ARA Criteria 2010

For the purposes of an entry in the ARA Awards, an annual report means a document which contains the full audited annual financial statements (usually a general purpose financial report, (or less often a special purpose financial report) together with information which addresses the ARA criteria. Often, such information is published in separate documents such as sustainability reports or environmental reports or shareholder reviews. Organisations should state in their entry form the number and names of the documents which they regard as constituting their annual report and their entry in the ARA Awards.

General criteria apply to all reporting entities. Special requirements are set out below for specific industry or activity groups.

Concise reporting

Some organisations produce an abbreviated version of their annual reports, often referred to as concise annual reports or ‘annual reviews’. These provide savings for the reporting organisation.

Concise reports can achieve ARA awards provided they have sufficient quality and quantity of information to allow for informed decisions by stakeholders.

Concise versions should provide appropriate discussion of both operational and financial performance and outlook and meet at least Australian Accounting Standard AASB 1039 Concise Financial Reports and direct users to the full financial report to ensure they are able to access detailed financial information.

Disclosures in the Concise Financial Reports must have been derived from the main Financial Report*.

Reports that fail to address appropriate matters can be marked down during the adjudication process and consequently can miss out on an award. However, many Concise Reports deliver excellent levels of disclosure and have achieved award level results. ARA will continue to assess the Concise Reports submitted against its published criteria. Excellence in disclosure, innovation and creativity in communication with stakeholders will be considered and awarded accordingly.

Note: For adjudication, ARA requires hard copies of the (full) Financial Statements to be submitted with the operational reports entered.

An annual report containing a qualified audit report on its financial statements may be excluded from receiving an award, depending on the nature, significance, and consequential adverse effects of the audit qualification on the reliability and usefulness of information in the annual report.