What an ASPE statement set contains — and what it need not
◈ 8 cardsThe statements a private company under ASPE prepares, the things it need not include, and the IFRS set contrasted by name.
Northlake's set
A complete set of financial statements under ASPE (s.1400) has five parts, all of equal standing:
- Balance sheet — at the year end.
- Income statement — for the year.
- Statement of retained earnings — for the year.
- Cash flow statement — for the year.
- Notes — the accounting policies, and everything the face cannot show (the loan's terms, the lawsuit, the share capital's movements).
And — a point often misstated — the set is prepared on a comparative basis: this year's figures beside last year's, unless the comparison is not significant or a standard says otherwise. A private company that hands its bank a single-column balance sheet is not applying s.1400.
Worked example — the same year under IFRS
Suppose Northlake had elected IFRS. Its set would grow and rename:
| ASPE (Northlake) | IFRS |
|---|---|
| income statement | statement of comprehensive income (net income, then other comprehensive income) |
| statement of retained earnings, plus a share-capital note | statement of changes in equity (every equity component in one worksheet) |
| balance sheet | statement of financial position |
| cash flow statement | statement of cash flows |
| no EPS | earnings per share on the face |
| comparatives | comparatives, plus a third balance sheet when a prior year is restated |
So the four things ASPE does not require are: other comprehensive income (there is no such concept in ASPE, so no statement of comprehensive income); earnings per share; a statement of changes in equity as a mandatory statement — ASPE s.3251 lets a company show the changes in each equity component either in the notes (with the SRE covering retained earnings) or in a statement of changes in equity, and private companies almost always choose the former; and the third balance sheet IFRS demands on a restatement. ASPE also allows the statement of retained earnings to be appended to the foot of the income statement as one document.
Sorting eight items
Required under ASPE: the balance sheet · the statement of retained earnings · the notes · comparative figures. Optional under ASPE: a statement of changes in equity (in place of the SRE plus note) · a multi-step rather than single-step income statement. Not applicable under ASPE: other comprehensive income · earnings per share.
When a case's new bookkeeper has "prepared a statement of comprehensive income", the error is the OCI, not the effort: an ASPE company prepares an income statement, and the OCI line it might have invented has nowhere to go.