Assets
Assets are resources a business controls that are expected to deliver future economic benefits. Three conditions must hold: the business controls the resource, a future benefit is expected, and it arose from a past event.
See it move
A split bar shows total assets of €170,000 divided into €40,000 of current assets expected to convert to cash within one year and €130,000 of non-current assets held beyond that horizon. Both segments represent resources that the business controls and that are expected to yield future economic benefit.
Check yourself
Which of the following items most clearly meets the definition of an asset for financial reporting purposes?
If you trained under a national GAAP
DE · HGBWhere national-GAAP intuition diverges from the international standard
HGB (German)
HGB applies a conservative recognition test: only items obtained through an arm's-length transaction and capable of reliable measurement may appear as assets on the balance sheet. Internally generated intangible assets — brands, customer lists, internally developed software — are generally excluded because the statutory prudence principle treats their future benefit as too uncertain to justify recognition.
IFRS
Under IFRS, the Conceptual Framework treats an item as an asset when the entity currently controls an economic resource that arose from a past event. This control-and-future-benefit test is framed more broadly than the transaction-based recognition filter many national codes apply.