Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Every year figures are submitted to the statistical office of EU, Eurostat. This includes special industry aggregates, not published nationally. Data for all EU countries can be found in the Eurostat database. The statistics are produced following the principles of an EU regulation, so the results are comparable.

Comparability over time

Temporal Coverage The accounting statistics at the company level are available in a comparable form back to 1994 for construction and civil engineering as well as retail trade, to 1995 for industry, to 1998 for wholesale trade, and to 1999 for other business services. At the workplace level, data are available from 1995 for construction and civil engineering, retail trade, and industry, from 1998 for wholesale trade, and from 1999 for other business services. The statistics are published annually at the company level and, from 1995 onwards, annually at the workplace level.

Changes in Legislation and Accounting Practices A new Annual Accounts Act came into force in 2002. The most important changes were that intangible and financial assets as well as financially leased assets must be recognized on the balance sheet at market value to a greater extent than before. Additionally, work in progress for third parties was moved from inventory to receivables. From 1986, it became mandatory for businesses to report standardized accounting information to the Danish Tax Agency (SKAT), which replaced previous statistics production based on questionnaires. This system has since been reduced in scope and detail.

Changes in Calculation Methods and Data Sources From 2000 onwards, the calculation method was changed for companies with at most 1 full-time equivalent, and where no data are available from questionnaires or SKAT. This method is assumed to increase reliability but reduces comparability with previous years.

Inactive companies and companies with very limited activity are not included in the statistics. The activity threshold for being included as a genuinely active business was significantly raised from 1999 onwards. Until 1998, the requirement was that a company should have paid employment or an annual turnover of at least DKK 20,000. From 1999, the criterion was that the company should have a work effort of at least half a full-time equivalent. This is operationalized as ATP contributions corresponding to at least half a full-time equivalent for employed wage earners and/or a calculated income based on turnover. The turnover threshold varies significantly between industries. In 2015, it was typically over DKK 400,000 for wholesale trade and over DKK 250,000 for industry. This change resulted in a significant reduction in the number of companies and workplaces in the statistics, while the number of employees was only slightly affected. The impact on the accounting figures in the individual industries is assessed as minimal.

From 2019, the definition of genuinely active companies has been expanded: Companies are considered economically active if they meet at least one of the following criteria: a work effort of at least half a full-time equivalent or a certain size of turnover, purchase of goods, import, export, value added, or balance sheet total. Companies that own other genuinely active companies in a group, or that are jointly registered with such companies, are also considered genuinely active.

Since 2019, some of the largest companies have been recorded as economic units, i.e., combinations of legal entities (CVR numbers) under the same ownership, where internal trade is eliminated, and accounts are consolidated. This provides a more accurate picture of the total economic activity.

From 2005, SKAT information on, among other things, turnover, consumption of goods, depreciation, and corporate tax is included. The information covers companies with an annual turnover between DKK 0.5 and 100 million and sole proprietorships with an annual turnover between DKK 0.3 and 25 million. From 2017, this is supplemented with XBRL data from annual reports, such as balance sheets, turnover, and depreciation.

Impact of Changes on Comparability The data break in 1999 due to a tightening of the activity threshold is significant and reduces comparability over time. Similarly, the re-publication of the accounting statistics for 2019-2022, which is based on the new activity threshold and includes economic units, means that this period is not directly comparable with the time series for 2000-2021.

Historical Background and Transition from Previous Statistics Previous accounting statistics for industry, construction, and trade were based on questionnaires and were discontinued as digital reporting to SKAT was introduced. The previous industrial statistics only included companies with at least 20 employees and ceased in 1994. The current statistics cover all companies, regardless of size, and are therefore not directly comparable with the previous statistics.

Coherence - cross domain

The new type of accounts statistics is largely comparable with, and supplemented by, the SKAT data based accounts statistics which were discontinued after 1998. Statistics Denmark publishes statistics on various subjects related to business accounts, notably VAT-related turnover, manufacturers' sales of commodities, and short-term statistics of order books and sales. However, these statistics are not directly comparable with the accounts statistics, because of differences in units, coverage or concepts.

Coherence - internal

There are a large number of internal consistencies that must apply in an account, and this therefore also applies to the final basic data for the accounting statistics. It is part of the validation and the final calculations to ensure this consistency in final data.