The cooperative shall make available financial information to its membership by doing either of the following:
 1. Preparing and providing to its members a financial statement for the cooperative’s last fiscal year.

 a. The financial statement must be based upon an unqualified opinion based upon an audit performed by a certified public accountant licensed in this state. However, a qualification in an opinion is valid, if it is unavoidable by any audit procedure that is permitted under generally accepted accounting principles. An opinion that is qualified because of a limited audit procedure or because the scope of an audit is limited is invalid for purposes of this section.
 b. The financial statement must disclose the assets, liabilities, and net worth of the cooperative. The financial statement must be prepared according to generally accepted accounting principles. Assets must be shown at original cost less depreciation, or based upon a valuation in accordance with a competent appraisal. Unpriced contracts for agricultural commodities or products must be shown as a liability and valued at the applicable current market price of the agricultural commodities or products as of the date the financial statement is prepared.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 501.307

  • Appraisal: A determination of property value.
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Cooperative: means a cooperative association organized under this chapter or converted to this chapter pursuant to section 501. See Iowa Code 501.101
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Membership: means the interest established by a member owning a voting interest. See Iowa Code 501.101
  • property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
 2. Honoring a demand to provide access at all reasonable hours at its offices to the books, records, accounts, papers, documents, and computer programs or other recordings relating to the property, assets, business, and financial affairs of the cooperative. The demand shall be in writing and signed by at least fifty percent of all the members of the cooperative. The cooperative shall honor the demand within one day from its receipt. Upon receipt of the demand, the cooperative must provide access to one or more persons selected by the fifty percent of the members to conduct the examination.
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