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Financial Reporting Assignment - Recognitions, Measurements, and Disclosures
under IAS 41
Adam Leon
July 14, 2024
School of Business, Liberty University
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Question
Task: Write an accounting essay focusing on IAS 41 accounting standard, incorporating the
following:
Analyze the requirements of the accounting standards on recognitions, measurements, and
disclosures;
Discuss the impact of the accounting standard on fundamental qualitative
characteristics (relevance and faithful representation) of information
reporting;
Identify and critically discuss any three practical challenges in complying with the
selected accounting standard.
Answer
Introduction
The primary objective of establishing IAS 41 accounting standard examined here in
accounting essay is to manage the transformation of the biological assets into
agricultural produce. The accounting standards apply to the biological assets with
some exceptions like agricultural produce at the harvest point and bearer plants. It is
generally inapplicable intangible assets and government grants related to
agricultural activities or bearer plants. This particular essay analyses the
requirements of the accounting standards based on their recognition,
measurements, and disclosures, along with the impact of the standard on the
fundamental qualitative characteristics of information reporting. There are also a few
practical challenges associated with the compliance of this standard identified and
critically discussed in the essay.
Recognition, measurements, and disclosures
Recognition: IAS 41 is a set of accounting standards that are developed to transform
biological assets into agricultural production. The accounting standards are primarily
meant for accounting the agricultural activities based on the cultivated products of a
company’s biological assets. The accounting standards were issued in the year
2000. When an entity controls the vents related to past transactions, it recognizes
the biological assets or agricultural products (Abdel?khalik, 2019). There is also a
future probability that the entity or fair value can be measured consistently. These
are the standards that are considered integral to the recognition of this particular
accounting standard or procedure.
Measurement: The measurement of a fair value can be done consistently unless there is
an estimation of the fair value at a lesser selling cost. As harvested produce is a
commodity, the produced agriculture is calculated at fair value less estimated cost of
for selling at the harvest point. Therefore there is no measurement reliability except
for produce. All costs other than the purchase cost of biological assets are
considered as expenses incurred, like the related cost to the biological assets’ fair
value. The only measurement problem is related to the fact that the biological assets
in terms of active market does not carry a price that is already quoted . The
measurements related to fair value are not reliable, and in these cases, the
measurement of assets is conducted at lesser costs involving impairment losses
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and reduced accumulated depreciation. However, costs that are free from fair value
are needed if the circumstances change in a significant pattern.
Disclosure: The disclosure requirements of IAS41 are dependent on the average loss or
gain from recognizing the assets and agriculture produce, along with the
amendments in value of selling during the provided period. The requirements are
also fairly dependent on the biological assets of the entity as described by the broad
group (Baigrie and Coetsee, 2016). Restricted and pledged security titles related to
information of biological assets are also included in the disclosure requirements.
Commitments related to the acquisition and development of biological assets and
strategies related to risk management associated with financing are also included in
the disclosure requirements. If the reliable measurement of fair value cannot be
achieved, additional disclosures are required regarding the asset depreciation, fair
value range, and reasons regarding being unable to reliably measure the fair value.
The depreciation methods and rates also need to be disclosed, and the gross
depreciation that have been accumulated and the amount that is carried.
Impact of IAS41 on fundamental qualitative characteristics of information reporting
Faithful representation and relevance are considered as the fundamental qualitative
characteristics of information reporting. It is considered a concept that projects the
accurate representation and reflection of financial statements that determine the
true economic condition of the business. The faithful representation should be
extended to every part of the financial statement that includes operational results,
financial positions, and various cash flows (Enyi, 2019). The statements that display
a fair and relevant approach to information reporting primarily consists of three
characteristics should be complete, unbiased, and free from any error. The
identification of potential implications for the reporting entities is required to measure
the proper impact of IAS41 on the financial reporting of companies. The income
related to the unrealized gains or losses is used to determine the assets’ fair value
that needs to be reported.
The recognition of unrealized gains and losses resulting from the assets from the fair value
changes to agricultural harvest will significantly affect the income and other financial
statements of the firms that will ultimately lead to increased volatility in the reported
income. The impact is relatively greater on the governmental agencies as compared
to the private agencies. Faithful and relevance representation are the two
fundamental characteristics that are integral to financial reporting. Relevance is a
property related to information that provides the decision-making capability in the
decisions made by the users of the financial information. Information is relevant if
used to identify the future outcome if it carries a predictive value, or it can confirm
the past evaluations about economic events that carry a confirmative value (Filip et
al., 2017). These events are reflected on the financial statements of firms even
under the accounting standards of IAS 41 that refers to agricultural production and
biological assets.
Disclosures made to the current year's revenue that is related to the agricultural production
and biological assets are useful in predicting the revenue for the next year, and it
also confirms the accuracy level of the predictions that were made in the last year.
