METHOD OF COMPILING A MANAGEMENT REPORT: PROVISIONS OF LAW AND PERSPECTIVES OF IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The legal grounds for submitting a management report appeared in the autumn 2017 when amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Accounting and Financial Reporting in Ukraine” No. 996 dd. 16th of July, 1999 were adopted. The definition of the management report also appeared there. The drawing up and submitting procedures for management reports for all business entities were developed by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, while those for banking institutions were developed by the National Bank of Ukraine. The management report is also referred to in the Financial Statements Submitting Procedure (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 28th of February 28 2000 No. 419), however, according to this regulation, the Management Report is not part of the financial statements, which is stated explicitly in the text of par. 2 of Procedure No. 419. It is only submitted “together with the annual financial statements.” In case of the consolidated reporting, a consolidated management report is to be submitted. European accounting and financial reporting standards imply that financial reporting cannot provide all the necessary information to interested users about the company’s activities. Therefore, the purpose of the management report is to fill this gap and provide information about the performance that cannot be obtained from financial statements and notes thereto. This can be financial information – analysis of company indicators and existing risks, achievement of key financial performance indicators, forecast of financial indicators; and non-financial information – creation of a new product, expansion of sales markets, community and environmental activity, protection of human rights, research and development, achievement of key non-financial performance indicators, description of the company's development prospects, etc. Therefore, the appearance in the legal space of the concept of the Management Report in the domestic reporting practice is not a whim of the national legislative and regulatory bodies, it is most likely a consequence of the adaptation of the domestic laws to the European regulations. It is supposed that the management report cannot be considered purely an “accounting report”, because other company employees and even external consultants can and should be involved in preparation of the management report. Today, the form, structure, methods of submitting information, detailed content and scope of the management report are not regulated by any governmental authorities, so compiling of a management report can be considered quite “creative”. According to the authors, it should be regarded more as a reputation business card of the company, rather than an official report. The authors have performed a critical review, analysis and systematization of the legislative basis for the implementation of the management report; the results of the search for unified informational and methodological approaches for implementation of the legislative basis in the accounting and analysis regarding the preparation of the company's reporting, in particular, nonfinancial reporting, are presented.