2.3 SME Financial Report Users and User Needs
When the Exposure Draft (ED) of the DIFFREP regime for Australia was released the majority of respondents to the ED were public accountants or preparers of the reports (Holmes et al., 1991). There were only a few respondents identified as possible financial report users (1991), suggesting that users rely on public accountants to represent them in responding to accounting standard changes. Holmes et al., (1991) surveyed a sample of accountants on their opinion of the need for a DIFFREP system in Australia at the time (1991). Respondents answered that DIFFREP was considered desirable for smaller entities. However, it is possible that their study failed to address the concerns of financial report users, because they reviewed only the opinion of preparers, who may have a vested interest in minimising the reporting and disclosure requirements for SMEs.