CPA Exam Lab
All patterns
Statements and presentation

Net Income or OCI

The PUFI items go to OCI; everything else, including all equity securities, hits net income.

How the exam words it

The playbook

  1. 1Run the PUFI list: pension adjustments, unrealized gains and losses on AFS debt, foreign currency translation adjustments, and effective cash flow hedges go to OCI.
  2. 2Send everything else to net income: trading securities, all equity securities (ASU 2016-01), and foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
  3. 3When an OCI item is realized, reclassify it out of AOCI so the gain is not counted twice, and remember comprehensive income = net income + OCI.

The trap

Putting unrealized gains and losses on equity securities in OCI. Since ASU 2016-01 equity securities are marked through net income; only AFS debt runs through OCI.

How the exam varies it

The same pattern, re-skinned along these axes:

Which item: pension, translation, AFS debt, or equity securitiesClassify one item versus compute comprehensive income or ending AOCIInitial unrealized change versus a reclassification adjustment on sale

Drill this pattern

8 questions of Net Income or OCI from across the AUD topics. Clear it by getting 5 right with a streak of 3.

Shows up in 2 FAR topics