Evaluating the impact of institutional logic on the corporate Internet reporting by Egyptian listed companies

This study explores the institutional logic(s) governing the Corporate Internet Reporting (CIR) by Egyptian listed companies. In doing so, a mixed methods approach was followed. The qualitative part seeks to understand the perceptions, believes, values, norms, that are commonly shared by Egyptian companies which engaged in these practices. Consequently, seven cases of large listed Egyptian companies operating in different industries have been examined. Other stakeholders and stockholders have been interviewed in conjunction with these cases. The quantitative part consists of two studies. The first one is descriptive aiming to specify whether the induced logic(s) from the seven cases are commonly embraced by other Egyptian companies. The second study is explanatory aiming to investigate the impact of several institutional and economic factors on the extent of CIR, types of the online information, quality of the websites as well as the Internet facilities. Drawing on prior CIR literature, four potential types of logics could be inferred: efficiency, legitimacy, technical and marketing based logics. In Egypt, legitimacy logic was initially embraced in the earlier years after the Internet inception. latter, companies confronted radical challenges in their internal and external environments which impelled them to raise their websites potentialities to defend their competitive position; either domestically or internationally. Thus, two new logics emphasizing marketing and technical perspectives have emerged, in response. Strikingly, efficiency based logic is not the most prevalent logic driving CIR practices in Egypt as in the developed countries. The empirical results support this observation and show that almost half of Egyptian listed companies 115 as on December 2010 possessed an active website, half of them 62 disclosed part of their financial and accounting information, during December 2010 to February 2011. Less than half of the websites 52 offered latest annual financial statements. Fewer 33(29%) websites provided shareholders and stock information or included a separate section for corporate governance 25 (22%) compared to 50 (44%) possessing a section for news or press releases. Additionally, the variations in CIR practices, as well as timeliness and credibility were also evident even at industrial level. After controlling for firm size, profitability, leverage, liquidity, competition and growth, it was realized that industrial companies and those facing little competition tend to disclose less. In contrast, management size, foreign investors, foreign listing, dispersion of shareholders and firm size provided significant and positive impact individually or collectively. In contrast, neither audit firm, nor most of performance indicators (i.e. profitability, leverage, and liquidity) did exert an influence on the CIR practices. Thus, it is suggested that CIR practices are loosely institutionalised in Egypt, which necessitates issuing several regulative and processional rules to raise the quality attributes of Egyptian websites, especially, timeliness and credibility. Beside, this study highlights the potency of assessing the impact of institutional logic on CIR practices and suggests paying equal attention to the institutional and economic factors when comparing the CIR practices over time or across different institutional environments in the future.

Assessing the value relevance of accounting data after the introduction of IFRS in Europe

Since 2005, European-listed companies have been required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We examine whether value relevance increased following the introduction of IFRS, using a sample of 3,721 companies listed on five European stock exchanges: Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, London, and Milan. We find mixed evidence of an increase in value relevance. However, the influence of earnings on share price increased following the introduction of IFRS in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, while the influence of book value of equity decreased (except for the United Kingdom). © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Gazdasági kórkép alulnézetből I. rész (Syndrome of Hungarian Economy from Bottom-view – I. part)

