Route 102 – One man’s year-long journey……Continued

To mark this momentous year for UK GAAP, I'm embarking on a mission to work my way through FRS 102, reading a portion on each working day of 2015 and writing a short blog entry on my thoughts and musings (be they few or many). It's now the second week - my dedication to this blog has already outlasted my New Year resistance to fig rolls...

DAY SIX (12 Jan)

We're now onto section 5, and many of my comments from Friday's entry on section 4 apply - again, corporates and non-corporates alike are directed to the Companies Act regulations for content and layout except as proscribed by their own regulatory regime.

We've already briefly talked about the option for either a one or two-statement approach for comprehensive income. The two-statement approach includes a separate 'income statement' (i.e. the company law 'profit and loss account') and a separate statement of comprehensive income including the profit or loss for the year and 'other comprehensive income' ('OCI').

How would one move from this approach to a 'one-statement' approach? Pay careful attention. You remove the heading 'income statement' (or if you prefer, 'profit and loss account') at the top, immediately drag up the heading 'statement of comprehensive income from the second statement to replace it, remove the duplicate line 'profit/loss for the period' and close the gap between the two statements. Some sharp scissors and sticky-backed plastic will be needed. You'll also have to do the same for the comparatives, and disclose this as a change in accounting policy. Job done.

That'll do for today. Tomorrow I'll break with (my limited) tradition, and continue on the same section as the day before. There's more mining to be done in section 5.

P.S. If you missed yesterday's instalment click here