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Social Issues in Financial Reporting

In: Business and Management

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Issues in Financial Reporting

The path to knowledge cannot be found without visions and an overall picture. ± R. Mattessich

oday's dynamic business environment is heralding a revolution in the need for, and the way in which, accounting data is utilized. This has resulted in talk of `an accounting revolution' (Beaver, 1998) and the possible `rede®nition of accountancy' (Elliott, 1998: 7). However, it is all too easy to become caught up in this stampede for change, but how far can accounting change and for it still to be called accounting? This chapter seeks to explore the major issues facing contemporary ®nancial reporting ± this will include its interrelationship with external auditing and the provision of assurance to those outside the reporting entity. After all, `[e]ffective reporting and accounting, and external scrutiny from auditors, are essential for effective corporate governance' (Company Law Review Steering Committee, 2001: para. 8.1). To understand the ®nancial statements, one needs to appreciate the auditors' work and opinion, and, conversely, to understand the auditors' work and opinion, it is necessary to appreciate the scope and limitations of the ®nancial statements. All too often, ®nancial reporting and external auditing are treated and discussed in isolation despite being inextricably linked. However, the ®nal ®gures in the ®nancial statements may come about as a result of negotiations between management and their auditors ± with the auditors examining the reasonableness of management's justi®cations for their representations. Indeed, the modern audit with its emphasis on high-level business risks could almost be viewed as the `audit of motivations' ± to understand the ®gures in the ®nancial statements, it is important to understand management's motivations. Financial reporting and auditing are not just technical subjects, but they

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