Ireland · The accounting Schedules

Schedule 3: the formats, departures from them, comparative figures and the notes on the formats

the Companies Act 2014 · Schedules 3, 3A and 3B

The formats are prescribed and the freedom to depart from them is narrow and conditional. Where, in accordance with paragraph 2(1), a company's balance sheet or profit and loss account for a financial year departs from the adopted format, Schedule 3 paragraph 3(1) governs the consequences. A set of statements that follows a group's own house format without meeting the paragraph has not complied with section 272(2).

Comparatives are required item by item, not statement by statement. Subject to paragraph 5(2), in respect of every item shown in the balance sheet, in the profit and loss account, or in the notes, the corresponding figure must be given as Schedule 3 paragraph 5(1) requires. A restated prior year is where most audit adjustments in this area arise.

Schedule 3 sets the general rules for the balance sheet and profit and loss formats, the treatment of individual items, the position on set-offs and the notes that attach to each format. Income and interest derived from group undertakings must be shown separately from other income and interest, as Note (10) to the profit and loss account formats requires.

The notes on the balance sheet formats control what may be included under a given heading. Amounts in respect of assets may only be included under the item Note (1) to the balance sheet formats identifies where the condition that note sets is met. Schedules 3A and 3B carry the corresponding formats for the small companies regime and the micro companies regime, so a company must first know which regime it is in.

Working files 193, 194, 195 and 196 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit cover this situation. Working file 193 works through the general rules for the formats. Working file 194 works through departures from the formats and the treatment of individual items. Working file 195 works through comparative figures, set-offs and the notes on the profit and loss account formats. Working file 196 works through the notes on the balance sheet formats.

• Working file 193 · Schedule 3: general rules for the balance sheet and profit and loss formats
• Working file 194 · Schedule 3: departures from the formats and the treatment of individual items
• Working file 195 · Schedule 3: comparative figures, set-offs and the notes on the profit and loss account formats
• Working file 196 · Schedule 3: the notes on the balance sheet formats

ComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and updates the toolkit on your account through the Compliance Complete account, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Compliance Complete

• Schedule 3: accounting principles, historical cost and fair value
• Schedule 3: the notes to the accounts
• Schedule 4: consolidating the group financial statements
• The small companies regime: Schedules 3A and 4A
• The micro companies regime: Schedule 3B

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