Mateja Jerman

Accounting Treatment of Goodwill in IFRS and US GAAP

Accounting Treatment of Goodwill in IFRS and US GAAP The article presents an overview of the new accounting treatment of goodwill regarding International Financial Reporting Standards and American Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Goodwill acquired through a business combination is no longer amortized but tested for impairment. Despite the fact that the objective of the new International Financial Accounting Standard has been to move towards international convergence; significant differences between standards still exist. The article presents the main changes of the regulation in the last years and the key differences between the two accounting treatments. In spite of the new accounting approach there are still lots of discussions, which indicate that the field is still not properly regulated. Finally, the article offers possible directions for future research and reporting practice. Računovodsko obravnavanje dobrega imena po MSRP in US GAAP Prispevek predstavlja preglednad računovodenjem dobrega imena med Mednarodnimi standardi računovodskega poročanja terameriškimi standardi. Dobro ime, pridobljeno s poslovno združitvijo ni več predmet amortizacije, temveč se po novih standardih testira za oslabitev. Kljub dejstvu, da je bil cilj novih Mednarodnih standardov računovodskega poročanja harmonizacija z ameriškimi standardi, pomembne razlike še vedno ostajajo. Prispevek predstavlja glavne spremembe na obravnavanem področju v zadnjih letih ter ključne razlike med obravnavanima ureditvama. Številne diskusije na to temo, ki postavljajo dvome v tovrstno ureditev, dokazujejo da področje še zmeraj niustrezno urejeno.

The significance of intangibles: a comparative analysis between Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Germany and the USA

Abstract According to the growing importance of intangible assets, the research aims to investigate the significance of intangibles for Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, German and US publicly traded companies. The analysis is focused on intangibles that meet the criteria for the recognition in financial accounts. The results of the analysis prove that in the period 2004-2008 intangibles constitute an important asset for traditional market economies, which does not result for post-transition and transition economies, despite the fact that many analyses underline their growing significance in today’s business environment. Independent t-test was used to test a difference between selected companies. A future research approach should analyze the proportion of intangibles that do not meet the criteria for their recognition and found out if transition economies actually possess a significantly lower proportion of intangibles.

Performance Measurement Systems: Empirical Evidence from Slovenia

Abstract The present study aims to analyze the use of performance measurement systems within Slovene large, medium-sized, and small companies. The study was performed on the basis of a questionnaire which was distributed to the management of Slovene firms in 2007, analyzing the use of performance measurement techniques in the post-transition period. Slovene companies mainly use traditional performance measurement techniques. Contemporary performance measurement systems were used only occasionally. Moreover, the study demonstrates that performance measurement techniques differ between companies of different size. Small companies have less developed performance measurement systems that are based almost solely on traditional measurement techniques, while large companies have more developed performance measurement systems and also use some more contemporary techniques. Future research should analyze the design of management accounting systems in economies that have completed the transition period to provide evidence about the changes that occur afterwards.

The Importance of Intangible Assets in the Hotel Industry: The Case of Croatia and Slovenia

Abstract Studies show an increasing importance of intangible assets (hereinafter IA) and a positive relationship between IA and company performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of IA for Croatian and Slovene hotel companies and to find out whether companies with a higher share of intangibles are also more profitable. The analysis is based on publicly available financial statements for the five-year period, from 2011 to 2015. The results show that the average share of IA presented in the balance sheets of the analysed hotel companies is low in both countries. Moreover, we could not find a statistically significant relationship between the share of IA and the selected financial performance indicators. The results of our study show that despite the emphasised importance of IA in literature, the publicly available financial data of the selected hotel companies provides very limited information on IA for external stakeholders.

Accountants’ ethical perceptions from several perspectives: evidence from Slovenia

Abstract The purpose of the article is to explore the ethical perceptions of accountants in selected Slovene organisations towards ethically-sensitive scenarios. The article explores ethical perceptions among ‘internal accountants’ and those working in companies operating as providers of external accounting services. Since external accounting services companies are not specifically regulated by the profession, we hypothesise that accountants working in external accounting service companies are more lenient to ethically-sensitive scenarios. Moreover, we analyse if ethical perceptions differ between accountants having a professional certificate and those that do not. We believe those that have a certificate are harsher towards ethically-sensitive scenarios. For the purpose of our analysis a questionnaire was distributed to accounting professionals. Our analysis is made on a large sample of 451 accountants. Results of ordered probit regression support the first two hypotheses, despite the fact that not all of the vignettes resulted as statistically significant. Our study contributes to the literature in that the ethics of accountants from countries with non-regulated markets of accounting services have not yet been investigated in the literature.

The impairment test of goodwill: an empirical analysis of incentives for earnings management in Italian publicly traded companies

Abstract Since the current International Accounting Standard 36 introduced substantial subjectivity while testing goodwill for impairment, this study aims to establish if management exploits the discretion and performs the impairment test of goodwill opportunistically. The presence of discretion, while applying impairment test, is tested on the sample of Italian publicly traded companies in the period of the current financial crisis. Despite the fact that the sample of companies consists of those with market to book ratio less than one, only 26% of the companies recorded a goodwill write-off. The logistic regression was used to test contracting and reporting incentives. The results of the analysis indicate that even in the case of IFRS users some incentives exist, while recognising the impairment losses of goodwill.