Accounting method study

Press, 24 July 1984, Page 30

Accounting method study

Two lecturers in accounting at the University of Canterbury have received a special award from the Society of Accountants for a study on whether the reporting of segmental information would be appropriate in New Zealand. Professor F. Devonport and Mr G. N. McNally have received the award announced by the selection committee for the Peter Barr Research Fellowship, which the society administers. Professor Devonport has served on the society’s Accounting Research and Standards Board and is now a member of the board’s Financial Accounting Committee. His particular area of interest is in financial reporting. Mr McNally, who edits the “CMA Bulletin” of the society’s Cost and Management Accounting Division, has a particular interest in the area of management accounting. The society says the object of the project is to determine whether the segmental reporting would be appropriate in New Zealand and, if so, the nature of the information to be reported. The results of the project will be embodied in a report which will be made available to the society’s Ac-

counting Research and Standards Board, with a view to the results being published as a research bulletin. The project will deal with the prospect of segmental reporting by all entities but the question of whether it is only . necessary to require certain entities to provide segmental information will also be considered. The two men will review overseas practices and the current practices in New Zealand. They will also review practical difficulties to be encountered in providing segmental information and determine workable criteria for identifying the information to be disclosed. The “Segmental Reporting” project is the third in a series sponsored by the Peter Barr Research Fellowship. In 1982, the project sponsored was i “Financial Reporting for Pension Schemes” and last year the selection committee funded a project on "Accounting for Non-Profit Organisations.” The Peter Barr Research Fellowship was established in 1964 to enable members of the New Zealand Society of Accountants to undertake research'in New Zealand or overseas to extend knowledge bf developments in the accounting profession.