M.Comm. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (Financial Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (International Accounting) / Leases have been used as an alternative means of financing for many years and they form part of the business models of entities in various industries. Many large JSE listed companies in different industries also use leases extensively. Although lease accounting requirements under IFRS have been in place for a number of years, some of the fundamental principles underlying the current lease accounting models have been the subject of much debate by standard setters and practitioners. In particular, the conceptual soundness of lessees not capitalising operating lease commitments has been a key area of consideration. In response to the conceptual debates, the IASB published an exposure draft titled ED/2010/9 Leases (hereafter ED), which will ultimately replace the current lease standard IAS 17. The ED establishes a new “right-of-use model”, which requires lessees to capitalize all leases on their balance sheets. The purpose of the minor dissertation was to determine the impact that the capitalisation of operating lease commitments under the requirements of the ED will have on the financial statements of JSE listed companies. In support of the research problem, the methodology applied in the minor dissertation was a quantitative content analysis, which was designed to obtain ex ante evidence on the potential future impact of the implementation of the ED. In order to assess the impact, the minor dissertation analysed the impact on total liabilities and total assets due to operating lease capitalisation, as well as the impact on certain key financial indicators and ratios. The initial sample was the top 50 companies in terms of market capitalisation that were listed on the JSE at 31 December 2011. After excluding companies with no or immaterial operating lease commitments, the final sample size was 44. The literature review showed that the impact of operating lease capitalisation has been researched in various countries, such as Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the UK and the US. During the completion of the minor dissertation it was found that a South African study was recently published on the impact of operating lease capitalisation on JSE listed companies. The study applied one of the methods identified in the literature for deriving information required to perform the operating lease capitalisation calculation and also assumed a uniform discount rate. The minor dissertation was based on an alternative method of deriving the required information and applied company-specific discount rates. The results of the research showed an increase in total liabilities and total assets due to operating lease capitalization. The impact on the key financial indicators and ratios varied, with some ratios impacted positively and others negatively. The impact was also found to be generally lower than international trends and differed from a similar study performed in South Africa.

M.Comm / The international financial reporting arena has undergone considerable changes in recent years. The recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure requirements have increased significantly over the past two decades. Standard setters around the world have justified the more stringent reporting requirements on the grounds of the changes in the international business and economic landscapes as a result of globalisation. These increased financial reporting requirements placed a tremendous burden on Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs). As a result, the need for differential reporting has been identified. The notion of differential reporting acknowledges that the users of the financial statements of SMEs have different needs compared to those of public companies. Stakeholders and users of financial statements of SMEs are generally in a position to acquire information additional to that disclosed in the financial statements. Financial information presented in the financial statements is therefore not required to be exhaustive. The users of public company financial statements on the other hand, generally do not have access to any additional information, other than that presented in the financial statements. The information required to be presented in the financial statements, must therefore be extensive in order to allow the user to make informed decisions based on the information. Various countries around the world have responded to this cry for differential reporting, and standard setters have adopted differential reporting in one form or the other. This study discusses the need for differential reporting and outlines the developments of differential reporting internationally and in South Africa, by means of a literature review.

Topic of this diploma thesis is auditing selected items of financial statements. The basis of the work consists of theoretical introduction of auditing principles, definition of key concepts but also regulatory frameworks according to the Czech legislation and audit procedures in particular. This theoretical part is then followed by the practical part of the thesis focusing on demonstration of audit procedures during the audit of selected items of financial statements of a fictitious company. In this part the theoretical basis is linked with audit practice. Audit procedures described in the thesis form a necessary part of audit work leading to issuing of an audit opinion on whether the financial statements give a true

Government spending is essential for the US economy, and the amount of capital that flows from the government to US firms has increased substantially in recent years. Despite the economic importance of the corporate-government contracting relationship, we know little about the firm-level financial outcomes associated with government contracts. In this study, I investigate whether the corporate government contracting relationship affects firm-level financial reporting quality. Using a sample of 58,988 US publicly-traded firms from 2001 through 2017, I find that federal government contracting firms are associated with a lower level of discretionary accruals, lower probability of internal control material weaknesses, and lower probability of restatement and fraud as compared to non government contractors. However, this association is weaker when industry competition on government contracts are lower, and government switching costs in which the cost to find new suppliers are higher. Collectively, my empirical results suggest that having the government as a customer has a positive impact on the quality of financial reports. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

No description available.

M.S.

by Kwok Chak Man, Maurice and Lau Wah Ching. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Administration. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (180-193). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99259