Home  Journals  International Accounting  9(447) - 2018 September

Evaluating the quality of cash flow statement of Russian companies

Vol. 21, Iss. 9, SEPTEMBER 2018

Article PDF Version

Received: 14 February 2017

Received in revised form: 2 March 2017

Accepted: 21 March 2017

Available online: 14 September 2018

Subject Heading: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING

JEL Classification: C83, G30, G32, M42

Pages: 1024–1036

https://doi.org/10.24891/ia.21.9.1024

Importance The importance of reliable, high-quality financial statements is hard to overestimate. Having accurate data about company results, internal and external users of financial statements get an efficient tool to assess its financial condition and generate long-term forecasts.
Objectives The purpose of the study is to discuss theoretical and methodological aspects of financial statements quality evaluation, review the issue of data reliability of cash flow statements presented by domestic companies.
Methods For the study, we applied the method of cash flow statement quality evaluation.
Results The paper presents our own technique to evaluate the reliability of cash flow statements. Using the technique, we analyzed the quality of cash flow statements in ten industries. We proved that virtually in all industries included in the sample, companies make gross errors when preparing their cash flow statements, which significantly affect the quality of stakeholders' decisions.
Conclusions and Relevance It is crucial to develop special analytical instruments for auditors and financial analysts to evaluate the reliability of financial reporting, including the statement of cash flow. The urgency of this task is driven by the extension of the scope of cash flow statement in the Russian practice, namely, its use as a register of company performance evaluation for all groups of stakeholders.

Keywords: cash flow statement, financial statements, audit, accounting abuses, financial reporting quality evaluation

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