Other Comprehensive Income: What It Means, With Examples

What Is Other Comprehensive Income?

In business accounting, other comprehensive income (OCI) includes revenues, expenses, gains, and losses that have yet to be realized and are excluded from net income on an income statement. OCI represents the balance between net income and comprehensive income.

A common example of OCI is a portfolio of bonds that have not yet matured and consequently haven't been redeemed. Gains or losses from the changing value of the bonds cannot be fully determined until the time of their sale; the interim adjustments are thus recognized in other comprehensive income.

Understanding Other Comprehensive Income

Corporate income can be broken down in a multitude of ways. To compensate for this, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires companies to use universal measurements to help provide investors and analysts with clear, easily accessible information on a company's financial standing.

The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 220, published by the FASB and entitled "Comprehensive Income," reads that an entity shall report comprehensive income in a single continuous financial statement and present its components in two sections: net income and other comprehensive income.

Not to be confused with it, accumulated other comprehensive income is stated at a point in time, and totals the unrealized gains and losses recorded in other comprehensible income. Both are found on the balance sheet and not income statement.

Common Examples of Other Comprehensive Income

Any held investment classified as available for sale, which is not intended to be held until maturity, and isn't a loan or a receivable, may be recognized as other comprehensive income.

Other examples of OCI include:

• The previously mentioned bond portfolio is such an asset as long as the business does not classify the bonds as held-to-maturity. Any change in the value of the available-for-sale asset may be included.
• Foreign currency transactions can create gains or losses if the balance of a company's currency holdings fluctuates, which they frequently do. But the only companies that truly need to pay attention to foreign currency-derived other comprehensive income are large firms that deal in many different currencies.
• Pension plans can also create other comprehensive income. If the value of the plan increases, the difference between the old value and new value can be recognized as comprehensive, minus any distributions to pension recipients.
• Gains and losses on derivatives instruments that are designated as, and qualify as, cash flow hedges.