Reporting Period

Reporting Period Meaning

A reporting period is period of a month, quarter or a year for which financial statement of an organization is prepared for the external use, uniformly over a period of time so that the financial statements are comparable and understandable by the general public or the user of the financial statements.

Types of the Reporting Period

A reporting period generally can be prepared for the following periods-

#1 – Monthly Reporting Period 

For entities with a rapidly changing environment, it is necessary to prepare a control system that provided regular details of the financial results and financial position.

#2 – Quarterly Reporting Period 

For industries having a seasonal nature, their market is generally for a specific quarter and hence, once the quarter is over it becomes necessary to evaluate the financial position and the results from the same. For such kind of industry, a quarterly financial statement is prepared to make the financial statements more relevant and understandable to the users.

#3 – Yearly Reporting Period 

All the industries other than included above as well as all included above prepare a yearly financial statement to know the financial results for the while year and financial positions as on that date. Hence yearly or annual financial statements are prepared by all the companies regardless of whether they prepare quarterly or monthly financial statements.

Yearly financial statements are prepared for the same period uniformly, which either is from 1st April to 31st march or from 1st January to 31st December.

Examples of Reporting Period

1. A very famous company in New York called A ltd., listed on New York stock exchange with an annual sales growth of $150,000,000, board of directors of which had decided do issue financial statements having monthly reporting period exclusively for its internal purposes. So, in this case, the company has a monthly reporting period.
2. As per the Securities exchange commission(SEC), every company listed and publicly traded on any stock exchanges is compulsorily required to issue a quarterly financial statement within the specified period, non-following of which may lead to huge penalties and fines. This is to ensure that the companies on whom the general public is dependent on generating their income should disclose its quarterly performance to the people so that they can make their investment decisions wisely.
3. As per IFRS 1, preparation of financial statements states that for every company for which IFRS is compulsory, must issue their general purpose financial statements with an annual reporting period.

Advantages

The various different advantages are as follows:

• Most of the entities work on a calendar basis, hence it required for the purpose of knowing its financial results, i.e., Profit or loss for the period and financial position i.e., assets and liabilities as on that date, for which an annual reporting period is useful.
• A uniform reporting period is advantageous for the users of the financial statements for the general public (as the case may be) for the purpose of comparison.
• The comparison could be done either with the previous period of the same company or with the same reporting period of another company with the same reporting of the whole industry.
• It plays a very important role in determining the amounts in the profit and loss account, Balance sheet, cash flow statement set because profit and loss account is prepared for the year ended on the reporting date and balance sheet and cash flow statements are prepared as on the reporting date.
• There are two methods of accounting the financial statement, cash system, and mercantile systems. In case, where financial statements are prepared on a cash basis, it is taken as a base for determining the amounts of the various ledgers, since only the cash which is received or paid up to the reporting date is taken into consideration. While if the financial statements are prepared on the accrual basis, it is taken as the base for determining all the relevant ledgers having accrued up to the reporting period to be included in financial statements.
• It has been stated that if there is a change in the period as compared to the previous reporting period, specific procedures are to be followed, to be shown in the financial statements to make it understandable to the users of the financial statements.

Disadvantages

Though it is useful in the above-mentioned ways, there are certain disadvantages also. The various disadvantages  are as follows:

• It brings us a sort of rigidity to the financial statements since it is highly arbitrary, but the business has to use the reporting period as per IAS1 as per an annual basis.
• Few countries follow this as per the calendar year that is, from 1st January to 31^st December, while others follow their reporting period starting from 1st April and ending on 31^st Hence the purpose of uniformity of reporting period breaks here.
• For companies of some countries, this period is not the calendar year and hence even though financial statements are prepared for the reporting period, it doesn’t solve the purpose for finding out the results for every calendar year. They need to re-compute their financial results.
• If there is a change in the reporting period, there are cumbersome and tedious procedures as mentioned in IFRS1 to be followed which involved huge time, labor and money which doesn’t make much sense.

Important Points

To change the reporting period, any of the following reasons must be fulfilled.

Hence if any of the above reasons are fulfilled, besides such reasons to be shown in notes to the financial statements, specific reporting procedures as mentioned in relevant IFRS is to be followed to make the financial statements understandable.

Conclusion

Hence, it can be concluded that even though there are a few disadvantages it becomes very useful for the general public at a large to have a common reporting period to give the financial statements of every entity comparable, useful, uniform and understandable.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to the Reporting Period and its meaning. Here we discuss types of reporting period along with examples, advantages, and disadvantages. You can learn more from the following accounting articles –

• What is Fiscal Year?
• Compare – Fiscal Year vs Calendar Year
• Interim Reporting Meaning
• Financial Reporting Meaning