Summary financial reports : review of international guidelines and literature : NZ evidence and issues

Abstract

Although there are no professional guidelines or statutory regulations that permit or guide the presentation of summarised financial reports in New Zealand, a number of NZ companies provide such reports to their shareholders as alternatives for the comprehensive GAAP-based financial reports. Developments in other countries suggest that it is likely that increasing numbers of NZ companies may choose to follow this trend. It has been suggested that summary financial reports would lead to cost savings and improving communication with shareholders. However, the evidence from the literature is not conclusive that these objectives have been achieved by the publication of such reports. In this article, we review the guidelines and literature relating to summary financial reports in other countries, evaluate the content of summarised financial reports provided by New Zealand companies, and identify issues relating to the preparation of such statements.