Michael Maingot

Financial Reporting of Small Business Entities in Canada

Financial reporting for small business entities (SBEs) has been the subject of much debate and concern by the accounting bodies (institutes) in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. The main issue for the standard setters is whether they should have one set of standards for all companies or two sets of standards (one for big companies and one for SBEs). The main objective of our study is to examine whether SBEs in Canada should have their own new set of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or should they continue to use big GAAP used by public companies. To address this issue in the Canadian environment, we sent out a questionnaire to a sample of managers and owners of small businesses, preparers, auditors, and users of small business accounts. These stakeholders were asked to identify the purposes of SBE financial statements, their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the present accounting standards for SBEs, the burdens imposed on the preparers of the financial statements, and the weaknesses of the present standards. Furthermore, they were asked to give the expected advantages of adopting new standards, after having ranked four models of financial reporting of SBEs. The results are quite interesting. Stakeholders indicated that financial statements of SBEs are prepared mainly for taxation purposes and borrowing. They are not satisfied with the present standards because they are costly to comply with and very complex. The burden of producing SBE financial statements can be reduced by simplifying the present standards. The new standards would mean a shorter and simpler form of financial statements. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide the standard setters in Canada and other countries with an indication of the future direction for SBE reporting and accounting.

An Analysis of Voluntary Disclosure of Performance Indicators by Canadian Universities

Managing by performance indicators (PIs) is an important and controversial issue for many stakeholders concerned with higher education in the university systems all over the world. This study analyzes the voluntary disclosures of PIs by Canadian universities. The sample consisted of the 44 universities used by Maclean’s Canadian Universities ranking, which divide the universities into Primarily Undergraduate, Comprehensive, and Medical-Doctoral. We were able to identify 123 PIs which were regrouped in 18 categories. The top two categories were disclosures about research and finance which are not surprising since research and the financing thereof appear to be the mission of most universities. The larger universities in the Medical-Doctoral category appear to engage in a much higher level of disclosure of PIs than the Comprehensive and Primarily Undergraduate categories. According to our results, voluntary disclosure of PIs is positively affected by university size and mission. These results seem to be consistent with disclosure theories, particularly political cost theory and legitimacy theory and with previous results in the corporate sector. They are relevant to different stakeholders concerned with higher education.

A Survey Of Electronic Data Interchange (Edi) In The Top Public Companies In Canada

Abstract This paper reports on management view’s of the implementation, use, and benefits of EDI systems among the top 400 public companies in Canada. The market penetration of EDI is still growing linearly. Our best estimate is that 64% of the top public companies in Canada had an EDI system as of 1999. The most popular reasons for adopting EDI in decreasing order are improved customer service, improved supplier relationship, reduced clerical error, and competitive advantage. With the exception of the latter, the first three of these are viewed also as important impacts of EDI after implementation. There were no differences between smaller and larger companies (defined as having annual sales less than or greater than

The effect of the financial crisis on enterprise risk management disclosures

500 million, respectively). Respondents generally felt that the benefits of EDI outweighed the costs of implementation. In-house staff rather than external consultants were used predominantly in the design and implementation of EDI systems. The most common problems encountered were inadequacy of resources to implement the systems, deciding which activities to include, and training. Much less common were difficulties in selling the concept to different parts of the organization.

An analysis of corporate governance information disclosure by Canadian banks

The effect of the financial crisis on enterprise risk management (ERM) disclosures was examined through a content analysis of the 2007 and 2008 annual reports of Canadian corporations listed on the S&P TSX composite index. Fourteen types of risk were tracked and categorised by level of risk exposure, risk consequence and risk management disclosures. The total number of risk disclosures increased by 3.6% from 2007 to 2008. Changes in the disclosed levels of risk increased even less. While the levels of risk exposure increased the most for credit risk, only economic and credit risks showed more than minor increases in the disclosure of risk consequences. Overall, the 2008 financial crisis has not had a major impact on risk disclosures by non-financial Canadian corporations.