A rendszerváltás utáni időszak gazdasági teljesítményei a beteljesült remények és a megvalósulatlan várakozások egymást követő hullámzásait takarják. A mögöttünk hagyott két évtized első felét a gazdasági szerkezetváltás, a piaci kapcsolatok módosulása, valamint új – többségében külföldi – befektetői csoportok megjelenése jellemezte, amelyek együttes hozadéka volt a gazdaság stabilizálódása, majd az új növekedési pályára állás. Az ezredfordulót követő évtized első felére azonban a külföldi befektetésekre alapozott gazdaságfejlesztési stratégia erejét vesztette, s a helyettesítésre szánt hazai kkv-szektor – a kiemelt támogatások és a kedvezmények ellenére – nem tudott a növekedés motorjává válni. Szerzőnk – a BCE tudományos kutatója és az APEH korábbi elnöke – a versenyszektor 2000–2008. évi pénzügyi beszámolói alapján a hazai vállalkozások demográfiai, teljesítményi és eredményességi jellemzőit vizsgálja, s két részből álló tanulmányában arra keresi a választ, hogy a várakozásoktól elmaradó működési eredményekben milyen szerepe lehet a gazdaságfejlesztési stratégia hiányának, a vállalkozási teljesítmények elégtelenségének, a tőkehiánynak, illetve a pénzügyi rendszer torzulásainak. Szerkesztőségünk a tanulmányt olyan vitaindítónak tekinti, ami széles érdeklődésre tarthat számot, s szívesen vállalkozunk arra, hogy közreadunk minden jobbító szándékú gondolatot. _______ The economic performance during the transition period was characterized by the alternations of fulfilled hopes and unrealized expectations. The economic restructuring and changes in market relations took place during the first decade, while new – mostly foreign – investment groups entered on the new market. As a result the economy was stabilized and was put to a new growth path. But after the millennium the foreign investment based economy development strategy was no more adequate. The new engine for the growth should have been the domestic small and medium enterprise sector (SME), but despite the subsidies this sector was not strengthened to take this role. The author – the researcher of BCE, and the ex-president of APEH – analyses the characteristics of the domestic business demography, performance and effectiveness, based on the 2000–2008 annual financial statements of the business sector. The two-part study seeks the reason for the disappointing operation results. What role take in this phenomena the absence of economic strategy, the deficiency of business performance, the lack of capital and the financial distortions of the system. Our editorial intend this study as a debate for the public, and we would publish the ideas which improves this relevant topic.

Gazdasági kórkép alulnézetből 2. rész (Syndrome of Hungarian Economy from Bottom-view - part 2.)

A magyar gazdaság új növekedési pályára állása a kilencvenes évek végére tehető, s ebben meghatározó szerepe volt a pótlólagos erőforrásként szolgáló külföldi működőtőke-befektetéseknek. A nemzetközi tőkeáramlás ezredfordulót követő módosulása (csökkenő volumen, változó irányultság) kedvezőtlenül érintette a hazai gazdaságot, aminek egyik következménye a beruházások csökkenése és a növekedési ütem lassulása, másik következménye viszont – a jövedelemkiáramlást semlegesítő hatás elmaradása miatt – a fizetési mérleg romlása. Ebben a helyzetben halaszthatatlanná vált az államháztartási egyensúlyromlás megállítása, illetve a gazdasági fejlődés új alapokra helyezése. A szerző elemzésében – a hazai versenyszektor eredményességi és vagyoni jellemzőinek értékelésével – azt szeretné jelezni, hogy az egyensúlytalansági állapot megszüntetése nem szorítkozhat az államháztartási rendszerre, vagyis az ország helyzetének stabilizálása, majd új növekedési pályára állás nem képzelhető el a gazdaság átfogó modernizációja nélkül. Vizsgálata a ténylegesen működő (343 ezer) hazai társas vállalkozás 2000–2008. évi pénzügyi beszámolóinak adataira épül. Álláspontja szerint a mintavétel nagysága ellensúlyozza az esetleges torzító hatásokat (lásd: helyenként előforduló kreatív beszámolók), így a vállalkozások mennyiségi gyarapodása, méret szerinti megoszlása, a gazdasági tevékenység jellege, a teljesítmények és eredmények alakulása, a vállalkozói vagyon módosulása megbízhatóan értékelhető, illetve a tapasztalatok alapján a korrekciós intézkedések igénye és azok tartalma is jól körvonalazható. Tanulmányát így ajánljuk a téma iránt érdeklődőknek, a versenyszektor szereplőinek, de leginkább a gazdaságpolitika formálóinak. _________ The economic performance during the transition period was characterized by the alternations of fulfilled hopes and unrealized expectations. The economic restructuring and changes in market relations took place during the first decade, while new – mostly foreign – investment groups entered on the new market. As a result the economy was stabilized and was put to a new growth path. But after the millennium the foreign investment based economy development strategy was no more adequate. The new engine for the growth should have been the domestic small and medium enterprise sector (SsME), but despite the subsidies this sector was not strengthened to take this role. The author – the researcher of BCE, and the ex-president of APpEH – analyses the characteristics of the domestic business demography, performance and effectiveness, based on the 2000–2008 annual financial statements of the business sector. In the author’s analysis – with assessment of the domestic business sector and financial performance characteristicst - he would like to point out that the imbalance can not be confined to the elimination of state government system, that is, the country’s situation to stabilize, and then post a new growth path is not conceivable without the modernization of the economy overall. In his view, the sample size outweighed the possible distortionary effects (see occurring in places of creative accounts), so the growth of business volume, size distribution, the nature of economic activity, the evolution of performance and results, a reliable assessment of changes in the business of property and the experience on the basis of the need for corrective action, and its contents are also well delineated. Sstudy it is recommended for those interested in the topic, the business sector actors, but most of the economic policy makers.

