Understanding Australian Accounting Standards reflects the reporting and disclosure requirements under a number of Australian Accounting Standards, providing detailed illustration on how publicly listed companies report in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards. This textbook offers students a comprehensive and well written introduction to the scope and financial reporting disclosures of Australian accounting standards issued by the Australian Accounting Standards Board. The text incorporates extracts from the 2011 annual report of Billabong International, as well as media articles profiling its recent corporate events, in all chapters to illustrate how a corporate entity measures, recognises, reports and discloses financial information required under Australian accounting standards. The integration of the Billabong International annual report will enable students to look beyond the numbers to develop interpretative and critical evaluation skills of accounting information. The integration of the Billabong 2011 annual report, with its disclosure notes, will provide students with a deep understanding of the financial reporting and business activity associated with the financial performance of a well-known company.

This study provides a neutral and comprehensive explanation about the activities which precede the formulation of accounting regulatory policies. The knowledge gained from it can be applied to understand the formulation of regulatory policies in other areas and to predict or explain the behaviour of interest groups in the preparation of accounting standards and regulations.

The core focus of this text remains on the interpretation, analysis, illustration and application of the scope and purpose of the financial reporting processes under IFRS. Written for intermediate and advanced financial reporting courses, both at undergraduate and post graduate level.

Funded by taxation, public spending cannot be separated from politics and ensuring efficiency and effectiveness is always high on the political and policy agenda. Accounting, accountability, governance and auditing are essential ingredients in evaluating public sector performance. Australia and New Zealand are world leaders when it comes to public sector accounting—such as being the first to introduce transaction-neutral accounting standards. This edited collection considers current issues impacting the public sector by primarily drawing upon experiences of Australia and New Zealand. Then, by combining history (from the time of the Domesday book, early sovereignty and Shakespeare) with current practice (differential reporting, international financial reporting standards, government performance, voter turnout, joined-up government and auditing practices), we use these experiences to illuminate the global issues of public sector accounting, accountability and governance. Based on rigorous research by top public sector researchers, this edited collection offers a multitude of future research ideas to enable those interested in following this pathway—whether they are in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, Africa or anywhere else in the world—an avenue to traverse.

This book investigates the issues raised by the vast array of accounting standards and technical rules which have marked the recent history of accounting. It is argued that the accounting profession is beset by an inferior and incomplete notion of quality in its work which emphasises compliance with processing rules, rather than the correspondence with commercial phenomena necessary to make financial statements reliable guides for human activity.

In this book, Jayne Godfrey and Keryn Chalmers explore the intricacies of the globalisation of accounting standards - arguably one of the most significant business developments of the wider globalisation process during the past two decades. They examine the key issues and implications of this harmonization of accounting standards from the perspectives of a diverse range of worldwide stakeholders. "Globalisation of Accounting Standards" shows that globalisation approaches differ significantly because countries seek to maintain varying degrees of sovereignty over their regulations. International differences in economic, political, legal, religious and social characteristics also affect globalisation approaches and, in turn, influence national accounting standard-setting agendas. The book explores why countries relinquish their existing national accounting standard-setting regimes to join the global movement. It also seeks to resolve questions such as: To what extent are national incentives altruistic, economic, political or social? Who are the winners and losers in the process? This authoritative book is thoroughly researched and expertly informed. Written by both academics and regulators, it tackles a critical and controversial issue in the globalisation movement. As such, it will be of great interest to a wide-ranging audience including: international, national, private and public sector standard-setters, economic regulators, accounting academics and political economists and strategists.