Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

output and input cost rather meaningless”. Contradicting this was Khumawala and Gordon‟s (1997) study whose participants considered that donations were earned, i.e. matched, when the money was used for the designated purpose and not upon receipt, as required by GAAP. The two concerns with the accounting basis complexity that this study will investigate are in relation to, first, the certainty of receipt, with regards to when to record pledges, and second, whether the matching concept is valid for charities. This research will also determine whether these two concerns are still occurring in charities and ascertain which accounting basis charities use. If the concerns occur in the charities, the study will also determine why charities use, or do not use the matching concept and why they use their particular method to record donations and pledges, thus determining reasons for their actions. Next, the complexities around property, plant and equipment are identified. 3.2.2 Property, Plant and Equipment Property, plant and equipment (PPE) comprise the buildings and equipment used in a charity‟s operation (Accounting Standards Committee, 1984) that the charity will keep for longer than twelve months: it is also known as „fixed assets‟. The complexities arise, with regards to when it is appropriate to record each PPE and if recorded whether PPEs are depreciated. GAAP will determine when to record and depreciate PPE, which will be looked at next. 3.2.2.1 GAAP R120 (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, 1999) states that the initial cost of a fixed asset must be recorded and depreciated (paragraph 5.8). For PPE that are donated, their value should be fair value, but how fair value is ascertained is not detailed. The NFPFRG (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, 2007a) has similar requirements (paragraph 4.79) but stipulates that the value of PPE should be reviewed regularly to ensure the value has not been impaired (paragraph 4.83), which specifically relates to New Zealand International Accounting Standard (NZ IAS) 36 Impairment (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, 2006). With regards to donated PPE, as with the R120, the NFPFRG determines valuation at fair value. This is stipulated in NZ IAS 16 paragraph 15.1 (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, 2004b). NZ IAS 16 paragraph 6 defines fair value as “the amount for which an asset could be exchanged between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm‟s 52
length transaction”. This definition assumes that there is a recognised market for the particular PPE, which is not always the case (Gillingham & Yeoh, 2007). A lack of guidance is also seen in paragraph 4.125 which states that these assets should be depreciated where appropriate, but does not detail what are appropriate circumstances. This reflects paragraph 43 of IAS 16 which stipulates that each PPE should be separately depreciated (International Accounting Standards Board, 2008c). In England and Wales the SORP paragraph 253, stipulates that all PPE should be capitalised and, under paragraph 259, all should be depreciated (Charity Commission, 2005). In relation to donated PPE the SORP paragraph 255(c) states that donated assets are required to be recorded at their current value at the date of the gift, with again no elaboration as to how to determine current value. Neither New Zealand GAAP nor the SORP provide any practical guidance as to how charities can determine „fair value‟ or „current value‟. A lack of instruction leads to inconsistencies in the application of these paragraphs, meaning a wide variety of valuation methods are utilised by the charities sector. This study will determine how charities put a figure on „fair value‟, particularly in relation to PPE that has been donated. Next, studies relating to the PPE and any additional complexities that they highlighted, will be investigated. 3.2.2.2 Studies International studies have found that there are three principal methods by which charitable organisations value their PPE (Accounting Standards Committee, 1984; Anthony, 1978; Ashford, 1986; Beechy & Zimmerman, 1992; Bird & Morgan-Jones, 1981; Connolly & Hyndman, 2000; Hines & Jones, 1992; Hooper et al., 2008; Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, 2006; Mautz, 1989; Newberry, 1992; Rees & Dixon, 1983; Williams & Palmer, 1998): 1. Written off on acquisition; or 2. Capitalised and not depreciated; or 3. Capitalised and depreciated i.e. GAAP. With regards to whether expenditure on PPE should be capitalised or expensed on acquisition, expensing has the advantage of showing more clearly the cash-flow effects of purchasing PPE. This was supported by Mautz who recommended expensing PPE rather than capitalising (Mautz, 1989). The disadvantage of expensing is that it excludes substantial resources of the charitable organisation from the balance sheet by expensing 53
Page 1 and 2:
Understandability and Transparency
Page 3 and 4:
CHAPTER 2: REGULATORY & CONCEPTUAL
Page 5 and 6:
4.3.3 Axiom 3 - The possibility of
Page 7 and 8:
