Separating Facts from Forecasts in Financial Statements

In the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's Sep 2004 Standing Advisory Group Meeting, one of the sessions was devoted to verifiability concerns regarding fair values. At that meeting, some participants expressed the opinion that accounting estimates pose broader problems beyond computing fair values, and investors need to be educated about the role of estimates in financial statements. This paper suggests an extension to the existing accounting model to allow users to better understand the role of estimates/forecasts in financial statements. It proposes intertemporal financial statements that separate facts from forecasts as a way of reminding investors of the varied reliability of financial statement numbers. This paper hopes others will extend this work to more explicitly deal with fair values and explore alternative reliability-oriented classifications and disclosures.