Restatement
A correction applied to an accurate accounting figure to restore the economic reality it does not reflect. It is written down with its value, its source and its year, kept from one year to the next, and does not alter the filed accounts in any way.
What it changes for the executive
The accounts are accurate and misleading at the same time: an executive paying himself below market, rent paid to his own property company, a spouse keeping the books unpaid, are three invisible gaps, stable from year to year, which flatter the result. Restating is not correcting an error; it is answering a different question from the one the accounts answer: not what the company paid, but what its activity really costs.
Example
An executive paying himself 140,000 francs where the market would pay 190,000 leaves 50,000 francs of costs out of his accounts. Presented one day to a buyer, his company will prove less profitable than announced by exactly that amount.
A term that is missing?
Describe the situation in a few lines; the reply is personal.