Cluttered annual reports are obscuring relevant
information and making it harder for users to find the salient
points, the UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) said in its latest
report on improving corporate reporting.
The report ‘Cutting
Clutter: Combating clutter in annual reports’ includes practical
aids for reducing extraneous information and offers ideas on how
disclosure might look without the unnecessary information.
ASB chairman Roger Marshall said that improving financial reporting
is not only about issuing standards.
“We want to encourage a change in
behaviours, where annual reports are clear and clutter-free,
focusing on the disclosures that really aid an understanding of the
business and its long-term prospects,” he said.
The ASB said that all those
involved in regulating, reviewing, preparing and using annual
reports have to improve corporate reporting.
