of cash flow statements; reform of the profit and loss account to distinguish continuing and discontinued activities; the virtual abolition of extraordinary items; and the introduction of a new statement of total recognized gains and losses. The result of those changes will be to provide more information to users of the statements in a new style of presentation. It will mean that the more complex the activities of a company, the more complex and lengthy its financial statements will be. On the other hand, there has been a trend to reduce the burden on the smaller company. The Accounting Standards Board, in its draft Statement of Principles, recognizes the cost of preparing information as a relevant factor in determining whether practices should become standard. It has used this principle in exempting small companies (as defined in the Companies Act 1985) from the requirements to prepare cash-flow statements (although the merits of that decision have been questioned, especially by bankers). In addition, the government has significantly relaxed the disclosure requirements for small companies preparing accounts for periods ended after 16 November 1992. There is thus rapidly emerging one set of rules for listed public interest and larger private companies and an alternative set for small companies. The financial statements in this book keep to their original purpose of providing an example of model disclosures, but also take account of these changes. As a result they now consist of: a public limited company, including consolidated financial statements, drawn up to comply with the additional requirements of the Stock Exchange, and which now includes examples of the revised form of profit and loss account, statement of total recognized gains and losses and a cash-flow statement; a private limited company which complies as far as possible with all disclosure requirements and provides a cash-flow statement; which is based on A. Layout Limited but takes advantage of the minimum disclosure requirements; which is A. Layout Limited abbreviated for filing with The Registrar of Companies; a dormant company, which has taken advantage of the opportunity to dispense with auditors. The statements are drawn up under the current disclosure provisions and in accordance with best accounting practice at 1 January 1993. They give examples of disclosures which can either be extracted directly and used in a set of financial statements or will act as a basis to be adapted according to the company's circumstances. Accompanying each set is a detailed commentary which is cross-referenced to the disclosure requirement and gives particulars of the necessary disclosure.