Statement of Financial Accounting
Concepts No. 8
Conceptual Framework for Financial
Reporting
CHAPTER 1: THE OBJECTIVE OF GENERAL PURPOSE
FINANCIAL REPORTING
Introduction
OB1. The objective of general purpose financial reporting forms the
foundation of the Conceptual Framework. Other aspects of the Conceptual
Framework—a reporting entity concept; the qualitative characteristics of, and the
constraints on, useful financial information; elements of financial statements;
recognition, measurement; presentation; and disclosure—flow logically from the
objective.
Objective, Usefulness, and Limitations of General Purpose
Financial Reporting
OB2. The objective of general purpose financial reporting1
OB3. Decisions by existing and potential investors about buying, selling, or
holding equity and debt instruments depend on the returns that they expect from
an investment in those instruments; for example, dividends, principal and interest
payments, or market price increases. Similarly, decisions by existing and
potential lenders and other creditors about providing or settling loans and other
forms of credit depend on the principal and interest payments or other returns
that they expect. Investors’, lenders’, and other creditors’ expectations about
returns depend on their assessment of the amount, timing, and uncertainty of
is to provide
financial information about the reporting entity that is useful to existing and
potential investors, lenders, and other creditors in making decisions about
providing resources to the entity. Those decisions involve buying, selling, or
holding equity and debt instruments and providing or settling loans and other
forms of credit.
1
Throughout this Conceptual Framework, the terms financial reports and financial reporting
refer to general purpose financial reports and general purpose financial reporting unless
specifically indicated otherwise.
2
(the prospects for) future net cash inflows to the entity. Consequently, existing
and potential investors, lenders, and other creditors need information to help
them assess the prospects for future net cash inflows to an entity.
OB4. To assess an entity’s prospects for future net cash inflows, existing
and potential investors, lenders, and other creditors need information about the
resources of the entity, claims against the entity, and how efficiently and
effectively the entity’s management and governing board2
OB5. Many existing and potential investors, lenders, and other creditors
cannot require reporting entities to provide information directly to them and must
rely on general purpose financial reports for much of the financial information
they need. Consequently, they are the primary users to whom general purpose
financial reports are directed.
have discharged their
responsibilities to use the entity’s resources. Examples of such responsibilities
include protecting the entity’s resources from unfavorable effects of economic
factors such as price and technological changes and ensuring that the entity
complies with applicable laws, regulations, and contractual provisions.
Information about management’s discharge of its responsibilities also is useful for
decisions by existing investors, lenders, and other creditors who have the right to
vote on or otherwise influence management’s actions.
OB6. However, general purpose financial reports do not and cannot provide
all of the information that existing and potential investors, lenders, and other
creditors need. Those users need to consider pertinent information from other
sources, for example, general economic conditions and expectations, political
events and political climate, and industry and company outlooks.
OB7. General purpose financial reports are not designed to show the value
of a reporting entity; but they provide information to help existing and potential
investors, lenders, and other creditors to estimate the value of the reporting
entity.
OB8. Individual primary users have different, and possibly conflicting,
information needs and desires. The Board, in developing financial reporting
standards, will seek to provide the information set that will meet the needs of the
maximum number of primary users. However, focusing on common information
needs does not prevent the reporting entity from including additional information
that is most useful to a particular subset of primary users.
OB9. The management of a reporting entity also is interested in financial
information about the entity. However, management need not rely on general
2
Throughout this Conceptual Framework, the term management refers to management and
the governing board of an entity unless specifically indicated otherwise.
3
purpose financial reports because it is able to obtain the financial information it
needs internally.
OB10. Other parties, such as regulators and members of the public other
than investors, lenders, and other creditors, also may find general purpose
financial reports useful. However, those reports are not primarily directed to
these other groups.
OB11. To a large extent, financial reports are based on estimates,
judgments, and models rather than exact depictions. The Conceptual Framework
establishes the concepts that underlie those estimates, judgments, and models.
The concepts are the goal towards which the Board and preparers of financial
reports strive. As with most goals, the Conceptual Framework’s vision of ideal
financial reporting is unlikely to be achieved in full, at least not in the short term,
because it takes time to understand, accept, and implement new ways of
analyzing transactions and other events. Nevertheless, establishing a goal
towards which to strive is essential if financial reporting is to evolve so as to
improve its usefulness.
Information about a Reporting Entity’s Economic
Resources, Claims, and Changes in Resources and Claims
OB12. General purpose financial reports provide information about the
financial position of a reporting entity, which is information about the entity’s
economic resources and the claims against the reporting entity. Financial reports
also provide information about the effects of transactions and other events that
change a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims. Both types of
information provide useful input for decisions about providing resources to an
entity.
Economic Resources and Claims
OB13. Information about the nature and amounts of a reporting entity’s
economic resources and claims can help users to identify the reporting entity’s
financial strengths and weaknesses. That information can help users to assess
the reporting entity’s liquidity and solvency, its needs for additional financing, and
how successful it is likely to be in obtaining that financing. Information about
priorities and payment requirements of existing claims helps users to predict how
future cash flows will be distributed among those with a claim against the
reporting entity.
OB14. Different types of economic resources affect a user’s assessment of
the reporting entity’s prospects for future cash flows differently. Some future cash
4
flows result directly from existing economic resources, such as accounts
receivable. Other cash flows result from using several resources in combination
to produce and market goods or services to customers. Although those cash
flows cannot be identified with individual economic resources (or claims), users
of financial reports need to know the nature and amount of the resources
available for use in a reporting entity’s operations.
Changes in Economic Resources and Claims
OB15. Changes in a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims result
from that entity’s financial performance (see paragraphs OB17–OB20) and from
other events or transactions, such as issuing debt or equity instruments (see
paragraph OB21). To properly assess the prospects for future cash flows from
the reporting entity, users need to be able to distinguish between both of these
changes.
OB16. Information about a reporting entity’s financial performance helps
users to understand the return that the entity has produced on its economic
resources. Information about the return the entity has produced provides an
indication of how well management has discharged its responsibilities to make
efficient and effective use of the reporting entity’s resources. Information about
the variability and components of that return also is important, especially in
assessing the uncertainty of future cash flows. Information about a reporting
entity’s past financial performance and how its management discharged its
responsibilities usually is helpful in predicting the entity’s future returns on its
economic resources.
Financial Performance Reflected by Accrual Accounting
OB17. Accrual accounting depicts the effects of transactions, and other
events and circumstances on a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims
in the periods in which those effects occur, even if the resulting cash receipts and
payments occur in a different period. This is important because information about
a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims and changes in its economic
resources and claims during a period provides a better basis for assessing the
entity’s past and future performance than information solely about cash receipts
and payments during that period.
OB18. Information about a reporting entity’s financial performance during a
period, reflected by changes in its economic resources and claims other than by
obtaining additional resources directly from investors and creditors (see
paragraph OB21), is useful in assessing the entity’s past and future ability to
generate net cash inflows. That information indicates the extent to which the
reporting entity has increased its available economic resources, and thus its
5
capacity for generating net cash inflows through its operations rather than by
obtaining additional resources directly from investors and creditors.
OB19. In