Challenges In Financial Reporting: International And Domestic Perspectives

Objectives of the Research

Discuss about the Corporate Board And Ownership Structure Antecedent.

In the current time period, it has become increasingly important for the companies to create a bigger and a better working environment with the help of which the companies would be able to amplify their business and accordingly maintain competitive edge. It is seen that it has become increasingly general for the shareholders to undertake investment in the companies in order to mitigate the level of investment risk with the help of the divergence of the investment (Steyn, 2014). Hence, the capability to gain knowledge and thereafter compare the financial reports with the help of which the financial reports and the statements among the organisations in various markets is significant for the current day capital investors as it is seen that the capital market has been expanding with the introduction of globalisation.

Rensburg, & Botha (2014) cited that as the countries incorporate IFRS and other standards for the purpose of financial reporting, the conjunction of the practices of accounting has become a facet that is irrevocable for the globalisation of the business. In spite of the incorporation of the IFRS and other standards all over the world, there have been development of several issues and challenges from several nations and these have been disclosed by the organizations that are operating in the market. These issues and the challenges have been the interface among the nation based factors and the incorporation of foreign standards of accounting.

The topic that is associated to the threats that are seen in the process of financial reporting of the companies that are listed will predict how the organizations would be able to reduce and minimise the threats that develops from the international and national frameworks of reporting.

This will be helpful to the companies that are listed in order to create an effective harmonisation in the international and national reporting model (Busch et al., 2016). This would even assist the accountants and the auditors to create a learning in the core and the essential elements of the international disclosure on the ascertained approach.

The objectives of the research associates with the development of the aspects and elements that leads to the challenges in financial reporting and accordingly actions and steps can be taken with the help of which the countries and the organizations are able to make use of the accounting standards in a much effective manner and thereafter construct their financial reports that are ideal for them. The objectives that are related to this topic has been explained as follows:

• Recognising the core problems that are faced by the listed organizations in the international and domestic reporting model
• Create synchronisation in the international and national reporting of the financial reporting and statements
• Construct efficient and precise financial statement model for the listed organizations

Research Questions

The research questions that are associated to this topic has been explained as follows:

Q1. How does synchronisation maintained in the international and domestic documentation of the financial reports?

Q2. What are the essential issues faced by the companies while documenting of the financial reports on the international level?

Q3. How financial statement differ from the international reporting styles?

This section of the paper consists of the articles and the journals that have been published in the economy by the other researchers that are based on the development of the financial reporting and their standards and their standards and how these aspects have been influential for the development of a better business framework. The researches that are similar in nature have been assessed in order to create a framework with the help of which this paper can move forward.

According to de Villiers et al., (2014), it is has been disclosed that there are numerous standards of accounting that have been given within the international financial reporting standards that needs to be undertaken by every and each of the companies that are listed on an obligatory basis in order to have an efficient framework of reporting. This assists the stakeholders to be informational about all the essential financial data of the organization in an ascertained process.

Enriques, (2015) have viewed that there has been a reflection that the stakeholders are the actual proprietors of the organization. It is looked upon that if the firm functions their business on the international extent, it is seen these organizations need to be in compliance with all the rules and regulations that are international in nature for an effective compliance event.

As explained by Muhammad et al., (2015), it is seen that integrated documentation in the listed organizations will enhance the general transparency of the financial reports of the organization. This would be assistive for the organization to maintain efficient operations of the business and increase in the level of transparency within the organization.

According to the statements that have been provided by Christ et al., (2015), it can be explained that assimilated financial documentation should be undertaken by looking into the taxation and the accounting regulations and rules. It is seen that according to AASB 122, the financial reports that have been constructed should have all the expenses and incomes that are permissible by the income tax department.

According to the notion of Ortas et al., (2015), it is seen that if the organization has efficient level of reporting model, then it would enhance the level of sustainability of the organization and the brand image with the help of the process that has been ascertained. The effects of the obligatory corporate sustainability documentation have been the most essential purpose in order to enhance the organizational transparency. This will enhance the general brand image of the organizations and will even create efficient level of corporate sustainability in the business.

Articles and Journals on Financial Reporting Standards

De Villiers et al., (2017) that the incorporation of new styles of financial reporting would lead to increased amount of volatility in accordance to the organizational outcome. This has been due to the implementation of the fair value of accounting in the combinations of the business, payments that have been share based, assets that have been held for sale and the debt and equity investments within the new regime. Therefore, it would lead to increased amount of volatility in the balance sheet and even in the income.

