Financial Reporting System for Producers' Cooperatives: A New Framework

The cooperative form of venture is gaining popularity as an avenue of socioeconomic development. A cooperative differs from a joint stock company in that it is an enterprise which has two aspects, institutional aspect and the business aspect, both equally important. The financial reporting system currently followed by the cooperatives does not do justice to both these aspects since it treats members of a cooperative as mere vendors. S P Seetharaman and G Srinivasan argue in this article that the members should be treated as divisions of the enterprise. They recommend a new framework for financial reporting system for producers' cooperatives which treats members as divisions, and thus presents a more accurate and comprehensive picture of cooperative's performance.