Corporate Financial Reporting: Theory and Practice

This is a book which should be read by all business students, whether undergraduate or postgraduate. It also provides a succinct guide for the manager who wishes to come to grips with this topic, or the accountant nostalgic to recollect the non too praiseworthy and indecisive history of this topic. The text is well written, compels and maintains interest, and although easy to read, it does not lack profundity and it is well researched. The author has gathered together those reports across the globe that chart the dissatisfaction with the status quo, a dissatisfaction which, post Enron, has come out of the closet of those in the inner circle to the wider public arena. Dr Higson critically evaluates those beloved accountancy buzzwords which formerly tripped off the tongue, but which now demand attention. Terms such as “true and fair”, the provocatively oxymoronic “accounting theory” and even accounting framework demand exposure. “Frameworks without Foundations?” is the subtitle of chapter 4. Maybe prophetically Andrew ignores the Accountancy Foundation, widely tipped to be abolished by the UK government. More attention to internal audit would have fitted contemporary developments, rather than an overbrief paragraph which would leave neophytes with the view that internal audit has little to offer to financial reporting. However, this is a book which deserves updating and successive editions, so there is scope to bring about enrichment to the text in the future. It is pleasing that articles from the Managerial Auditing Journal (MAJ) are cited. The treatment of the notion of corporate performance is a theme close to the heart of MAJ. Although the final chapter is entitled “The Elusive Holy Grail”, Andrew does provide some incisive agenda points for the way forward.