6.6 Summary .......................
Page 9 and 10:
Appendix One - Statement of Financi
Page 11 and 12:
Abbreviations AASB Australian Accou
Page 13 and 14:
Related Research Outputs The follow
Page 15 and 16:
Acknowledgements My journey through
Page 17 and 18:
Abstract Access to charities‟ fin
Page 19 and 20: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introdu
Page 21 and 22: More importantly the study will loo
Page 23 and 24: Unerman and O‟Dwyer (2008, p. 801
Page 25 and 26: adopted here is clarified, as the l
Page 27 and 28: March 1999. Further, a study by the
Page 29 and 30: those by: Vatter (1947); Anthony (1
Page 31 and 32: CHAPTER 2: REGULATORY & CONCEPTUAL
Page 33 and 34: (k) The erection, laying out, maint
Page 35 and 36: Before looking at the legal structu
Page 37 and 38: 2.3.4 Problems As with charity nome
Page 39 and 40: yet to be determined. This ensures
Page 41 and 42: per annum (Charities Commission, 20
Page 43 and 44: certain cases there will be concept
Page 45 and 46: The focus of the Charities Commissi
Page 47 and 48: Unlike incorporated societies, the
Page 49 and 50: 2.4.4.4 Future conceptual framework
Page 51 and 52: problems with New Zealand‟s regul
Page 53 and 54: This research seeks to identify if
Page 55 and 56: charities” (Charity Commission, 2
Page 57 and 58: statements in different documents t
Page 59 and 60: seek to identify whether a lack of
Page 61 and 62: In the international arena transpar
Page 63 and 64: elevance is compromised. The link b
Page 65 and 66: 3.2 Complexities in Charities’ Fi
Page 67 and 68: 3.2.1 Accounting basis The „Accou
Page 69: application of the appropriate GAAP
Page 73 and 74: There are four arguments against de
Page 75 and 76: Financial Accounting Standards Boar
Page 77 and 78: al., 2008; Newberry, 1992; Rees & D
Page 79 and 80: However, the notion of control is a
Page 81 and 82: Kilcullen et al., 2007b). Charities
Page 83 and 84: the amount of money spent on admini
Page 85 and 86: This research seeks to identify wha
Page 87 and 88: As a result of the literature revie
Page 89 and 90: the elements of the world, or rathe
Page 91 and 92: come about through the mutually sim
Page 93 and 94: Research reports from other organis
Page 95 and 96: clearer picture of the interviewee
Page 97 and 98: In England, Palmer and Randall (200
Page 99 and 100: APPROACHING PARTICIPANTS Within the
Page 101 and 102: availability of charities‟ financ
Page 103 and 104: As credibility was usually achieved
Page 105 and 106: clarifications. This approach was u
Page 107 and 108: to understand the meaning behind an
Page 109 and 110: analysis is both complete and impar
Page 111 and 112: subjective realities (Chua, 1986).
