Preparers and the financial reporting system

We review the accounting and related literature on the preparation of public company financial reports. We highlight numerous impediments to producing high quality financial reports, focusing on the roles of management, the board of directors, and internal audit. Key incentives of the CEO do not encourage investments in financial reporting quality, despite evidence that these investments provide net benefits to the firm, instead, key incentives appear to elicit myopia. We also demonstrate that although theoretically the board of directors and internal audit are integral components of firms’ internal controls, in practice there are numerous obstacles to effective oversight, including a lack of independence from management. Recent regulations have lessened but not fully mitigated these concerns.