THE OFF-JUNE REPORTING PROBLEM

The 2011-12 EAS had a reference period ending 30 June 2012; that is, the aim of the EAS was to measure economic activity over the 12 months from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. Analysis of data from EAS shows that the majority of businesses report for this reference period, but for some industries a substantial proportion report for some other reference period. As noted previously, off-June reporting is more prevalent in industries with a high degree of foreign ownership, such as Mining, Manufacturing and Wholesale trade, as many countries use different accounting periods to Australia.

Considering the 2011-12 EAS, the types of 'off-June' reporting periods typically observed were:

• reporting period ending 31 December 2011;
• reporting period ending 31 March 2012; and
• reporting period ending 30 September 2012.

Consequently, where most data reported in Australian Industry (cat. no. 8155.0) are for the 12 months ending 30 June, some data can be reported for periods including the previous one or two quarters, or including the succeeding quarter, as demonstrated in Figure 2.2.

Table 2.1 gives an estimate of the percentage of the population likely to report on a financial year basis, and their contribution to total IVA. It presents the off-June reporting businesses which received an adjustment as part of the process described below.

Although businesses reporting for an off-June financial year may be in the minority, their contribution to overall estimates of IVA can be substantial. An example is the mining industry, with 3% of businesses in the December quarter reporting for a non-standard financial year, contributing 52% of total IVA.

2.1 PREVALANCE OF OFF-JUNE YEAR REPORTING IN EAS 2011-12, AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THESE BUSINESSES TO IVA
		ESTIMATE OF PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION BY REPORTING PERIOD(a)				ESTIMATE OF PERCENTAGE CONTRIBUTION TO IVA BY REPORTING PERIOD(a)
		Financial year reporters	Off-June year reporters			Financial year reporters	Off-June year reporters
		JUN	DEC	MAR	SEP	JUN	DEC	MAR	SEP
		%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
2011-12
	B Mining	97	3	np	np	42	52	np	np
	C Manufacturing	99	1	-	-	66	27	4	4
	D Electricity, gas, water and waste services	99	1	-	np	80	14	6	-
	E Construction	100	-	np	np	93	6	np	np
	F Wholesale trade	99	1	-	-	67	21	9	3
	G Retail trade	100	np	-	np	95	4	-	1
	H Accommodation and food services	99	1	np	np	87	9	np	np
	I Transport, postal and warehousing	100	-	-	-	88	9	1	2
	J Information Media and Telecommunications	99	1	-	-	78	10	np	np
	L Rental, hiring and real estate services	100	-	np	np	93	6	np	np
	M Professional, scientific and technical services	100	-	-	-	86	9	3	2
	N Administrative and support services	100	-	-	-	87	11	2	1
	P Education and training (private)	94	6	np	np	39	61	np	np
	Q Health care and social assistance (private)	100	np	np	np	99	np	np	-
	R Arts and recreation services	99	1	np	np	91	np	np	np
	S Other services	100	-	-	-	90	8	1	1
	Total selected industries	100	-	-	-	78	17	3	1
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Includes all businesses in scope of the experimental estimates, except for non-employing entities below a certain turnover threshold. Other businesses with less than 20 employees are included in the JUN category.

The impact of off-June reporting can vary between data items; that is, not only does the incidence and impact of off-June year reporting differ by industry subdivision, it also impacts upon the following data items differently:

• Sales and service income;
• Wages and salaries;
• Other expenses;
• Closing inventories of raw materials;
• Opening inventories of raw materials;
• Closing inventories of finished goods (including work-in-progress); and
• Opening inventories of finished goods (including work-in-progress).

Consequently, it was necessary to adjust these individual measures to satisfactorily account for each of the different types of off-June reporting within each ANZSIC subdivision.

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