Application of accounting concepts
standards used. An effective financial reporting structure begins with a reporting company's management, which is responsible for implementing and properly applying generally accepted accounting standards. Auditors then have the responsibility to test and opine on whether the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with those accounting standards. If these responsibilities are not met, accounting standards, regardless of their quality, may not be properly applied, resulting in a lack of transparent, comparable, consistent financial information.
Accordingly, while the accounting standards used must be high quality, they also must be supported by an infrastructure that ensures that the standards are rigorously interpreted and applied, and that issues and problematic practices are identified and resolved in a timely fashion. Elements of this infrastructure include: