Financial Statement according to National or International Financial Reporting Standards? A Decision Analysis Case Study from the Czech Republic at Industrial Companies

Abstract

Financial statements bring information about financial position, performance and changes in financial performance. These statements could be prepared in accordance with national accounting standards or in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. The scientific problem is to assess whether it is more beneficial to prepare financial statements according to national, transnational or both national and transnational accounting standards. Results show that it is more convenient to prepare financial statements only according to the legislation of national accounting standards. The advantage of this option is lower costs. However, the second best option, based on preparing financial statements according to International Financial Reporting standards, leads to higher quality, credibility and comparison of these statements. Options based on the gradual convergence of transnational and national accounting standards also do not represent an ideal situation. The utility of options is influenced by many criteria. The most important criterion according to the questionnaire survey is costs. The questionnaire survey was carried out in the year 2018 among 28 industrial companies in the selected region of the Czech Republic. The methods of description, analysis, synthesis, comparison and selected methods of multi-criteria decision-making are used in the article.