Conceptualizing resources and claims in consensual economic exchanges

The Core Ontology for Financial Reporting Information Systems (COFRIS) is grounded on Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). In this paper, we build on COFRIS and attempt to detail the concepts of Economic Resources and Claims found in accounting frameworks, and to extract their features which are common to accounting and reporting standards. Economic Resources (Claims) are conceptualized as extensions of Complex Social and Legal Relators of UFO, within the consensual transaction-centric model. The application of this conceptualization and COFRIS in general aims to assist with standard-setting and the development of information systems, to facilitate understandability and reuse. The conceptualization is illustrated by examples presented in an ontology-inspired Event Table and is used to analyze the revised IASB® Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting.