IAS 1 PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

IAS 1 PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

IAS 1 is an International Financial Reporting Standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)

IAS 1 sets out overall requirements for the presentation of financial statements, guidelines for their structure and minimum requirements for their content. It requires an entity to present a complete set of financial statements at least annually, with comparative amounts for the preceding year (including comparative amounts in the notes).

Purpose of Financial statements

The objective of general purpose financial statement is to provide information about the financial position, the fianacial performance and cash flows of an entity that is useful to wide range of users in making economic decisions. Financial statements also show the results of management steawardship of the resources entrusted to it.

A complete set of financial statements comprises:

 • Statement of financial position (balance sheet)

• Statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income for the period. 

• Statement of changes in equity

• Statement of cash flows

 • Notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies and other disclosures and:

 • Opening statement of financial position when there has been a prior year adjustment or reclassification

 Titles are not mandatory.

General features

IAS 1 explains the general features of financial statements,

•  Fair presentation and compliance with IFRS
•  Going concern
•  Accrual basis of accounting,
•  Materiality and aggregation
•  Offsetting
•  Frequency of reporting
•  Comparative information
•  Consistency of presentation

Structure and Content

IAS 1 requires identification of the financial statements and distinguishing them from other information in the same published document.

Every element of the financial statements shall contain the name of the reporting entity, the information whether the financial statements are of an individual or of a group, the date of the reporting entity and period covered, the presentation currency and the level of rounding (thousands, millions).

Related: Understanding the basics of IFRS 9;Financial instruments.

Related: What are the benefits of IFRS implementation to a company?