Dumay et al., (2016) even addressed that the new reporting systems would even lead to the transformations in the presentation of the financial statements. This is due to the fact that these new regimes would incorporate new rules and recognition in the identification as well as the valuation of the assets. It is even seen that there are certain off balance sheet items that are inclusive of derivatives, asset backed securitisation will be provided into the balance sheet.

The incorporation of the new rules may be inclusive of increased costs. Cheng et al., (2014) investigated the incorporation of IFRS by the companies that are in the European Union by relying on the questionnaires provided to the EU listed companies. The results that have been attained explains the fact that majority of the companies have incorporated IFRS for various factors and not only for the consolidation purposes. The process of incorporation of IFRS is every expensive, tiresome and complex.

There was another research that was undertaken by Burke, & Clark (2016), and it has done in order to discover the issues, difficulties and the costs related to the convergence of IFRS. It is seen that most of the companies did not have issues in gathering the essential data in order to document in accordance to IFRS, however, the gathering of the data has been expensive and therefore the incorporation of IFRS has been costly as well.

The other challenge that has been found in accordance to the incorporation of IFRS has been the complex nature of certain IFRS rules and principles. Stent, & Dowler (2015) have reported that by relying on the data that has been collected by most of the biggest accounting companies it is seen that some of the IFRS regulations are very difficult to understand and this had an impact on the operational activities of the business as well. It is seen that the level of challenges that have been observed in the financial reporting system has been significantly high but it is seen that the extent of the positives for the purpose of financial reporting has been higher as well (Soltani, & Maupetit 2015). 

Challenges in Incorporating IFRS and Other Standards

It has been observed that there have been certain challenges in relation to the incorporation of the effective financial reporting processes. It is seen that industry accounting information process has been one of the key issues that have led to the incorporation of IFRS and other financial reporting processes. Middleton, (2015) explained that this issue has not been investigated properly by other researchers previously and therefore this is still an issue.

There has been observations as well that have explained the fact that there other factors as well that had an impact on the incorporation of the financial reporting activities as well. For instance, it is seen that operational activities of certain industries like construction industry, oil and gas industry and agricultural industries have been certain industries that have been facing issues and problems in relation to the incorporation of IFRS (Romolini et al., 2014). It is seen that most of the companies of various countries have been competent enough in the incorporation of IFRS but it is seen that some of the companies have not been able to incorporate the same. 

Seele, (2016) have even explained that cultural factors has been another factor as well. It is seen that culture has been different for different countries and therefore the operational activities as well as the aims and objectives of the business is different. It is therefore seen that incorporation of the financial reporting process like IFRS would be dependent on it. Gürtürk, & Hahn (2016) explained that accounting standards are dependent on the socioeconomic environment, which is dependent on the factors like political, cultural and economic factors. Mio et al., (2016) explained culture to be a general perception as this looks to take care of the mental requirement of the individuals as well as it is a method of the general symbols and an estimation of the thought of an individual. This explanation acts as a contribution to the accounting practices which is an interaction among the social structure and the society.

It is even seen that efforts are made in order to enhance the quality of the accounting information and comparability is maintained with the help of one set of accounting standards all over the globe which has not been attained yet (Al-Bassam et al., 2018). This therefore explains the fact that there are numerous threats and challenges that requires to be discovered and explained within and across the nations that are making use of IFRS. An inter-country assessment of the issues related to the incorporation of financial reporting has been recommended, which would act as a way ahead towards sustainable and stable globalisation of the accounting practices. This would act as a process that would be helpful in the development of the accounting and financial reporting practices.             

Industry Accounting Information Process Challenges

The literature has been able to address the fact that there has been several issues and threats that have been discovered in accordance to financial reporting and it is seen that there has been a rise in these issues because of the issues that are seen in the accounting standards and therefore it can be said that these issues needs to be mitigated in order to make the financial reporting even more effective.      

The section that is associated to methodology relates to the understanding of the data that is ideal for the research and accordingly analysis of the data would be possible with the help of which outcome of the paper can be attained. This section of the paper would look to assess the process of analysing the data collected, research design and approach and accordingly data analysis plan would be undertaken with the help of which the results that would be attained would be helpful in the development of the results that are desired by the researchers.

The philosophy of the research associates to the development of an understanding and knowledge and thereby provides an assurance of the process by taking support of the data that is associated to the research paper. In this manner, it is seen that positivism philosophy has been chosen for the research as the paper that has been taken into consideration looks to assess the information that is essential for the explanation of the threats that are related to financial reporting of the listed companies. This philosophy would explain the data that is available in the economy and accordingly the results that would be attained would be explained in an explicit manner with the help of which effective level of results can be attained (Romolini et al., 2014).

