Financial analysis essay
Over the years business has crossed boundaries, spanned over land and ocean, and generally changed the world. As business continues to evolve more broadly on a worldwide level, an introduction of new products, new jobs, and new ways of operating in the business world has occurred. This evolution does not occur without certain complexities developing, which then fuels a search for more effective ways to be successful worldwide. A major impact is in the accounting policies and methods used by companies operating international subsidiaries. Through a better understanding of international accounting and its affect on a company headquartered in two different countries, these troublesome issues with respect to becoming successful worldwide becomes clear.
Accounting encounters more challenges when entering the international arena. Foreign subsidiaries introduce issues of translation, transaction, and exchange rates. Through exploration of the Federal Accounting Standard 52: Foreign Currency Translation, a better understanding of these three issues becomes apparent. Translation deals with taking one currency such as the U.S. dollar, and translating it into another currency such as the British Pound, for reporting purposes. This represents one of the main difficulties in international accounting – preparing consolidated financial statements when a company has foreign subsidiaries that are included. FAS 52 explains foreign currency translation as, “The process of expressing in the reporting currency of the enterprise those amounts that are denominated or measured in a different currency” . Read more…