ABSTRACT
The Lister approach attempted to report the financial consequences of transactions until their completion. Thus, he suggested the reporting of the profits realised in the current year plus the estimated profits on contracted work or operations to be completed in future periods. He also suggested the need to project tax provisions on these future profits. Lister’s reporting would therefore forecast and report all profits on work to which the entity was already committed. The most familiar accounting statements nowadays, of course, are Company Accounts, and with the development of joint stock enterprise, the emphasis has changed. Although accountants may not report on the estimates of profit inserted in prospectuses, they have for long accepted a moral responsibility to be satisfied that these estimates are honest and reasonable, and the Companies Act, 1948, provides that their consent has to be obtained to the publication of any report they make, in the context in which it appears.
