Intranets - the future of financial reporting?

Some companies are considering whether to have their subsidiaries use intranet technology to send financial reporting information to head offices – and they may even include sound and video clips.

Coopers’ David Jones told the conference that such hi-tech reporting may be common within the next five to ten years. ‘The commentary is often more important than the numbers,’ he told Accountancy Age. He said that a video clip of the local subsidiary finance director talking about his performance could ‘help add value to the numbers’. Such video clips might also include images of a factory fire or a new product launch, Jones said.

Coopers & Lybrand is interested in hearing from multi-national companies which would like to take part in the firm’s on-going finance department benchmarking survey. More than 20 top-100 companies have already taken part in the UK Survey of Financial Control Processes.