The materiality is the accounting constraint stipulating that any information of such importance that its inclusion in or omission from financial records could have an impact on financial statements must be specially disclosed either in the body of the statements or the notes to the statements. Materiality is determined by the relative size, importance and nature of an item, not its absolute amount.
Consistency is the accounting constraint requiring the continued uniformity in the accounting methods applied from period to period in the preparation of financial statements and that they conform with universal methods or to those of the industry of which it is part. Consistency, which applies primarily to valuation and accrual methods, requires a disclosure accompanying the statements of the year in which any substantial change occurs.
The disclosure must set forth the nature of the difference in method, the reason for the change, and the monetary effect as compared with the result that would have been produced had there been no change. The presentation and classification of items in the financial statements must be retained from one period to the next unless a change is justified by a change in circumstances or accounting standards.
| AU §420.03 – Consistency of Application of GAAP* |
| “The auditor’s standard report implies that the auditor is satisfied that the comparability of financial statements between periods has not been materially affected by changes in accounting principles and that such principles have been consistently applied between or among periods because either (a) no change in accounting principles has occurred, or (b) there has been a change in accounting principles or in the method of their application, but the effect of the change on the comparability of the financial statements is not material. In these cases, the auditor would not refer to consistency in his report.” |
| * Superseded by PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 6, Evaluating Consistency of Financial Statements. |