Disclosure financial assets and liabilities
– provides a narrative providing guidance on users of financial statements’ needs to present financial disclosures in the notes to the financial statements grouped in more logical orders. But there is and never will be a one-size fits all.
Here it has been decided to separately disclose financial assets and liabilities and non-financial assets and liabilities, because of the distinct different nature of these classes of assets and liabilities and the resulting different types of disclosures, risks and tabulations.
Disclosure financial assets and liabilities guidance
Disclosing financial assets and liabilities (financial instruments) in one note
Users of financial reports have indicated that they would like to be able to quickly access all of the information about the entity’s financial assets and liabilities in one location in the financial report. The notes are therefore structured such that financial items and non-financial items are discussed separately. However, this is not a mandatory requirement in the accounting standards.
Accounting policies, estimates and judgements
For readers of Financial Statements it is helpful if information about accounting policies that are specific to the entity
and about significant estimates and judgements is disclosed with the relevant line items, rather than in separate notes. However, this format is also not mandatory. For general commentary regarding the disclosures of accounting policies refer to note 25. Commentary about the disclosure of significant estimates and judgements is provided in note 11.
Scope of accounting standard for disclosure of financial instruments
IFRS 7 does not apply to the following items as they are not financial instruments as defined in paragraph 11 of IAS 32:
- prepayments made (right to receive future good or service, not cash or a financial asset)
- tax receivables and payables and similar items (statutory rights or obligations, not contractual), or
- contract liabilities (obligation to deliver good or service, not cash or financial asset).
While contract assets are also not financial assets, they are explicitly included in the scope of IFRS 7 for the purpose of the credit risk disclosures. Liabilities for sales returns and volume discounts (see note 7(f)) may be considered financial liabilities on the basis that they require payments to the customer. However, they should be excluded from financial liabilities if the arrangement is executory. the Reporting entity Plc determined this to be the case. [IFRS 7.5A]
Classification of preference shares
Preference shares must be analysed carefully to determine if they contain features that cause the instrument not to meet the definition of an equity instrument. If such shares meet the definition of equity, the entity may elect to carry them at FVOCI without recycling to profit or loss if not held for trading.
