F-270
The amount of the allowance for doubtful receivables reflects both the customers’ ability to honour their debts
and the age of the debts in question. The Company establishes a bad debt allowance procedure that foresees
provisioning for each specific case. As soon as individual trade accounts receivable can no longer be collected in
the normal way and are expected to result in a loss, they are designated as doubtful trade accounts receivable and
valued at the expected collectible amounts. They are written off when they are deemed to be uncollectible be-
cause of bankruptcy or other forms of receivership of the debtors.
The allowance for the risk of non collection of trade accounts receivable takes into account credit-risk concentra-
tion, collective debt risk based on average historical losses, and specific circumstances such as serious adverse
economic conditions in a specific country
.
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents in the balance sheet of financial statements include cash (cash funds and term depos-
its) and cash equivalents (short-term investments that are very liquid and readily convertible to known amounts
of cash and that are only subject to negligible changes of value).
Bank overdrafts are considered as financing and are also excluded from cash and cash equivalents.
Provisions
Provisions should be valued either at the nominal value of the expenses expected to be incurred in settling the
liabilities and losses or at the present value of these expenses.
A provision is recognized if:
•
The company has a legal or constructive obligation, arising from a past event; and
•
If there is a probable outflow of resources; and
•
The amount can be estimated reliably.
A provision for warranties is recognised when the underlying products or services are sold. The provision is
based on historical warranty date and a weighting of all possible outcomes against their associated probabilities.
Employee benefits
Dutch pension plans
The main principle is that the pension charge to be recognised for the period under review is equal to the pension
contributions payable to the pension fund for the period. Insofar as the payable contributions have not yet been
paid as at balance sheet date, a liability is recognised. If the contributions already paid exceed the payable con-
tributions as at balance sheet date, a receivable is recognised to account for any repayment by the fund or settle-
ment with contributions payable in future.
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