A vállalati likviditásmenedzsment számviteli támogatása (Accounting support for company’s liquidity management)

A cikk kiindulópontja, hogy a kettős könyvvitelt vezető vállalkozások által kötelezően elkészítendő éves pénzügyi kimutatások (számviteli beszámolók) olyan információbázist jelentenek, amelyek segítséget nyújthatnak egyrészről a vállalati likviditásmenedzsment támogatásához, másrészről a vállalkozások likviditási helyzetének megítéléséhez. A cikk első fele felvázolja a vállalkozások pénzügyi helyzetét bemutató adatok számviteli kereteit, bemutatja a likviditás fogalmának egyes értelmezéseit, majd részletesen kitér arra, hogy a likviditás utólagos vizsgálatához, illetve előrejelzéséhez milyen korrekciókat kell (lehet) végezni a számviteli beszámoló adatain. A cikk második fele az elemzés lehetséges módjait és eszközeit veszi számba, kitérve a statikus és dinamikus elemzés közötti különbségek bemutatására, az egyes mutatók számításának lehetséges módjaira és értelmezésükre, mindvégig szem előtt tartva az alkalmazás korlátait. ________ The study examines how information provided by accounting information systems could support companies’ liquidity management. The starting point is that compulsory financial statements prepared by economic entities embody an adequate information basis, which could help liquidity management as well as the judgement of liquidity. The first part of the study introduces the various interpretations of liquidity and gives a detailed description of the adjustments that need to be made on accounting data for an a posteriori examination of liquidity and to be able to forecast liquidity. The second part discusses the possible means and tools of analysis, including the differences between static and dynamic methods and the calculation and interpretation of the various ratios widely used by professionals. The conclusion is that there is no best-practice method or ratio, but rather a wide range of tools is to be used when one is willing to gain a complex and comprehensive insight about an entity’s liquidity.

