Re: Statements of Financial Position (Re: Audited financial statements for 2023)

* Philippe Cloutier <chealer(at)gmail(dot)com> [2024-11-20 11:27]:
> Yes, I am not entirely clueless about accounting; what I meant is
> that I don't have (significant) education about it and have never
> been involved in the production of such statements. What I was
> talking about is the emphasis on "Total Liabilities and Net Assets"
> (the house's value) rather than net assets (what actually belongs to
> SPI and its projects).

It's because of the accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity

While "Assets" and "Liabilities and Net Assets" are on the same page,
a better way to image it is "Assets" on the left side and "Liabilities
and Net Assets" on the right side and both sides have to match (as per
the accounting equation).

In any case, to answer your question, this is a standard way to
present financial statements.

If you look at e.g. Mozilla (prepared by a different accounting firm),
you see exactly the same:
https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2022/mozilla-fdn-2022-fs-final-0908.pdf
(page 5)

Or Tor: https://www.torproject.org/static/findoc/2021-2022-The_Tor_Project-AuditedFinancialStatements.pdf?h=1fe92666
(page 11), prepared by yet another accounting firm.

So, rest assured, SPI's report is following accounting norms.

For most projects, the last page in SPI's financial statements (the
fund report) is probably the most interesting one anyway.

--
Martin Michlmayr
Contractor, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.