This book guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of reports and accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk-taking, where and how to look for clues on the quality of management and how to spot 'cosmetic accounting'. In 1991 the authors wrote: ' Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy.' It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 19 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs) together with a statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board ( ASB). Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.