A kockázat szerepe a könyvvizsgálatban = The role of risk in external audits

A tanulmány a kockázatnak és a kockázatok felmérésének az éves beszámolók (pénzügyi kimutatások) könyvvizsgálatban betöltött szerepével foglalkozik. A modern könyvvizsgálat – belső és külső korlátainál fogva – nem létezhet a vizsgált vállalkozás üzleti kockázatainak felmérése nélkül. Olyannyira igaz ez, hogy a szakma alapvető szabályait lefektető nemzeti és nemzetközi standardok is kötelező jelleggel előírják az ügyfelek üzleti kockázatainak megismerését. Mindez nem öncélú tevékenység, hanem éppen ez jelenti a könyvvizsgálat kiinduló magját: a kockázatbecslés – a tervezés részeként – az audit végrehajtásának alapja, és egyben vezérfonala. A szerző először bemutatja a könyvvizsgálat és a kockázat kapcsolatának alapvonásait, azt, hogy miként jelenik meg egyáltalán a kockázat problémája a könyvvizsgálatban. Ezt követően a különféle kockázatalapú megközelítéseket tárgyalja, majd néhány főbb elem kiragadásával ábrázolja a kockázatkoncepció beágyazódását a szakmai szabályozásba. Végül – mintegy az elmélet tesztjeként – bemutatja a kockázatmodell gyakorlati alkalmazásának néhány aspektusát. ______ The study examines the role of risk and the assessment of risks in the external audit of financial statements. A modern audit – due to its internal and external limitations – cannot exist without the assessment of the business risk of the entity being audited. This is not a l’art pour l’art activity but rather the very core of the audit. It is – as part of the planning of the audit – a guideline to the whole auditing process. This study has three main sections. The first one explains the connection between audit and risk, the second discusses the different risk based approaches to auditing and the embeddedness of the risk concept into professional regulation. Finally – as a test of theory – some practical aspects of the risk model are discussed through the lens of former empirical research carried out mostly in the US. The conclusion of the study is that though risk based models of auditing have many weaknesses they still result in the most effective and efficient high quality audits.

A számviteli szabályozások eltérésének okairól (Causes of the differences in accounting regulations)

A számviteli szabályozások közötti eltérések oda vezethetnek, hogy ugyanarról a gazdálkodó egység, egyazon időszakáról, akár jelentősen is eltérő, és az adott szabályozási logika alapján helyes pénzügyi kimutatások készülnek. Ezek a sokszor materiális eltérések nehezen magyarázhatók, ha figyelembe vesszük azt a tényt is, hogy a különböző pénzügyi kimutatások mögött azonos gazdasági események húzódnak meg. Az eltérések a számviteli szabályozás különbségeivel magyarázhatók. A cikk feltárja, hogy a számviteli szabályozásnak milyen szintjeit lehet megkülönböztetni, és vizsgálja, hogy milyen tényezők vezettek el oda, hogy az egyes megközelítések akár markánsan eltérő megoldásokat kínálnak egy-egy adott vagyoni elem megjelenítésére és értékelésére, illetve egy tranzakció megjelenítésére. A cikk az egyes eltéréseket indukáló tényezők rendszerezése útján megkísérel deduktív úton becslést adni a számviteli harmonizáció további lehetséges irányaira. ____ Differences among the accounting regulations may lead to material dissimilarities in the financial statements prepared for the same entity and same financial year. These material differences are sometimes hard to explain, given that they shall be based on the same transactions. The differences are explained by the differences in the regulations. The paper explains the possible levels of accounting by-laws and examines – based on the relevant literature – the factors that led to different solutions for the recognition, measurement and disclosure of the same items or transactions. By structuring these factors the article tries to give possible future advances in the harmonization of such systems using a deductive approach.

An examination of accounting and auditing issues related to strategic environmental initiatives

Although corporate environmental accountability is receiving unprecedented attention in the United States from policy makers, the capital market, and the public at large, extant research is limited in its examination of the implications of strategic corporate environmental initiatives on accounting and auditing. The purpose of my dissertation is to address these implications by examining the association between firm environmental initiatives and audit fees, capital expenditures, and earnings quality using multivariate regression analysis. I find that firms engaged in more strategic environmental initiatives tend to have significantly higher audit fees and capital expenditures, and significantly lower levels of earnings manipulation measured using discretionary accruals. These results support the notion that auditors do recognize the importance of environmental initiatives when conducting the year-end financial statement audit, an idea that positively reflects upon the auditor’s monitoring role. The results also demonstrate the increased amount of capital resources required to participate in strategic environmental initiatives, an anecdotal notion that had yet to be empirically supported. This empirical support provides valuable insights on how environmental initiatives materially impact corporate financial statements. Finally, my results extend the extant literature by demonstrating that the superior financial performance reported by environmentally active firms is less likely driven by earnings manipulation by management, and by implication, more likely a result of real economic gains. Taken together, my dissertation establishes a strong and timely foundation for current and future research to explore corporate environmental initiatives in the United States and globally, a topic increasingly gaining momentum in today’s more eco-conscious world.^

