Accounting
The role of financial statements in investing is that they provide a consistent format that can be used by potential investors and other stakeholders to evaluate a company. There are several components that facilitate this happening. For publicly-traded firms, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) play a key role in the creation of financial statements. GAAP is a common set of accounting principles and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements (Investopedia, 2012). With companies having to produce their statements according to a common set of criteria, the information is easier to compare not only between different years at the same company, but also against other firms in the industry and all other publicly-traded firms.
The IFRS is essentially the international version of GAAP. Financial statements in many countries, especially those in Europe, are produced according to IFRS. There are a many areas where GAAP and IFRS diverge, so analysts need to be aware of these differences. The process of switching from GAAP to IFRS in the United States is underway. This convergence process is one of the major issues in public accounting right now (AICPA, 2011).
The annual report is a document produced by the company for its shareholders and other external stakeholders. The contents of the annual report are divided into two parts. The first part is the content produced by the company, none of...
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