← Accounting concepts
Qualitative characteristics, and the owner's decision (every paper)
Name it, define it, then say what it lets this named owner DO.| Asked as | Say this | Then link to |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | Capable of changing a decision; predictive + confirmatory value | What the owner will now do differently |
| Materiality | Could omitting it change a decision — for an entity THIS size | A figure comparison, not a rule of thumb |
| Faithful representation | Complete, neutral, free from error; backed by source documents | Why the owner can rely on it |
| Comparability | Same policies, period to period and entity to entity | Spotting the trend between the two years shown |
| Timeliness | Available soon enough to act on | The decision that would be too late otherwise |
Splitting revenue into categories (general vs limited edition sales) is a comparability AND relevance answer: the owner can see which line is growing, which one line of total sales hides.
✕The missing limitation
Every paper asks for one limitation of some piece of information, and it is the most commonly dropped mark in the standard. Have one ready for each: historical figures say nothing about the future; a revaluation is an estimate; an extract omits context; non-financial factors are absent entirely.Practice for this standard covers the whole topic — flashcards and quiz.