The limitation with this study is that the information is not being gathered from actual users of the accounts, but from respondents to the ED, a group of mainly accountants and standard setters. However, there is some overlap with findings of other studies on what information users want from SME reports, such as cash flows.
From this limited pool of users and user needs evidence in the literature it appears that users value the following information (at least) in SME financial reports:
- Operating data
- Cash Flow information
- International comparability
- Profitability
- Solvency
- Liquidity
- Balance sheet strength
- Interest cover
- Prior year events, and
- Future Prospects.
Other user needs and topics considered irrelevant by the IASB, as listed in the discussion above, should be investigated in terms of actual users and their needs.
Further consideration of IFRS-SME and its suitability for SME reporting is given in the next section.