Page 113 and 114: To assure the study was dependable
Page 115 and 116: CHAPTER 5: ACCOUNTABILITY 5.1 Intro
Page 117 and 118: emphasis on the definition of accou
Page 119 and 120: supposition was that a lack of resp
Page 121 and 122:
general public (Charity Commission,
Page 123 and 124:
assumes the other is monitoring the
Page 125 and 126:
performance reporting rather than f
Page 127 and 128:
appropriate performance information
Page 129 and 130:
examiners and the Charities‟ Boar
Page 131 and 132:
which was set up in 2003. Charity a
Page 133 and 134:
Western Australia, all financial st
Page 135 and 136:
The fourth level of independent exa
Page 137 and 138:
What are the major areas of concern
Page 139 and 140:
subset of good accountability pract
Page 141 and 142:
Programme refers to a meeting of ob
Page 143 and 144:
ecording property, plant and equipm
Page 145 and 146:
Figure 6-2 Dimensions of Financial
Page 147 and 148:
Because the [charity‟s] finances
Page 149 and 150:
„selling a story‟ makes them fo
Page 151 and 152:
that you can use it [the stove] for
Page 153 and 154:
the organisation pay to have those
Page 155 and 156:
contributors twice - first to fund
Page 157 and 158:
There is a need to record restricte
Page 159 and 160:
charity will have control of a seco
Page 161 and 162:
of accountants involved in Charitie
Page 163 and 164:
their decision making. One auditor
Page 165 and 166:
Whilst the sample in this thesis is
Page 167 and 168:
Another problem my study found was
Page 169 and 170:
framework funders would not be able
Page 171 and 172:
The lack of professionalism must be
Page 173 and 174:
New Zealand‟s charitable purpose
Page 175 and 176:
We have since February of last year
Page 177 and 178:
analysis was done of the first comp
Page 179 and 180:
Also the idea of members „taking
Page 181 and 182:
The transparency of their organisat
Page 183 and 184:
7.3 Monitoring As discussed in Chap
Page 185 and 186:
Zealand] Statistics Department poin
Page 187 and 188:
There was a sub-committee running [
Page 189 and 190:
useful for smaller organisation and
Page 191 and 192:
change and they‟re doing a good j
Page 193 and 194:
problem that you‟ve [pause] we‟
Page 195 and 196:
legislation and monitoring. Of part
Page 197 and 198:
CHAPTER 8: PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILI
Page 199 and 200:
In New Zealand both the Controller
Page 201 and 202:
what proportion of their charitable
Page 203 and 204:
None of the above reasons includes
Page 205 and 206:
Charities Commission publication
Page 207 and 208:
achieve an appropriate level of per
Page 209 and 210:
more effectively in order to increa
Page 211 and 212:
eneficiaries‟ needs are met is an
Page 213 and 214:
As well as setting aside reserves,
Page 215 and 216:
The important aspect of the propose
Page 217 and 218:
Mostly they [the funders] are worki
Page 219 and 220:
eyond financial health to include
Page 221 and 222:
8.4.4 Prescribed performance report
Page 223 and 224:
impact they have on their beneficia
Page 225 and 226:
statements, but also other mechanis
Page 227 and 228:
compare different charitable organi
Page 229 and 230:
shock when their accounts are eithe
Page 231 and 232:
9.4 Academic Contribution This rese
Page 233 and 234:
Outcomes (Effectiveness) Figure 9-1
Page 235 and 236:
Charities Register, of which thirty
Page 237 and 238:
success in their activities. For as
Page 239 and 240:
Ahrens, T., & Chapman, C. S. (2006)
Page 241 and 242:
Australian Accounting Standards Boa
Page 243 and 244:
Bradbury, M. E., & Baskerville, R.
Page 245 and 246:
Charities Commission. (2009f). A sn
Page 247 and 248:
commission.gov.uk/Our_regulatory_ac
Page 249 and 250:
Cordery, C. J., & Baskerville, R. (
Page 251 and 252:
Eisenberg, P. (Ed.). (2005). Challe
Page 253 and 254:
Fremont-Smith, M. R. (2004). Pillag
Page 255 and 256:
Hui, D. (2006). Financial Reporting
Page 257 and 258:
http://www.ifac.org/Members/DownLoa
Page 259 and 260:
Maxwell, J. A. (1992). Understandin
Page 261 and 262:
http://www.nzica.com/AM/Template.cf
Page 263 and 264:
O'Sullivan, N., & O'Dwyer, B. (2009
Page 265 and 266:
Robson, C. (1993). Real World Resea
Page 267 and 268:
Television New Zealand (Writer) (27
Page 269 and 270:
Appendix One - Statement of Financi
Page 271 and 272:
Appendix Three - Semi-structured in
Page 273 and 274:
Appendix Five - Participant informa
Page 275 and 276:
Appendix Six - Transcriber’s Conf
Page 277:
Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Prope
show all

Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?