The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) recently revised three auditing standards with the aim of making auditor’s reports shorter, clearer and more useful to investors. The FRC highlighted that auditor’s reports had become increasingly lengthy and often contained boilerplate wording that added little value to readers. The revised standards remove unnecessary reporting requirements and should result in information that users find most useful.
Although the announcement relates to auditor reporting, the underlying principle is equally relevant to preparers of financial statements. Generic accounting policies and standardised disclosures can obscure the information that users need to understand an entity’s transactions and the judgements applied in preparing the financial statements.
If the principle of reducing boilerplate wording beyond the audit report is of interest, you may also enjoy this article Would your accounting policies make sense without your company name? which explores how entity-specific accounting policies can improve the usefulness of financial statements.
Source:
FRC refreshes auditing standards to reduce reporting burden and improve transparency.
https://www.frc.org.uk/news-and-events/news/2026/06/frc-refreshes-auditing-standards-to-reduce-reporting-burden-and-improve-transparency/
Glynnis Carthy CA(SA)
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