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Description and use of the data

The data collected by the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics for Enterprises (QFS) comprise financial statements typically prepared by incorporated businesses to record their financial position and performance. The data include asset, liability and equity items encompassed in a quarterly balance sheet and revenue and expense items as reported on a quarterly income statement, along with additional supplementary items.

Information collected as part of the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics for Enterprises serves two broad objectives. The first measures the financial position and performance of incorporated businesses by industry aggregations and is the main focus of this publication. The statistics are used by a wide variety of economists and industry analysts, including federal and provincial regulatory bodies that monitor financial and other institutions in Canada. This information is also a critical input into the measure of corporate profits and capital consumption allowances in the Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA).

The second broad objective is to provide information on financial holdings and transactions in the CSNA sector accounts. The accounts comprise the National Balance Sheet Accounts and the Financial Flow Accounts. Within the CSNA, the Canadian economy is composed of the incorporated business sector, including non-financial and financial businesses, the government sector, and the persons and unincorporated business sector, which includes non-profit institutions serving households. The Quarterly Financial Survey data (used to prepare this publication) are combined with additional information for the business and other sectors in order to produce complete economy-wide accounts which show the creation and distribution of wealth as well as the financing of economic activity. This is made possible by presenting considerable detail on financial institutions within the sector accounts framework.

In addition, the flow of funds and outstanding positions between Canadian residents and non-residents is measured in "Canada’s Balance of International Payments" and in "Canada’s International Investment Position," respectively. Both of these releases make use of the quarterly survey data in measuring corporate financial activity with non-residents.

Frequency and reference period

The data series are collected quarterly. The objective of the survey is to cover a calendar reference period (i.e., quarters ending in March, June, September or December). However, the data collected for each enterprise usually covers fiscal quarters (which may not coincide with calendar quarters). Estimates for a calendar quarter are prepared by combining individual data for enterprises with different fiscal quarters. The calendar period is estimated by including all of the fiscal quarters ending in the calendar quarter. For example, the estimates for the second quarter include all fiscal quarters ending in April, May or June (see Text table 1 ).

Coverage

The domestic economy consists of the non-financial and financial business sectors, the government sector, and the persons and unincorporated business sector, which includes non-profit institutions serving households. This publication covers incorporated enterprises of the financial and non-financial business sectors. Business enterprises controlled by governments are excluded from the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics for Enterprises and are surveyed by the Public Institutions Division of Statistics Canada. Non-profit enterprises are also excluded from this survey.

The Statistical unit

For purposes of compiling statistics, Statistics Canada defines a hierarchical structure of units for each business. The four standard statistical units that are used are listed from largest to smallest below:

1. Enterprise
2. Company
3. Establishment
4. Location

The statistical unit used in the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics is the enterprise. An enterprise is a family of businesses under common ownership and control for which a set of consolidated financial statements is produced on an annual basis.

In the case of simple enterprises, the enterprise and the establishment coincide and both are classified to the same industry. However, there exist many multi-establishment enterprises whose establishments may belong to one or more industries. Such enterprises are classified to the predominant industry of their establishments.

It should be noted that NAICS Canada data compiled on an enterprise basis cannot be directly compared with NAICS Canada data on an establishment basis.