What are the assumptions of financial statements?

Introduction

When we talk about financial statements, we normally refer to the four main types of the financial statements. Those are statement of financial position which we normally call Balance Sheet, Statement of comprehensive income or income statement, statement of changes in equity and finally statement of cash flow. Each statement serve for different purposes. The primary objective of providing the information of such statements is to see the financial position, performance and cash flows of an entity which is very useful for economic decision making.

There are four main fundamental assumptions that you should know when preparing the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.accountinghub-online.com/types-of-financial-statements/">financial statements</a>&nbsp;to ensure that they are at high quality. Those are fair presentation, going concern, accruals and consistency</p><h3>Fair presentation</h3><p>Fair presentation&nbsp;is an assumption to ensure that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.accountinghub-online.com/types-of-financial-statements/">financial statements</a> are prepared and presented fairly the financial position, performance and cash flows in accordance with all relevant International Accounting Standard (IASs)/International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRSs). This means that an entity need to disclose about the compliance with the IASs/IFRSs and all relevant IASs/IFRSs must be followed if the entity is in compliance with IASs/IFRSs.</p><p><span id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-153" class="ezoic-adpicker-ad"></span><span class="ezoic-ad ezoic-at-0 medrectangle-4 medrectangle-4153 adtester-container adtester-container-153" data-ez-name="accountinghub_online_com-medrectangle-4"><span id="div-gpt-ad-accountinghub_online_com-medrectangle-4-0" ezaw="580" ezah="400" style="position:relative;z-index:0;display:inline-block;padding:0;width:100%;max-width:1200px;margin-left:auto!important;margin-right:auto!important;min-height:90px;min-width:728px" class="ezoic-ad"><script data-ezscrex="false" data-cfasync="false" style="display:none">if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'accountinghub_online_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3',153,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-accountinghub_online_com-medrectangle-4-0');In addition, an entity cannot rectify even though they provide any disclosure of accounting policies or explanatory notes if they has used an inappropriate accounting treatment.

Going Concern

Basically, going concern is one of the concept that assumes the business activities will continue for foreseeable future and there is no any intention to liquidate nor scale down its operations in a material way. In practice, we normally examine the going concern by looking at the revenue growth of an entity as well as the long term business planning. We can also examine by looking at the valuation of assets. To be in the going concern, an entity should not value it assets at the break-up value; the amount that would be sold off and the business is broken up. 

Accruals

Accruals basis of accounting is one of the accounting concept that recognize revenues and expenses when they are earned or incurred regardless of cash receipt or payment is made. Similar to the matching principle, in calculating and recognizing the revenue earned, the expenses must be matched against that revenue recognition in that particular period.

Consistency