Since the inception of the Financial Reporting Council in May 1990, the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Review Panel have featured prominently in the financial press. Creative Accounting questions whether the new regime is likely to improve financial reporting practices in the United Kingdom. Do financial statements contain useful information? Is the new profit and loss account a reliable measure of financial performance? What significance should be attached to the balance sheet and the gearing ratio? Are UK companies guilty of using financial techniques to improve their reported results? Does the stock market pay any attention to company financial statements? Is there such a thing as creative accounting? What is the role of the auditor? Will the recommendations of the Cadbury Committee help to restore public confidence in financial reporting? In addressing these issues, Creative Accounting highlights the complexities and limitations of company financial statements. It is essential reading for all users of these statements.

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Financial Reporting: Serving a Useful Purpose? - The New Financial Reporting Regime in the UK - What is Creative Accounting? - Profit and the Profit and Loss Account - Gearing and the Balance Sheet - All of the People, All of the Time? - Unravelling the Profit and Loss Account and the Balance Sheet - The Collapse of Polly Peck International - Responding to the Crisis - Achieving Utopia: Options for the Future