Under US GAAP and IFRS
When companies report the financial statements, it should be understandable, relevant, reliable, comparable, and objective because those statements are sources to the investors. So, if the statements showed profitability and were reliable and relevant, the investors may start investing in the company. When reporting financial statements, there are two possible ways, GAAP or IFRS. Firstly, General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is a common accounting principle, procedure and standard used by United States ' companies while preparing their financial statements and reporting their information , it is all about what acceptable and unacceptable and it is rely on three basic assumptions: economic entity, monetary unit and time period . In 1939, American Institute of Accountants (AIA) formed the Committee on Accounting Procedure by issuing many research and some process which finally become GAAP. After that, they changed the name of AIA to American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 1957 and formed the Accounting Principles Board (APB) in 1959. Then The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was formed in 1973. On July 1 2009, the United States considered the Accounting Standards Codification as a source of general accounting principles (Griffin, Media, 2013). Secondly, International Financial Reporting Standard is designed as a global language to easily understand and compare the information that reported in international company, as well as to know the financial position of different companies in different countries. The standard is issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The development of standard covered the period from the 1960s with proposal of establish to 2005 by requiring the UK companies to use the standard presenting their financial information. From 1973 until 2000, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) issued a
References: Deloitte, (November, 2009). First-time adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, Retrieved from http://www.casplus.com/pubs/files/0911ifrs1guide.pdf FedEx Corporation, 2012 Annual Report of FedEx, (July 16, 2012). Retrieved from http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048911/000119312512303558/d375407d10k.htm#toc Financial Accounting Standards Board, (2011/1976). Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 13, Retrieved from http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=idHYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"&HYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"blobwhere=1175820908834HYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"&HYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"blobheader=application%2FpdfHYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"&HYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"blobcol=urldataHYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"&HYPERLINK "http://www.fasb.org/cs/BlobServer?blobkey=id&blobwhere=1175820908834&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs"blobtable=MungoBlobs Griffin,D , Media,D , GAAP Basics, Small Business Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/gaap-basics-4057.html International Accounting Standards Board, (January 1, 2012). International Accounting Standard 17, Retrieved from http://www.ifrs.org/Documents/IAS17.pdf Library & Information services, (May, 2010). Knowledge guide to International Accounting Standards, Retrieved from http://www.icaew.com/en/library/subject-gateways/accounting-standards/knowledge-guide-to-international-accounting-standards The Canada Post Group of Companies, 2012 Annual Report of Canada Post, (March 21, 2013). Retrieved from http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/assets/pdf/aboutus/annualreport/2012_AR_complete_en.pdf