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In 2004, City of Gardena was unable to meet its obligations on $26 million in debt. The authors examined City of Gardena financial reporting as of June 30, 2004 and 2003 to determine if the publicly available financial reports adequately disclosed the situation. Information about the long-term debt was properly displayed in the financial statements and disclosed in notes. There was no mention of the situation in the MD&A either year. The auditors’ did not include an explanatory paragraph highlighting the debt, nor did they issue a ‘substantial doubt about the ability to continue to exist as a going concern’ report. This paper examines existing accounting and auditing standards to determine their adequacy to protect the public interest.

The objective of this study was to identify the impact of a perceived inadequacy of authoritative South African financial reporting guidance for long‐term insurers, on the basic financial statement characteristic of comparability. The authors attempted to identify areas of non‐comparable presentation and disclosure and to suggest relevant guidance. To assess comparability, the financial statements of five insurers were evaluated using a checklist specifically developed for this study. This process identified seven main categories of significant non‐comparable presentation and disclosure practices. Solutions were proposed for these areas, based inter alia on existing international literature and guidance.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the SEC's proposal to require domestic and foreign public companies that prepare their financial statements in accordance with US GAAP to file financial statements contained in registration statements and periodic reports in an interactive data format using XBRL, or “eXtensible Business Reporting Language”.

The paper explains the purpose of XBRL, provides an overview of the SEC's proposal, discusses the consequences of noncompliance, and explains the SEC's “bifurcated” approach to filers' liability for the interactive data they are required to provide.

XBRL, like the other electronic formats currently used by registrants in their SEC filings, defines or “tags” data using standard definitions. The SEC believes that financial reporting based on the XBRL format would create new ways for investors, analysts, and others to retrieve and use financial information in documents filed with the SEC. XBRL tagging of financial statements most likely represents only the SEC's first step in moving toward more widespread adoption of XBRL reporting.

The paper contains practical guidance by experienced securities lawyers.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the new fraud diamond model in explaining financial statement fraud.

The variables used to examine the factors consist of motivation, opportunity, personal integrity and capability. This research used manufactured companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange of the 2015–2019 period as the population.

There has been a positive influence between personal financial need (OSHIP), nature of the industry (RECEIVABLE) and history of sale (SG) toward financial statement fraud, while the negative effect is found only in the effective monitoring (IND).

The new fraud diamond model theory which is used as a reference in this study is a new and under-developed theory. So the author suggests that further research on this theory be carried out to strengthen the new fraud diamond model theory and ensure whether it can be used as a reference to find out the causes of financial statement fraud. In addition, the object used in this study is limited to manufacturing companies, so the author suggests that further research combine several types of companies.

The research finding supports the new fraud diamond model theory in elaborating the financial statement fraud phenomenon.

The Chief Financial Officers Act and subsequent legislation require federal agencies to produce corporate-style financial statements. Arguments for financial statements drew on private sector analogies and suggested policy makers and managers would use the information to make better public policy and management decisions and improve accountability for financial management and program performance. Nearly all major government agencies have unqualified audit opinions and improvements in financial management are claimed. But benefits for policy making and management are not yet well understood. This paper examines the question by comparison with the private sector and by examining what agencies say about the uses and users of financial statement information. The emerging challenge in the evolution of federal financial reporting is to develop better government-specific analytical tools and other financial information for policy makers and managers.

The use of the Internet for financial reporting creates unique opportunities and challenges for the auditing profession. This exploratory study identifies the key audit implications of Internet financial reporting through a comprehensive review of the academic and professional literature. Further, the study analyses the contents of all listed company Websites in New Zealand to assess the nature and extent of current audit‐related Web practices. The relatively high degree of similarity between New Zealand's auditing standards and those of other jurisdictions (e.g. International Standards of Auditing and auditing standards in countries such as the UK, Australia and the USA) contributes towards the international generalisability of the content analysis. The literature review highlighted issues relating to the auditor's role and responsibilities, the audit report, and audit procedures. The results of the content analysis of auditor Web‐related practices reveal several significant concerns for the auditing profession in relation to the presentation, context, and content of the audit report in a Web‐based environment.

