Integrated Reporting – a concept whose time has come

85E JAARGANG NOVEMBER 535 Thema The history of accountancy establishes that changes to reporting standards and practices occurred as a result of global events or crises. It was said that one of the causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s was the value of assets on the basis of mark to market. This type of valuation was consequently abandoned in some jurisdictions, but was retained in others. The great depression also resulted in the implementation of generally accepted standards of accounting in the United States. It also led to stock issues as a leading method of financing expansion. As stockholders, rather than bankers, became the primary audience of financial statements, the income statement began to take centre stage over the balance sheet. Other factors, such as income taxation and cost accounting, shifted the focus to revenue and profit.