EXPECTATION GAP Definition

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EXPECTATION GAP, in accounting, is the gap between an auditors actual standard of performance and the more rigorous public expectation of what an auditors performance should be. The users of financial statements should be allowed to expect that the auditors materiality levels correspond with their own. If this is not the case an expectation gap will arise. Especially if the financial statements contain non-corrected known errors or omissions classified as immaterial by the auditor, but classified as material by the users. The unknown material errors and omissions are still a part of the audit risk.

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NONRECURRING is an income statement item that is infrequent in occurrence or unusual in nature.

PROFIT MULTIPLE: Profit and sales multiples are the most widely used valuation benchmarks used in valuing a business. The information needed are pretax profits and a market multiplier, which may be 1, 2, 3, or 4 and usually a ceiling of 5. The market multiplier can be found in various financial publications, as well as analyzing the sale of comparable businesses. This method is easy to understand and use. The profit multiple is often used as the valuation ceiling benchmark.

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