This paper documents the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) 34 literature, primarily in the areas of (1) accountability and improved reporting, (2) government-wide financial statements and accrual accounting and (3) infrastructure asset capitalization and the modified approach. The paper also evaluates the state of the research, recognizes implications for practice and standard setting, identifies knowledge gaps and proposes avenues for future research.

The authors identified the articles in this narrative review by searching Google Scholar and EBSCO for the years 2000 through 2023, using the keywords GASB 34, government-wide financial statements, government fund statements, infrastructure assets and modified approach.

This review finds that GASB 34 requirements improved accountability and reporting, but GASB can still make improvements. The addition of the MD&A section requirement improved readability but placed a burden on preparers. Analysis of government-wide statement research indicates that the accrual-based Statement of Net Assets provides value in credit decisions, while the accrual-based Statement of Activities does not. The research on infrastructure accounting requirements shows limited adoption of the modified approach and some comparability issues with choices involving capitalization thresholds, baselines and asset management systems (AMSs). Based on this review, the authors also present suggestions to further this line of research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first article that reviews over 20 years of GASB 34 related literature. The review and suggestions for future research are timely as GASB is in the process of reexamining some of GASB 34's requirements.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, financial statement fraud represents the smallest amount of fraud cases but results in the greatest monetary loss. The researcher previously investigated the characteristics of financial statement fraud and determined the presence of 16 fraud indicators. The purpose of this study is to establish whether investors and other stakeholders can detect and identify financial statement fraud using these characteristics in an analysis of a company’s annual report.

This study analyses a financial statement fraud case, using the same techniques that were previously applied, including horizontal, vertical and ratio analysis. These are preferred because stakeholders have relatively easy access to them.

The findings show several fraud characteristics, with a few additional ones not previously found prevalent. Financial statement fraud thus tends to differ between cases. It is also easier to detect and identify fraud indicators ex post facto.

This study is a practical case showing that financial statement fraud can be detected and identified in the financial statements of companies that commit fraud.

The present study attempts to assess the relationship between management characteristics (managerial entrenchment, CEO narcissism and overconfidence, managers' myopia, real and accrual-based earnings management) and financial statement readability of listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In other words, this paper seeks to answer the question that “whether management characteristics have a favorable effect on financial statement readability or not.”

Multivariate regression model is used to meet the purpose of this study and research hypotheses are also examined using a sample of 1,050 listed observations on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2012–2017 and by employing multiple regression patterns based on panel data technique and fixed effects model. Moreover, exploratory factor analysis of six variables (tenure, board independence, CEO duality, CEO ownership, board compensation and CEO change) is used for calculating managerial entrenchment and the FGO index is used for measuring readability.

The obtained results show that there is a negative and significant relationship between managerial entrenchment and accrual-based earnings management and a positive and significant relationship between real earnings management, managers' myopia, managers' narcissism and overconfidence and financial statement readability.

Since the present study is the first paper to investigate such a topic in the emerging markets, it provides useful information about intrinsic and acquisitive characteristics of management for accounting information users, analysts and legal institutions that contribute greatly to financial statement readability. Besides, the results of this study aid the development of science and knowledge in this field and fill the existing gap in the literature.

Financial reporting information had been aimed mainly at internal users and audit offices, but this has changed in recent years. Potential users have widened, among whom we should mention certain financial institutions, owing to their particular relevance. In this context, based on a sample of 54 credit institutions, this study aims to obtain evidence on the information that is shown to be useful to these users in their decision‐making, by looking at the Spanish financial reports. A study is also made of causes that restrict the usefulness of local financial information, along with possible suggestions to make this information more useful to credit institutions. The results reveal that owing mainly to legal reasons, the profit and loss account and the balance sheet are the least relevant financial statements to credit institutions’ indebtedness operation decision making. Likewise, it is obvious that current local financial information needs to become more opportune, reliable, complete and understandable.