Abstract
More than Just Numbers: Mapping Accounting Disclosures
Track: Business GIS
Author(s): Peter Bergevin, Kimberly Cass
This paper examines the benefits of geographically mapping financial accounting disclosures. It demonstrates the value of reporting the geographically-segmented financial data as spatial disclosures, rather than the conventional tabular format used to report financial values. After discussing the concept of asset impairment, the authors examine its effects on a national home builder’s financial disclosures. We then convert those disjointed notational narrative reports into a series of color-coded maps that visually demonstrate the extent to which the economic downturn has reduced the builder’s asset base. Mapping of the distressed assets in this fashion enables financial statements users to more easily and thoroughly understand the impact of impaired assets on an entity’s resources. Our maps are economically informative because they present impaired assets in their correct format—geographically.
Peter Bergevin
University of Redlands School of Business
PO Box 3080
Redlands , California 92373
United States
Phone: 909-748-8764
E-mail: peter_bergevin@redlands.edu
Kimberly Cass
University of Redlands
P.O. Box 3080
Redlands , California 92373
United States
Phone: (909)793-2121
E-mail: kimberly_cass@redlands.edu