The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has expressed a number of concerns over the complexity of financial statements.
Reported in Accountancy Age, Charles Tilley, chief executive of CIMA, claims that companies are not putting 80 per cent of their assets on balance sheets and that there is not enough disclosure on cash flow.
"The sheer volume of data has not made the information accessible. If anything it hinders access," he said.
He also remarked that financial statements are growing increasingly complex, making it "more difficult to understand the underlying performance of a company".
Accountancy Age reports that PricewaterhouseCoopers backed up Mr Tilley's opinions, claiming stakeholders were finding it hard to assess the value of their investments from financial statements.
Director for the company Janice Lingwood agreed that information is often "buried very deep" in financial statements and that there needs to be some reforms.
The World Bank recently endorsed CIMA as the leading authority on management accounting.
© Adfero Ltd