Essays on audit report lag

Audit reporting lag continues to remain an issue of significant interest to regulators, financial statement users, public companies, and auditors. The SEC has recently acted to reduce the deadline for filing annual and quarterly financial statements. Such focus on audit reporting lag arises because, as noted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, relevance and reliability are the two primary qualities of accounting information; and, to be relevant, information has to be timely. In my dissertation, I examine three issues related to the audit report lag. The first essay focuses on the association between audit report lag and the meeting or beating of earnings benchmarks. I do not find any association between audit report lag and just meeting or beating earnings benchmarks. However, I find that longer audit report lag is negatively associated with the probability of using discretionary accruals to meet or beat earnings benchmarks. We can infer from these results that audit effort, for which audit report lag is a proxy, reduces earnings management. The second part of my dissertation examines the association between types of auditor changes and audit report lag. I find that the resignation of an auditor is associated longer audit report lag compared to the dismissal of an auditor. I also find a significant positive association between the disclosure of a reportable event and audit report lag. The third part of my dissertation investigates the association between senior executive changes and audit report lag. I find that audit report lag is longer when client firms have a new CEO or CFO. Further, I find that audit report lag is longer when the new executive is someone from outside the firm. These results provide empirical evidence about the importance of senior management in the financial reporting process.

Understanding Annual Reports of Hospitality Firms

In her discussion - Understanding Annual Reports of Hospitality Firms - by Elisa S. Moncarz, Associate Professor, School of Hospitality Management, Florida International University, Associate Professor Moncarz initially offers: “Management bears full responsibility for the reporting function of annual reports prepared by publicly-held companies designed to provide interested parties with information that is useful in making business and economic decisions. In Part I the author reviews the content of annual reports of firms in the hospitality industry, while looking at recent developments affecting annual reports. Part 11, in a subsequent issue, will comprise an in-depth examination of the annual report of an actual firm in the hospitality industry, focusing on suggested guidelines and recommendations for how to use annual reports as an aid to the decision-making process in the hospitality industry.” This article is to be considered a primer on reading and understanding annual reports, as well as a glimpse into the dynamics that affect them. In defining what an annual report is, Associate Professor Moncarz informs you with citation, “Annual reports are required by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) ¹ for all companies with securities sold to the general public. These reports, which must be issued within 90 days after the close of the calendar (or fiscal) year, comprise a primary source of information about these companies,” she further reports. “Indeed, the official version of the company's history is summed up yearly in its annual report by providing full information of the company's operations over the period as well as what the company is gearing up to accomplish in the next year,” Professor Moncarz closes the definition. Why should thus happen over and above SEC requirements? The financial component is an important one; the author offers her informed view: “The major objective of financial statement reporting is to provide information that is useful to present and potential investors, creditors, and other financial statement users in making rational investment, credit, and similar decisions. Thus, financial statements represent the primary (and most reliable) source of knowledge about a particular firm in the hospitality industry.” The above two paragraphs crystallize the requirement and the objective of annual reports. “A typical annual report of a hospitality firm contains a number of standard features which may be broken down into the following three sections…” General, financial data, and supplementary data are variously bounded and circumscribed for you. As a marketing device and feel-good initiative, the annual report is a useful tool for a hospitality corporation that is in-the-black, and focused on the future, says the author. She cites the Marriott Corporation’s 1985 annual report as an example. Of course, an annual report can also be a harbinger of bad news for shareholders as well. Notes/footnotes and disclosure are key elements to the credibility of any annual report; Professor Moncarz discusses these concepts at length. “Given the likelihood that the hospitality industry will continue to face an uncertain economic environment for some time, financial statement users should become more demanding in their need for information that will help assure the firm's survival and evaluate its ability to generate earnings, increase the firm's investment value, and provide for its future growth,” Professor Moncarz says. “Accordingly, understanding annual reports in the hospitality industry should become even more critical.”

