Tuning up the communication of financial reporting is the main
project of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) at
the moment. Though in fact the IASB started discussing this project
back in 2013, when it identified the three concerns about
information in the financial statements:
- There is not enough relevant
information.
- There is too much irrelevant
information.
- Information is not communicated
effectively.
Five years later, why is this issue still forefront on the
IASB's agenda? It seems to be that—on the one
hand—the judgement required to determine what information is
relevant for the users of the financial statements is not always
fully exercised, with many entities using checklists for such
decisions instead. On the other hand, entities are lacking guidance
on the content and structure of the financial reports: the
objective of some standards seems unclear to preparers, and the
requirements often suggest that the reports are largely
