21st Century Financial Reports

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Reports need to be focussed on Users' information requirements.  The most important input is a list of questions that Users want financial reports to help answer. 

 

The User Questions page is a developing list of what these questions might be.

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Solutions should be pragmatic, proportional to the problem, and should not be constrained by technical or theoretical considerations.

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The success of an entity depends on its ability to continue to fund its operations.  In old fashioned terms “cash is king”.  21CFRS need to help Users identify the sources and uses of cash.

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There should be clarity between the historic cost of assets, their market value and any other value attributed by management.  Users need to be able to easily identify these different valuation bases.

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Numbers attributed to liabilities should provide information about the cash requirements to settle those liabilities.

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Standards should be succinct setting out high level principles.  Industry bodies should work with Users to develop guidelines for how industries should apply those principles in a consistent manner across the industry.  Comparability across different industries should not be an objective.  Entities should be free to choose not to apply industry guidelines in the knowledge that Users will judge them accordingly, and Auditors may wish to highlight such exceptions.