Primary Financial Statements Exposure Draft
Executive Summary:
The 'Primary Financial Statements' project came out of the IASB's work on
‘Better Communication in Financial Reporting’, which among other things aims to
increase comparability and transparency of companies' reporting. The aim of
this project is to improve how information is communicated in the financial
statements, with a focus on information about performance in the statement of
profit or loss. There are three major parts of the exposure draft: 1) defining subtotals on the face of the
P&L, 2) disaggregating information in
the notes to the financial statements, and 3)
improved disclosure/reconciliations of management performance measures (MPMs).
The exposure draft was published on 17th Dec 2019, with the comment period
ending on 30th June 2020.
Key take-aways:
1. Defined
Subtotals in the P&L: Currently there are no subtotals defined under IFRS
between Revenues and Profit & Loss. Consequently companies define a
lot of subtotals differently: of 100 companies surveyed by the IASB, 63
reported 'Operating Profit' in the financial statements, and they used at
least nine different definitions. The Board therefore proposes to split
the P&L into four categories with three newly defined subtotals:
a) Operating (includes revenue, employee benefits, etc…),
leading to 'Operating Profit'.
b) Integral Associates & Joint Ventures leading to 'Operating Profit and Income and Expenses from Integral
Associates and Joint Ventures'.
c) Investing (includes 'Share of Profit or Loss of non-integral associates
and joint ventures, and dividends) leading to 'Profit before financing and income tax'.
d) Financing (includes unwinding of discount on pension liabilities and
provisions) leading to 'Profit before tax'.
Note that 'Operating Profit should include the items that come from a companies' main business activities, which for certain industries (eg banking) means reclassifing some items that would normally appear in the investing or financing category into the operating category.
Note that 'Operating Profit should include the items that come from a companies' main business activities, which for certain industries (eg banking) means reclassifing some items that would normally appear in the investing or financing category into the operating category.
2. Disaggregating Information: Operating expenses can be disclosed by nature or by function*, whichever provides the "most useful information". This would remove the option companies had to present the analysis of expenses in the notes only. In addition, 'Unusual income and expenses' - those with "limited predictive value", and that are not expected to arise again for "several annual reporting periods" - should be disclosed in a single note which includes a narrative description of them.
3. Management
performance measures (MPMs) disclosure: These include adjusted subtotals such as
'adjusted operating profit', and will need to be disclosed in a single
note. This note will need to contain;
a) reconciliation
between the MPM and the most directly comparable IFRS subtotal or total,
b) description of why the MPM
communicates management's view of performance, including a) how the MPM
is calculated, and b) how the measure provides useful information about
the entity's financial performance.
c) The income tax effect and
effect on non-controlling interests.
d) An explanation of any
changes in how the entity calculates its MPM or which MPMs it provides.
Note that there will still be no definition for EBITDA, as the Board found that there was a very wide range of definitions.
Note that there will still be no definition for EBITDA, as the Board found that there was a very wide range of definitions.
For more information:
Primary Financial
Statements Exposure Draft:
* Explanation of
operating expenses by nature vs by function:
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