Show me more than the money: an assessment of how prepared companies are for the business review

During 2006, to give insight to companies dealing with the Business Review, we looked at over 120 annual reports to see what impact the new legislation and ASB best practice recommendations would have on company reporting and how it had affected those companies who were first to comply.

Although the survey focused on the reporting of companies for the year prior to the regulations coming into effect, the inclusion of a small sample of March year-end companies, who have already reported under the requirements, provides an initial insight into the impact of the legislation.

The most significant findings of the survey were that the majority of companies provide information about their competitive environment and an indication of strategy, despite this not being a regulatory requirement. At the same time, however, almost half of companies assessed are failing to get the basics right by not providing a description of their key performance indicators or principle risks and uncertainties, which are an explicit requirement of the business review.

Overall, it is our view that there has been a marked improvement in the quality of reporting since the arrival of the legislation.