Financial Accounting. The annual report sent to shareholders is a key part of the directors' fulfilling their stewardship function

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: A, University of Westminster, course: BSc (Hons) Accounting and Business Management, language: English, abstract: The annual report that a company must send to its shareholders is a key part of the directors' fulfilling their stewardship function. Explain this to a shareholder who has just received their company's latest annual report. Areas covered include; •the nature of financial reporting •the function of the four financial statements-statement of comprehensive income, statement of financial position, statement of cash flow and the statement of changes in equity. •the function of the supporting notes, with particular reference to the disclosure of accounting policies and their role within the overall report. •the ways in which financial information provided to shareholders is regulated in the UK with reference to the reasons for the major shifts in the UK regulatory framework in the last twenty years. •effectiveness in maintaining investor's confidence in published annual reports. •identifying which, in your opinion, has been the most significant development to affect the regulatory framework in recent years. Give reasons.