Accounts are "harmonised" through a common layout for balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, statements of investments and statements of depreciation. They are based on the Fourth Council Directive (78/660/EEC of July 1978). This directive does not aim to achieve complete standardisation of accounting rules, indeed several options remain open for individual Member States. Nevertheless the main goal of the harmonisation work of the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs and ECCB has been to achieve a relatively comparable framework for the statistical presentation of company accounts. As data from USA and Japan are not organised according to the Fourth Council Directive is their comparability with European data is even more limited. Users of BACH data should pay due attention to these limitations.
Most European countries provide data according to two sampling methods: i. e. "variable" samples and "sliding" samples. Ideally "variable" sample data is representative because it results from an exhaustive or respectively a proper statistical sampling method. Due to specific administrative collecting procedures in several countries, however, the representativeness of the data might not be assured. Therefore, most countries provide also "sliding" samples (i.e. comparison of survey results of identical companies between two subsequent years) which are drawn from the initial survey and which are supposed to reduce a potential bias inherent in the original data.
Assets and liabilities are given as a percentage of the balance sheet total. Profit and loss account items and statements of investment and depreciation are presented as a percentage of the turnover. In addition, balance sheet total, value added and turnover are given in national currency units. Also included are the number of enterprises and number of employees.
The contents of BACH cover 13 countries, 23 activity sectors, 3 size classes and 94 harmonised accounting items.
The proper use of BACH requires
- a sound knowledge of accounting in general and the accounting regulations and practices of the countries concerned
- a careful consideration of the information on the BACH methodology, namely:
- the contents of BACH items,
- the national accounting schemes and data collection forms and the conversion tables
- a careful choice of ratios and countries for comparison
- a discerning evaluation of the findings by checking with control ratios and different sectors and size-classes.
Some possible uses are:
- comparative sector analyses,
- sector reference systems,
- performance comparisons over time between European, Japanese and US firm.
In general if properly used, BACH can give relevant information about the state and evolution of the financial position and the profitability of company sector.
BACH has been serving as a basis for a number of comparative economic analyses carried out by the European Commission and its national data suppliers. The information, which it provides, is also used by a growing number of researchers, universities and private and public bodies.
Data Availability
Fresh data for BACH become available between 10 and 24 months after the reference year depending on the compilation schedule of individual countries. Most countries provide data about 15 months after the reference period.
Attention should be paid to the fact that not all countries provide complete data for all sectors and periods. See availability tables:
1. data availability by countries (pdf file 83 kb) What is PDF
2. starting year of data by countries and sectors (pdf file 33 kb) What is PDF |