Definition of Extraordinary item

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Extraordinary item

A transaction that rarely occurs, and which is unusual, such as
expropriation of company property by a foreign government. It is reported as a separate
line item on the income statement.

Related Terms:

Cash flow from operations

A firm's net cash inflow resulting directly from its regular operations
(disregarding extraordinary items such as the sale of fixed assets or transaction costs associated with issuing
securities), calculated as the sum of net income plus non-cash expenses that were deducted in calculating net
income.

Income from Continuing Operations

After-tax net income before discontinued operations,
extraordinary items, and the cumulative effect of changes in accounting principle.

Cash-equivalent items

Temporary investments of currently excess cash in short-term, high-quality
investment media such as treasury bills and Banker's Acceptances.

Counterpart items

In the balance of payments, counterpart items are analogous to unrequited transfers in the
current account. They arise because the double-entry system in balance of payments accounting and refer to
adjustments in reserves owing to monetization or demonetization of gold, allocation or cancellation of SDRs,
and revaluation of the various components of total reserves.

Extraordinary positive value

A positive net present value.

Line item

Generic types of assets, liabilities, income or expense that are common to all businesses and
used as the basis of financial reporting, e.g. rent, salaries, advertising etc.

extraordinary gains and losses

No pun intended, but these types of gains
and losses are extraordinarily important to understand. These are nonrecurring,
onetime, unusual, nonoperating gains or losses that are
recorded by a business during the period. The amount of each of these
gains or losses, net of the income tax effect, is reported separately in the
income statement. Net income is reported before and after these gains
and losses. These gains and losses should not be recorded very often, but
in fact many businesses record them every other year or so, causing
much consternation to investors. In addition to evaluating the regular
stream of sales and expenses that produce operating profit, investors
also have to factor into their profit performance analysis the perturbations
of these irregular gains and losses reported by a business.

balancing item

Variable that adjusts to maintain the consistency
of a financial plan. Also called plug.

Extraordinary Gain or Loss

Gains and losses that are judged to be both unusual and nonrecurring.

Nonrecurring Items

Revenues or gains and expenses or losses that are not expected to recur
on a regular basis. This term is often used interchangeably with special items.

Special Items

Significant credits or charges resulting from transactions or events that, in the
view of management, are not representative of normal business activities of the period and that
affect comparability of earnings. This term is often used interchangeably with nonrecurring
items.