What is the difference between Cash basis and Accrual basis accounting and which one is better?
Accrual basis of accounting is one of the underlying assumption for preparing financial statements under International Accounting Standards. IASB Framework clearly demanded the financial statements to be prepared on accrual basis instead of cash basis of accounting. Among other notable benefits of usig accrual basis of accounting over cash basis is that it helps record the […]
What is the difference between Purchase ledger and Purchase account?
Quite a basic question in fact. A lot of students realize about these concepts as soon as they start studying Auditing especially when they have to apply different audit procedures where these basic concepts play pivitol role and thus we cannot escape them. To begin with, we need to clear one misconception that LEDGER is […]
What are the limitations of Balance Sheet or Statement of Financial Position?
Statement of financial position or Balance sheet is the essential part of the complete set of financial statements. It is also one of the most sort after source of information for the users of financial statement for decision making purposes. It provides an insight into the financial status of the entity and can also provide […]
Can we capitalize Tax amounts?
According to IAS 16 the purchase price of the asset includes the amount of non-refundable taxes i.e. such taxes which cannot be claimed back are capitalized and are included in the cost of the asset at the time of purchase. For example, when the asset is purchased or imported then buyer/importer is required to pay […]
What is Grouping and Marshalling in financial statements?
While preparing financial statements, especially Statement of Financial Position (SoFP) also, known as balance sheet, two presentation concepts are applied which are termed as Grouping and Marshalling. Grouping means presenting similar items together as one figure i.e. by combining them at one place and presenting as a single item on the face of financial statement. […]
What are the fundamental principles for the preparation and presentation of financial statements?
Although the accounting treatments and provisions regarding presentations of different important transactions in the financial statements is dealt separate accounting standards. However, in the absence of any specific guidance, provisions of IASB Framework and IAS 1 provides overall guidance for preparation and presentation of financial statements. Before we discuss both documents lets clear out few […]
What is the difference between Authorised capital, Issued capital, Subscribed capital, Called-up capital and Paid-up capital?
Authorized capital: The amount of capital with which a company is registered with the registrar of companies (body responsible for registration of companies). It is the maximum amount of capital which a company can raise through shares i.e. shared capital can be maximum up to the authorized capital and not beyond. Due to this reason […]
What are the important Qualitative characteristics of Financial Statements?
As we understand that different users require financial information for assistance in their economic decisions. Entities publish financial statements so that users can get their information needs fulfilled. The dependence of users’ economic decision on financial statements is crucial and if the financial information is not accurate or is not true and fair then users […]
What is the objective of Financial Statements?
The basic objective of any financial statement is to fulfill information needs of the intended users. However, there are different kinds of financial statements for different purposes. Broadly we can divide the financial statements in two different types: General Purpose Financial Statements Special Purpose Financial Statements As said earlier that the basic objective of every […]
Why Financial Statements are prepared on Accrual basis?
Financial Statements assist internal and external users by providing them financial information which they in making economic decisions. As their decisions are based on financial information underlying financial statements therefore, decision making process depends heavily on the relevance and reliability of financial statements which in simple words mean that if financial statements are not reporting […]

