Accounting in Times of the Pandemic: Financial Reporting and Regulatory issues
Abstract
Accounting is critical for corporate transparency in such times of high uncertainty. Investors, politicians, and society at large are in need of trustworthy information. At the same time, numerous actors take part in producing, distributing, and processing accounting information: from the bookkeeper who enters transactions, via corporate accountants and managers deciding about reporting policies, to financial auditors checking the financial reports, and public regulators setting the accounting rules. The number of actors involved is mirrored by the number of functions that accounting information fulfills. They inform investors on the capital market, serve to evaluate the performance of corporate management, are used to calculate taxes, etc. It is hence not surprising that events as important as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affect such a complex system. These effects play out on different levels, impacting individual firms, regulators overseeing them, and governments taking important policy decisions.