Impairment charges related to the agricultural produce or biological assets are
useful in revising the valuation of the user's net assets. The potential liabilities of a
firm that deals with biological assets are uncertain and legal claims can be
exceptionally high, which may not make estimations very accurate. There is a
certain amount of integrity required by a firm during the creation of a financial report
that is based on agricultural production and biological assets. The amounts of
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produce each year are variable and not fixed in nature, and that is the most
important deciding factor in determining the variables of financial accounting
(Özerhan and Sultano?lu, 2017). The relevance and faithful representation of factual
events and transactions are integral to developing proper financial reports of
companies that are accounted under IAS 41.
Three practical challenges of IAS 41 compliance
There are three practical challenges associated with the compliance of IAS 41 following the
accounting standards.
The active market’s absence is a primary challenge that is associated with the compliance
methods of biological assets. The company management entirely needs to depend
on the estimates and judgments of biological assets. The available markets and
market information needs to be assessed in order to review the current economic
trends and conditions that were reported on previous dates. If the economy is
steady throughout the economic term, the current prices would be useful to decide
the biological assets’ fair value. As per Scott, Wingard and van Biljon (2016) the
company administration needs to evaluate proper data in cases where assets are
low or scarce so that a market may not have been created.
A lack of available valuation technique is considered as the second challenge related to the
compliance of IAS 41. The application of various accounting principles that are
based on similar entities can arise due to a lack of guidance from the national
treasury. The treasuries of various nations provide the strategies and suggest needs
related to the economic sector. The lack of supervision can be attributed to the
cause of unavailability of valuation techniques. However, the event does not exempt
the organization from the application of the requirements. If the requirements are
ignored then it might result in opinions from the quality of audit departments.
High costs related to biological assets’ fair value accounting is also a practical challenge
related to costs determining the fair value. According to Baigrie and Coetsee (2016)
the excessive costs associated with the evaluation method are the challenge that is
considered most significant in the case of biological assets. Specific requirements
should be met when experts are contracted to do the valuation process. The
administration is required to assess the credentials and knowledge of the value
before the establishment of contact with the individual. The company's management
remains accountable for the presentation of the compiled information despite the
experts taking care of them. They should assess the performed work and evaluate
the expert's work on the audit and other financial reporting. The underlying
valuations will be audited audit by the auditor general's department, and the
administration will supply auditors with the required information regarding the
evidence.
Conclusion
The three challenges of adhering or complying to the IAS 41 are integral to the final
preparation of financial reports of the company as the management of the
companies are ultimately responsible for the proper assessment and evaluation of
the financial statements. There is a significant amount of impact created on the
relevance and the faithful representation of the biological assets that are evaluated
by the fair value of assets and agricultural produce. The initial recognition,
measurements, and disclosure are the three variables that are integral to the
understanding of the accounting standards that are meant for appreciation, well as
the depreciation of biological assets that are associated with agricultural produce.
Therefore, it can be assessed that the cost and valuation related to the market of
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biological assets are the key factors determining the integrity of the financial; reports
of the companies. There is significant impact of this accounting standard on the
fundamental characteristics of information reporting that has been seen in the
financial reports of the companies dealing in agricultural and biological products.
References
Abdel khalik, A.R. (2019). Failing Faithful Representations of Financial Statements: Issues
in Reporting Financial Instruments. Abacus, [online] 55(4), pp.676–708. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/abac.12176 [Accessed 4 Jun. 2021].
Baigrie, I. and Coetsee, D. (2016). An analysis of the financial reporting compliance of
South African public agricultural companies. Journal of Economic and Financial
Sciences, [online] 9(3), pp.833–853. Available at:
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/160732061.pdf [Accessed 4 Jun. 2021].
Enyi, P. (2019). ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION OF
FINANCIAL REPORTS OF QUOTED COMPANIES IN NIGERIA. International
Journal of Business and Management Review, [online] 7(3), pp.1–10. Available at:
https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Odesanya-O.-S.pdf [Accessed 4
Jun. 2021].
Filip, A., Hammami, A., Molson, J., Hammami@concordia, A., Ca, Z., Huang, Jeny, A.,
Magnan, M. and Moldovan, R. (2017). Literature Review on the Effect of
Implementation of IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement. [online] . Available at:
https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/meetings/2018/january/iasb/ap7c-ifrs-13-
literature-review.pdf [Accessed 4 Jun. 2021].
Özerhan, Y. and Sultano?lu, B. (2017). M2M-Fair Value Accounting. [online]
www.intechopen.com. IntechOpen. Available at:
https://www.intechopen.com/books/accounting-and-corporate-reporting-today-and-
tomorrow/m2m-fair-value-accounting/ [Accessed 4 Jun. 2021].
Scott, D., Wingard, C. and van Biljon, M. (2016). Challenges with the financial reporting of
biological assets by public entities in South Africa. South African Journal of
Economic and Management Sciences, [online] 19(1), pp.139–149. Available at:
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2222-
34362016000100009 [Accessed 4 Jun. 2021].
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