IFRS and XBRL: How to improve Business Reporting through Technology and Object Tracking

CHAPTER TWO

Developments in new reporting models

AT THIS JUNCTURE, CONSIDER Developments in New Reporting Models, published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales at the end of 2009 and available at www.iasplus.com/uk/0912newreportingmodels.pdf. This publication looks at calls for a new reporting model, for both financial and non-financial reporting. It argues that business reporting must adjust to reflect changes in business, in information technology and in users' needs. Naturally, this is a perpetual process. Yet business reporting is best viewed not in terms of models but as a complex social institution, one which constantly evolves in response to changes in its environment.

Market forces, regulation, ethical and emulatory motives, as well as pressure from participants in public debate, all push business reporting to adapt to changing circumstances. The debate about the future of business reporting therefore needs to be reframed, and not as a stark choice between an old model and a new one but in terms of the need for continuing evolutionary improvements.

The contents of this 109-page publication are as follows:

• Tables and research findings
• Executive summary
• The challenge
  • Summary
  • Calls for reform
  • Business reporting and reporting models
  • Delivery and access
  • Criticisms of ‘the current model'
  • Changing criticisms
  • Rhetoric and reality
  • Different societies, different reporting practices
  • Structure of the report
• Financial reporting fundamentals
  • Summary ...