Why Do Companies Use Non-GAAP Earnings?

When analysts question a firm’s earnings quality, it raises concerns regarding under or over aggressive accounting practices that may be allowing the firm to manipulate the earnings. Earnings quality is defined as the strength of the current earnings in being used to predict future earnings and cash flows. Since earning quality is indicative of future performance, analysts are more likely to address issues that have substantial impact on the earnings quality. An issue arises when the nature of the earnings is questioned. While permanent earnings are part of normal operations, any irregular, one time earnings can skew the earnings, making the firm look more profitable than it is. This is due to the inability to recreate similar one-time transactions that will give rise to such numbers. Investors prefer predictable

Understandably, there are a variety of ways in which a company can manage their earnings, and if accomplished successfully, the results can be highly profitable. Not all techniques are fraudulent, as effective earnings management is considered good for business and shareholders. Income smoothing is a specific example of permissible earnings management that involves controlling fluctuations in net income to make earnings less variable over a given period of time (Goel & Thakor, 2003). Smoothing is acceptable as long as it adheres to the restrictions of U.S. GAAP, which maintains that all revenues and expenses are accounted for in a defined fashion. There are a lot of incentives in figuring how to effectively smooth income, as substantial value can be created through the successful arrangement of financial transactions. Management is able to make more intelligent decisions with regards to the future of the firm if the earnings are able to match the forecasts. One instance this is seen is when management is faced with the decision to smooth total income or

Such an intense focus has been placed on quarterly earnings as an indication of a company’s success by everyone from analysts to executives that ethics have for the most part been thrown out the window, sacrificed to the all important number, i.e. earnings per share. This is the theory in Alex Berenson’s book “The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America.” This number has become part of a game to be played, a figure to be manipulated – beat the number and Wall Street all but throws a parade, miss it and a company’s stock may be abandoned. Take into account the incentives that executives have to beat the number and one can find plenty of reasons to manage earnings.

Financial reporting practices and ethics have manifested an ocean of literature. This has mainly come from organization theorists that address accounting practices. These theorists and professionals have given fresh accountability measures. Their ideals give this industry the tools needed to survive, grow and prosper. The way an organization prepares and reports its financial information and handles its daily operations is in essence financial practices, and in the way it accomplishes this reveals their ethical standards to which they adhere to. This paper will discuss the financial practices, ethical standards, and

Ethical professionals, who willfully present transparent financial statements, are the only true way to prevent misconstrued financial statements. Likewise users of financial data will always have their work cut out for them. Investors must be diligent to discover a company’s true financial state. FASB will never rid the world of every accounting inconsistency (Edman, 2011).

Non-GAAP metrics can provide investors with extra information about the company, and can help communicate what earnings would have been had certain infrequent expenses not occurred during the accounting period. Non-GAAP metrics also creates risks and challenges for investors due its inherent risk given its susceptibility to management bias. Some of the risks include reduced comparability of companies within the same industry and altered investor perception of earnings trends in the market as a whole and for individual companies. The motive behind the increase in non-GAAP earnings is questionable and could be attributed to at least two distinct factors. The first factor is management's desire to provide investors with additional insight into the company, and to help investors identify core profitability by excluding certain infrequent expenses in the calculation of adjusted earnings. The second factor is related to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations involving executive compensation. According to (Balsam,

Excello Telecommunications has a history of excellent performance but with a surge in oversea competitors the company may not be able to meet its financial estimates for the first time. Executives were worried that not being able to meet the financial estimates could impact stock options, bonuses, and the share price of company stock.

In today’s business environment where publicly traded companies feel pressure to meet short-term earnings expectations, management may be tempted to “manage earnings”. Assess how a financial statement user may be able to detect managed earnings when reviewing the firm’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash-flow statement. Indicate how a potential investor might interpret these “red-flags”. Provide support for your rationale.

Companies following GAAP can manage earnings by simply altering its accounting policy to select those accounting principles that benefit them the most. Entities have a host of reasons for selecting those principles that will paint the rosiest financial picture. Some would argue that the market demands it, as reflected by the stock price punishment for companies that differ by as little as one penny per share from prior estimates. External market pressures to “meet the numbers” conflicts with market pressure for transparency in financial reporting.

Ethical issues have greatly transformed in our lives since the great Enron, Xerox and other huge corporations proposed big profits showing earnings of billions of dollars and yet in reality facing bankruptcy. These corporations faced great trouble with the federals and state for manipulating financial statements. But not only corporations can be blamed on this, accounting firms were involved in this as much as the corporations were. With the business stand point, ethics comprises of principles and standards that guide behavior. Investors, traders, customers, and legal system determine whether a specific action is ethical or unethical. Ethical issue is a vast subject, but we will look at the niche

Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of

It is because many managers consider any practice that is not explicitly prohibited is not unethical. People consider that slight deviation from the rules is an acceptable practice regardless of who might be affected by that practice. A short-term earnings, an example of the ignored morals and accounting policies, is a vulnerable to misinterpretation, manipulation, or deliberate deception (Gibson, 2013).

Lastly, company participates in good earnings management is because it provides a way to present information to its present and potential investors about their operations. Actions such as these that achieve stable and predictable results and positive earnings trends through good planning and operational responsiveness are not illegal or unethical in any way, its just part of business. All businesses try to reach their targets and try to continue seeing growth while responding to their competition and changes in the market. Good earnings management just allows the company to continue their operations with some type of goal to achieve or target to reach. This only becomes a bad thing when those goals or targets are not reached and someone starts making up the numbers.

Introduction. The authors studied the earnings management and its manipulation techniques that executives use to obtain preferred financial results. The regulatory changes promoted an aggressive financial reporting. The pressure of mandatory reforms and financial markets affect CFO’s personal financial interests and interest of corporation that the management can manipulate with. The authors investigated the influence of incentive conflict and earnings management ethics on financial reporting (p. 506). The main objective of research is to comprehend the earnings management structure, earnings management ethics, and examine methods to minimize CFO’s harmful effects on earnings.

Earnings are the single most studied number in a company's financial statement because they show a company's profitability. Earnings are the income a business earns, which can be calculated after subtracting the costs of making, purchasing, or providing the items or services it