New business reporting model beginning to emerge--timeliness, reliability, transparency to be improved.

For nearly a decade, the AICPA has advocated a modernized financial reporting process that provides more and better information from which investors, creditors and management can make decisions. The highest quality auditing will be of declining value if the underlying information is outdated or excludes relevant factors.

Using the current one as a base, the new business reporting model would encompass five fundamental elements: reliable systems to collect and analyze information; industry-specific financial and nonfinancial performance measures; better quality disclosures written in "plain English"; corporate accountability; and real-time distribution of information. These fundamentals must integrate within an organization, as an organization moves toward online, real-time reporting. Achieving the online, real-time goal is the only way to truly meet marketplace demand for more relevant, up-to-the-minute information.

By supplying a broader "bandwidth" of information that addresses such issues as off-balance-sheet activity, liquidity, nonfinancial performance indicators and unreported intangibles, financial reporting can begin to address the complexities of today's corporations.

"Our current financial reporting model, although a solid foundation from which to start, is neither complete nor timely," said Senior Vice President--Member and Public Interests Al Anderson in a...