Segmented Financial Information
U.S. GAAP and IFRS require that publicly traded companies include segmented financial and other data in their annual report and that segmented report prepared for external users must use the same methods and definitions that the companies use in internal segmented report that are prepare to aid in making operating decisions. This is a very unusual stipulation because companies are not ordinarily required to report the same data to external users that are used for internal decision-making purposes. This requirement creates incentive for publicly traded companies to avoid using the contribution format for internal segmented reports. Segmented contribution format income statements contain vital information that companies are often very reluctant to release to the public (and hence competitors) In addition, this requirement creates problems in reconciling internal and external reports.