The market value implications of pension asset allocation

Pension funds have been part of the private sector since the 1850's. Defined Benefit pension plans [DB], where a company promises to make regular contributions to investment accounts held for participating employees in order to pay a promised lifelong annuity, are significant capital markets participants, amounting to 2.3 trillion dollars in 2010 (Federal Reserve Board, 2013). In 2006, Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.158 (SFAS 158), Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postemployment Plans, shifted information concerning funding status and pension asset/liability composition from disclosure in the footnotes to recognition in the financial statements. I add to the literature by being the first to examine the effect of recent pension reform during the financial crisis of 2008-09. This dissertation is comprised of three related essays. In my first essay, I investigate whether investors assign different pricing multiples to the various classes of pension assets when valuing firms. The pricing multiples on all classes of assets are significantly different from each other, but only investments in bonds and equities were value-relevant during the recent financial crisis. Consistent with investors viewing pension liabilities as liabilities of the firm, the pricing multiples on pension liabilities are significantly larger than those on non-pension liabilities. The only pension costs significantly associated with firm value are actual rate of return and interest expense. In my second essay, I investigate the role of accruals in predicting future cash flows, extending the Barth et al. (2001a) model of the accrual process. Using market value of equity as a proxy for cash flows, the results of this study suggest that aggregate accounting amounts mask how the components of earnings affect investors' ability to predict future cash flows. Disaggregating pension earnings components and accruals results in an increase in predictive power. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, however, investors placed a greater (and negative) weight on the incremental information contained in the individual components of accruals. The inferences are robust to alternative specifications of accruals. Finally, in my third essay I investigate how investors view under-funded plans. On average, investors: view deficits arising from under-funded plans as belonging to the firm; reward firms with fully or over-funded pension plans; and encourage those funds with unfunded pension plans to become funded. Investors also encourage conservative pension asset allocations to mitigate firm risk, and smaller firms are perceived as being better able to handle the risk associated with underfunded plans. During the financial crisis of 2008-2009 underfunded status had a lower negative association with market value. In all three models, there are significant differences in pre- and post- SFAS 158 periods. These results are robust to various scenarios of the timing of the financial crisis and an alternative measure of funding.

Depreciação no serviço público: reconhecimento e evidenciação nas demonstrações contábeis dos estados e municípios brasileiros

Public institutions, as well as other entities, if use of various assets for development of its activities. These assets are tools that help with the generation of benefit present and future. For the assets that compound the Property, Plant and Equipament, this loss of generation of future benefits is called Depreciation and must be recognized as an expense in the period in which it occurs. This way, be considered as an expense, the depreciation has negative influence on the composition of the entity’s income, as this is the result of the confrontation between revenue and expenditure incurred in the same period. The Brazilian legislation regulates it is necessary to recognize and disclosure in the financial statements, all of the situations that interfere with the composition of economic and financial income of the public institution. The main objective of this work was to verify if the states and cities recognize and disclosure the depreciation on their Statements of Financial Position. The data were extracted from datas of the Brazilian public administration’s entities.. The sample analyzed is 100% of the States (including the Federal District) and 91% of the Brazilian cities. The research found the historical evolution of the expenditure with depreciation, evidenced in the balance sheets of the Brazilian cities, in the last 10 years, in the period 1999 to 2008. The results indicate that 10 Brazilian states (37 %) did not show the depreciation of fixed assets in the Statements of Financial Position of the year 2008. The situation is even more worrying in relation to cities, because 4,971 (98.4 %) of 5,050 municipalities not evidenced the depreciation. The evidence found in this study indicate that public entities do not recognize the expense with depreciation, which may indicate that the economic income and financial position presented in the financial statements of these public entities does not accurately reflect the actual situation of institutional performance.