The research approach looks to address the relationship among the framework and the theories that would be addressed and accordingly these aspects would be used by the researcher in order to have an understanding of the framework that is ideal and accordingly take measures with the help of which threats related to financial reporting can be discovered (Zambon 2017). It is due to this factor that deductive approach would be undertaken by the researcher because of the fact that this paper would make use of the data that is already available and deductive approach does the same with the help of which the available theoretical models can be used with the help of which effective results can be obtained.

Cultural Factors Impacting Financial Reporting

The design of the research associates to the development of the model that would be established and accordingly steps can be taken in order to gain results that would besuitable for the discovery of the results and accordingly the completion of the paper in a precise manner. It is due to this factor that descriptive research design has been used with the help of which the researcher would be able to explain all the factors that are associated to the topic and accordingly measures can be taken with the help of which effective results can be attained (Bals, & Tate 2017).

The gathering of the data is attained with the help of collecting secondary data and secondary data is collected by taking assistance from various journal articles and electronic articles that have been created by other researchers. Secondary data is even collected by taking assistance of various internet websites where precise and authentic data in relation to this topic would be ascertained. The researcher has undertaken qualitative data analysis with the help of which thematic analysis is undertaken and accordingly the desired outcome of the paper can be collected (Prencipe et al., 2014).

The data analysis section of the paper will look to evaluate the gathered data and accordingly take steps with the help of which these issues can be mitigated. In this manner, it is seen that explanation of the data would be undertaken with the help of which results that would be effective for the completion of the paper is possible.  

The International Accounting Standards have constructed the IFRS due to various kinds of uncertain purposes. There are demands for a general set of accounting standards in order to enhance the international businesses but it is seen that politics has been one of the other factor for the development of IASC. The IASC was developed at the time of the transforming stage of the regulations related to accounting all over the globe (De Silva et al., 2014). However, it was observed that the IASC was having issues in order to widen the utilisation of IFRS to be the nationalised GAAPs. IASC was looked upon to be a new phase of the development of IFRS after an agreement was signed with the International Organization of Securities Commission in order to establish a general set of standards in order to list the organizations. Hence, IASC disclosed a set of standards, which were later on rejected by IOSCO.

Efforts to Enhance Accounting Information Quality and Comparability

The IAS was developed with the help of two models of accounting and thereafter was named as IFRS. The form required the yearly statement of the fair value of the financial scenario of individual organizations in order to safeguard the effectiveness of the economy. Later on the fair value was replaced by depreciation and historical costs (Frias?Aceituno et al., 2014). The governments later on used the form as a foundation to evaluate taxation of the organizations. In the same manner, the model has been a mean in order to confine the relationship among the entities of the business and the government, evaluate the taxation as well as to protect the economy. 

IFRS was established on the basis of the second model, which have been capital market based standards of financial reporting. The European Commission declared the idea of incorporating IFRS as the demand for the initially listed organizations in all the members. This was looked upon to be a phase of the development of IFRS as worldwide GAAPs (Maas et al., 2016). In addition, as more companies function globally, FASB has been collaborating with the IASB in order to converge with IFRS and permitted secondary listed entities in order to construct the financial statements in conventionality entirely with IFRS. At the current time period, the IFRS ae allowed in several jurisdictions and there are certain jurisdictions where IFRS is still not permitted. It is therefore seen that IFRS has been granted by many countries and therefore is becoming a general accounting standard set.

Simnett, & Huggins (2015) has explained that incorporation of the financial reporting process improves the comparability and the compatibility of the financial statements. As financial reporting like IFRS is required and implemented by various nations all over the globe, financial statements under IFRS would be simpler to understand as well as more precisely compared to the foreign investors. The accountants of the companies have even stressed on IFRS standardisation, which assists the other companies to reduce the expenses in adjusting the financial statements under IFRS and need to provide effective information which would be easier for the investors to understand. Therefore the foreign investors should pay attention to the market and more opportunities are open in the global economy.

It is even seen that IFRS was created on the need of the financial markets and IFRS needs increased quality measurement. According to Allini et al., (2016), IFRS implies fair value and identifies the loss immediately in which the investors and the stakeholders would have fair and true aspect on the financial scenario. It is even seen that IFRS even needs more disclosures and even assists the desired accounting process. Hence, the imbalance of data among the managerial discretion and companies has been reduced. It can therefore be said that quality of accounting can be developed which would provide precise, timely and extensive data.

