Reports on Corporate Performance

ACCA P2考試：Reports on Corporate Performance

1 Corporate Performance

Corporate performance is generally assessed by the profit or loss that has been made in a period, including items recognised in other comprehensive income.

That profit or loss must be presented in the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income (IAS 1). However, various other parties are interested in how an entity has performed and so corporate performance reports can be structured differently for different parties.

Corporate performance in a broader sense has many definitions and meanings. For example:

All the processes, methodologies, metrics and systems needed to measure and manage the performance of an organisation;

Fundamental measures of organisational aptitude used to assess the "health" of the organisation and to provide focused direction to operations while supporting managers; and A firm's level of achievement in creating value for market constituents.

2 Purpose

Many performance reports over and above those that are needed to meet GAAP requirements are prepared on an ad hoc basis. 

As well as occasionally reporting to external parties, there is usually a need to report performance internally to board members on a regular basis (e.g. quarterly, monthly or even weekly).

These internal reports must be timely and accurate, and provide information about past performance and how the company is moving forwards. It should report more than what has happened and provide information that helps management make choices about the direction of the company.

Although such reports are usually not required to follow GAAP, measurement bases, for example, should be made clear in the report.

Historically, some GAAPs required a form of "value added statement" to be presented to stakeholders. This report looked at the value added to different providers of "capital"— the term capital being used in a general sense to mean more than financial capital.

The Integrated Reporting model incorporates performance reporting as part of its remit. It looks at all the "capitals" and examines how value is created.

3 Content

Corporate performance reports take many forms and their contents are extremely varied. For example:

A condensed statement of profit or loss that focuses on the points most relevant to the stakeholders that receive it.

An employment report might detail employee remuneration, in terms of wages and salaries, pension benefits, share-based schemes and other forms of benefits. This may be compared to the performance for the period and the added wealth that the employees have created.

Reports may compare performance over a number of periods and reflect the percentage change of the periods viewed.

The information included in reports could be based on the accounting data for the period(s) under review, or the information could be more market based. Accounting data is somewhat restricted by GAAP requirements, whereas market based data can reflect how the organisation is perceived in the market place.