Comparison of Financial Statements - Wesfarmers Limited and Woolworths Limited

Running head: COMPARISON OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Comparison of Financial Statements
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1COMPARISON OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Wesfarmers Limited and Woolworths Limited are two of the major retail companies of
Australia. It needs to be mentioned that the financial statements of Wesfarmers and Woolworths
have some similarities as well as some differences. The major similarities and differences are
discussed below:
Balance Sheet
Wesfarmers

2COMPARISON OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Table 1: Statement of Balance Sheet
(Source: wesfarmers.com.au, 2017)
Woolworths
Table 2: Statement of Balance Sheet
(Source: woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017)

3COMPARISON OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
According to the above tables, it can be seen that both Wesfarners and Woolworths
follow a specific structure for presenting various aspects in the balance sheets; they are current
assets, non-current assets, total assets, current liabilities, non-current liabilities, total liabilities,
shareholder’s equity and total equity. Thus, it is clear that both the companies have adopted
narrative format for their balance sheets. Both the companies follow the principles and standards
of Australian Accounting Standard Board (AASB) and International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS). The main balance sheet equation of these two companies is:
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
However, in case of Wesfarmers, the carrying value of recognized assets and liabilities are
adjusted to record the changes while this is not done in case of Woolworths (wesfarmers.com.au,
2017).
Income Statements