Conclusion

It has been discovered that IFRS is associated with application costs, which have been a key limitation in case of incorporating IFRS. It is known that IFRS is very much complex, the transforming expenses of the internal processes is very much high. The incorporation of IFRS is seen to be that Christensen et al., (2015) focused on the need for updating the systems and the software to be compatible with the innovative accounting standards. In addition, the credit companies would therefore bear the cost of training the employees in order to get accustomed to IFRS. As the employees are not familiar with IFRS, credit companies require advice on the technical and matters related to taxation. Furthermore, the IFRS needs more data about the customers along with the economy; credit companies would require additional expenses for gaining the external information (Fernandez-Feijoo et al., 2014). Furthermore, the real transactional cost may change by depending on the credit company size. At the end, even though credit information faces extensive transactional costs, the advantage of sustainability of the financial statement under IFRS would be in need of adequate time.

Furthermore, the language that is used by the financial standards is a disadvantage. Every country have their own language and therefore they would face issues in order to understand the rules and regulations and therefore the accountants as well as the other users will have issues in order to imply the process (Leuz, &Wysocki 2016). Hence, even though there are certain benefits of financial reporting, it can be said that there are many challenges and therefore steps and strategies would be undertaken in order to mitigate these issues. 

Conclusion

The earlier section has been helpful in determining the outcome that is related to the topic that has been consideration. The introduction of the paper has been helpful in the development of the idea with respect to financial reporting and how it has played a vital role from time to time in order to enhance the reporting activities of the companies. The background of the study provides an idea about the various kinds of financial reporting processes and how it has transformed from time to time in order to enhance the assist and improve the reporting style of the companies. There has been an issue in relation to the development of a common set of accounting standards with the help of which a general style would be developed so that all the companies all over the globe can maintain a transparent accounting reporting style.

The aspects and the elements that are related to financial reporting has been highlighted in the literature of the paper where explanations have been done for the elements that have been addressed by other researchers as well. The literature has therefore explained issues that are existent with financial reporting. It is seen that financial reporting is one of the key aspects that determines the development of an organization and therefore these aspects need to be considered with the help of which better analysis in accordance to this topic can be determined. The methodology of the research highlights the data that would be collected and which would be used with the help of which analysis in accordance to the topic can be understood. The data that would be used will be useful for answering the issues and the problems that are existent with the help of which better results and new suggestions can be highlighted. The secondary data would be helpful in undertaking the evaluation with the help of which the challenges related to financial reporting can be understood. The results have been helpful in creating recommendations and strategies with the help of which better financial reporting standards can be created and therefore better accounting practices can be ascertained.

Objective 1: Recognising the core problems that are faced by the listed organizations in the international and domestic reporting model

The outcomes that have gathered have been able to address the core issues that are faced by the listed companies as all the essential variables that have an impact on the process of financial reporting have been explained in this paper.

Objective 2: Create synchronisation in the international and national reporting of the financial reporting and statements

The next objective has even been addressed as it is seen that financial reporting process has looked to link the national and the international reporting process with the help of which a general and common set of standards would be created that would be helpful in the development of better accounting treatment in the companies.  

Objective 3: Construct efficient and precise financial statement model for the listed organizations

This is the last objective of the paper and the results that have been gathered has been able to express the fact that effective measures on all the factors that have been recognised as the challenges related to reporting has been discovered with the help of which  effective models have been identified.

In this manner, it can be justified that the results obtained are true and valid and taking measures on these aspects would be helpful in making better financial reporting for the listed organizations.

The outcome of the paper creates certain advices and suggestions that can be made use of by the listed companies in order to improve their extent of financial reporting.

It is recommended that the companies undertake frequent monitoring of the process of financial reporting with the help of which the any faults that can be discovered can be mitigated. It is even recommended that the companies should provide training to their accounting professionals from time to time with respect to the changes that are taking place in the market with the help of which the professional remains updated. It is even recommended that the companies the government and as the companies maintain effective accounting laws and regulatory plans with the help of which these issues that have been addressed can be mitigated. Therefore, the incorporation of the same would lead to the development of a better financial reporting process for the listed companies.

The topic that has been taken into consideration has the scope for future research simply due to the fact that rules and regulations in relation to financial reporting would change and therefore operational activities would change as well. Therefore, future research is possible with the help of which an understanding would be attained with the help of which changes that would take place in accordance to the current research would be understood and thereby the changes that would take place will be positive or negative will be known.

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