1 Beginning 1998, profits before and after income taxes reflect inclusion of minority stockholders' interest in net income before and after income taxes.
2 Annual data are average equity for the year (using four end-of-quarter figures).
3 Data for 1992 (most significantly 1992:I) reflect the early adoption of Financial Accounting Standards Board StatementStandards Board Statement 106 (Employer's Accounting for Post-Retirement Benefits Other ThanPensions) by a large number of companies during the fourthquarter of 1992. Data for 1993:I also reflect adoption of Statement 106. Corporations must show the cumulative effect ofa change in accounting principle in the first quarter of the year in which the change is adopted.

Source: Through 1981, U.S. Federal Trade Commission; thereafter, U.S.Bureau of Census, Quarterly Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining,and Trade Corporations. In U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the President, annual.http://www.census.gov/csd/qfr/QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT

PURPOSE

To provide current statistics on the financial performance andconditions of domestic manufacturing, mining, and tradecorporations. The United States Code, Title 13, requires thissurvey and provides for mandatory responses.

COVERAGE

Corporations that have a plurality of business activity inmanufacturing industries and domestic assets over $250,000;and corporations with a plurality of business activity in themining, retail, or wholesale trade industries and domesticassets over $50 million. These include almost 172,000corporations with estimated assets of over $4.6 trillion.

CONTENT

Corporations provide standard income statement and balancesheet data consolidated for all majority-owned domesticenterprises (except banking, insurance, and finance).Information collected includes sales, depreciation, before-and after-tax income, retained earnings, cash, investments,receivables, inventories, fixed assets, short- and long-termdebt, accounts payable, and stockholders' equity.

Large corporations report additional data that includeseparate reporting of nonoperating income and expenses,earnings from foreign and other nonconsolidated entities andinvestments, extraordinary gains and losses, tradereceivables from the U.S. Government, investments inFederal and other securities, commercial paper issued, andtreasury stock.

FREQUENCY

Quarterly since 1947, the program was transferred to theCensus Bureau from the Federal Trade Commission in 1982.Data collection begins about 25 days after each quarter andcontinues for about 9 weeks; data are for 3 months ofcompany activities. The survey panel is updated quarterly.

METHODS

Mail-out/mail-back surveys of some 3,700 largemanufacturing, mining, and trade corporations using a longform, and of some 4,600 selected small- and medium-sizedmanufacturers using a short form; plus periodic reporting bycorporations to determine and update business classification.The sample frame of firms is updated annually from Federalincome tax records. Using the tax data, corporations areselected by stratified random sample, with strata by industryand asset size.

To determine initial and continuing eligibility, selected firmsare asked to complete a Nature of Business Report form toclassify their enterprises and determine their intercorporaterelationships, if any. Data for manufacturing firms with assetsbetween $250,000 and $250 million are estimated from asample panel. Each quarter, one-eighth of the sample panel isreplaced. Replacement firms report for 8 quarters.

PRODUCTS

Quarterly Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining, andTrade Corporations publications are released 75 days aftereach of the first three quarters, and 95 days after the fourthquarter. The report provides 5 quarters of data, includingestimated statements of income and retained earnings,balance sheets, and related financial and operating ratios byindustry and asset size. Revisions to data for prior quartersare made when necessary and usually result from respondentdata corrections subsequent to publication. Information isprovided, when possible, on material distortions incomparability due to changes in accounting conventions orusers' needs.*