Accounting – FRS 10: Events after the Reporting Period
After the reporting period, some events may require you to adjust your business’s financial statement. The FRS 10 clarifies how and when these adjustments should be accounted for. It also prescribes the necessary disclosures that your business should give regarding the date its financial statements were released and the events that featured after the reporting period. Here is a guide to help you understand the FRS 10.
Going concern
According to this standard, all bookkeepers, includes bookkeeping services providers, should not prepare their business records in terms of going concern if the events after the reporting period show that the going concern assumption is unnecessary. This implies that you need to determine if the going concern assumption is appropriate especially after deterioration in the financial position and operating results. If you find that the going concern concept is inappropriate, FRS 10 requires you to make fundamental changes in your basis of accounting. These adjustments sometimes might be confusing but you can always refer to the FRS 10 for clear instructions.
Dividends
If your business declares dividends to equity instruments holders after the reporting period, then, those dividends should not be recognized as liabilities at the end of that period. These dividends should be disclosed in the notes section according to the FRS 1.
Disclosure
When it comes to disclosure of the adjustments following events after the reporting period, your business must disclose when the financial statements were authorized for issue. It should also disclose who authorized the issue of the financial statements. If you, as the business owner have the power to amend the financial statements after issue, then this fact should be disclosed.
Sometimes, your business may receive important information after the reporting period regarding conditions that where in existence at the end of the reporting time. For instance, when the account receivable (Also see Accounting: Managing Accounts Receivable Could Save Your Business) is no longer recoverable. In such a case, you should update all the disclosures relating to those conditions. Such updates are very important to individuals and other businesses that use your business’s financial statements.
Not all the events that occur after the reporting period call for adjustments in the financial statements. However, in such cases, non disclosure can affect the economic decisions made by people who use your business’s financial statements. Therefore, your business should disclose the nature of the event, and an estimate of the event’s financial effect.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that FRS 10 applies to all accounting periods beginning on or after 1st January 2008. If you are looking for accounting firms in Singapore to guide you through this financial reporting standard, we are ready to help you.