Implications of FIN 46 for Accruals Quality and Investment Efficiency

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Interpretation No. 46 (FIN 46), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities – An Interpretation of ARB No. 51, in January 2003 and revised it in December 2003, with the objective to improve the transparency of financial information. Under FIN 46, companies are required to consolidate variable interest entities (VIEs) on financial statements if they are the primary beneficiaries of the VIEs. This dissertation empirically examines whether the implementation of this new financial reporting guidance affects firms’ accruals quality and investment efficiency. A manually collected sample comprised of firms affected by FIN 46 and firms disclosing no material impact from FIN 46 is used in the empirical analyses.The first part of the dissertation investigates the effects of FIN 46 on accruals quality. By using different accrual quality measures in prior studies, this study found that firms affected by FIN 46 experienced a decrease in accrual quality compared to firms reporting no material impact from FIN 46. Among the firms affected by FIN 46, firms consolidating VIEs were compared with firms terminating or restructuring VIEs. The accruals quality of firms consolidating VIEs was found to be lower than that of firms terminating or restructuring VIEs. These results are consistent in tests using alternative control samples.The second part of this dissertation examines the effects of FIN 46 on investment efficiency. Mixed results were found from using two different proxies used in prior literature. Using the investment-cash flow sensitivity to proxy for investment efficiency, firms affected by FIN 46 experienced a decrease in investment efficiency compared to firms reporting no material impact. It was also found that higher investment-cash flow sensitivity for firms consolidating VIEs during post-FIN 46 periods compared to both the no-impact firms and the matched pair control sample. Contrasting results were found when the deviation from expected investment is used as another proxy for investment efficiency. Empirical analyses show that FIN 46 firms experienced improved investment efficiency measured by the deviation from expected investment after their adoption of FIN 46. This study also provides explanations for the opposite results from the two different proxies.

Let's put in order the accounting records and annual accounts of the agrarian processing companies

The substantive legislation on which Agricultural Processing Companies is based has some notable gaps with regard to the pertinent accounting system. There are grey areas concerning compulsory accounting records and their legalization, together with the process for drawing up, checking, approving and depositing the annual accounts.Consequently, in this paper, we will look first at the corporate and accounting records for Agricultural Processing Companies, putting forward proposals in the wake of recent legislation on the legalization of generally applied corporate and accounting documents.A critical analysis will also be made of the entire process of drafting, auditing, approving and depositing the annual accounts and other documents that Agricultural Processing Companies must send each year to their respective regional registries. Legal and mercantile registries will be differentiated from administrative ones and, in this last sense, changes will be suggested with regard to the place and objective of the deposit of such documents.After thirty-four years old, the substantive legislation in economic and accounting matters of the SAT is out of step with the current law, so a review is necessary. Recent regional regulations have not been a real breakthrough in this regard. We assert the existence of a gap between the substantive rules of the SAT and general accounting rules on financial statements, which is unsustainable and it needs a quick legislative action to be canceled.

Special employment centers in Castile and León 2007-2013: effects of the crisis in relation to these centers’ registered legal personalities

The aim of this paper is to carry out an economic and financial study of the Special Employment Centres in Castile and León based on a classification of these entities’ registered legal personalities in order to view how the economic crisis that began at the end of 2007 may have affected them. Various items from the Centres’ financial statements are analysed and the results are compared to those from the period 2007-2013 as to provide a broader perspective of their size, development, growth and behaviour. The following economic figures were used: total assets, turnover and revenue. The variable “employment” is compared with the subsidies received by the Centres, showing that the crisis does affect the Centres depending on their registered legal personalities. Associations and physical persons are the most affected personalities, to the point of possible extinction. An account reversal for the Centres is also included in this article, which measures the percentage of public aid received by the Centres that is returned to society.