Jake you are so far off the mark as to be almost absurd. The ultimate goal of financial reporting is to "fairly" (read accurately) represent the results of the operations of a business, etc. I agree with some of the comments about the complexity of GAAP etc. which I too agree is the result of the influence (lobbying) of Wall Street and the largest accounting firms who are totally lacking independence.

I do not understand the comment about materiality. Materiality and accuracy are related and the relationship is an important aspect of financial reporting today where we deal with such large numbers.

I also disagree with Michael about the new AICPA framework more accurately reflecting accrual accounting. The new framework is a weak approach to the basic complexity of standards and the differences in financial reporting for large and small businesses today. I do want to say that at least the AICPA has tried to address the problem with large and small GAAP which the FASB has failed so miserably at.

I believe that the poll is skewed due to confusion of accrual accounting and GAAP. GAAP, in my opinion, is too complex for most businesses today and there is such a large area now in GAAP where "judgements" about transactions and events are not consistent and are used to distort results for purposes seen or unforeseen as Jason so accurately related in his example.

Everyday you read about the big accounting firms being fined and penalized due to accounting irregularities in financial reporting. We have made financial reporting inordinately complex under GAAP and provided opportunities for those who are lacking ethical and moral standards to take advantage of. .....but we all have to live with what we have until we have better solutions to this hubris of those at FASB and others in our profession.