How COVID-19 is impacting Indian corporate reporting

In an environment where stakeholders are seeking information on disruption of current financial standing of an organization due to COVID-19, corporate reporting is probably the only dependable medium to gather this information.

As we move through phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is evident that many of our clients’ businesses are preparing to return to physical workplaces. All stakeholders are assessing a company’s ability of not only generating timely reporting but also its ability to provide transparent, comprehensive and future-looking financial and non-financial details for maintaining trust in these uncertain times.

Corporate reporting is key to sharing an organizations’ value creation story with investors. Critically, it is also key to earning the trust of investors and other stakeholders. In an environment when stakeholders are seeking information on the disruptions of current financial standing of an organisation due to COVID-19, trust is critical, and corporate reporting is probably the only medium for gathering this form of information. However, this pandemic has put corporate/financial reporting under the spotlight to evaluate how strong, agile, efficient and technologically equipped is a company’s finance function and investors’ communications.

There is shift in investor communication strategies, content and frequency by various corporates during COVID times. The pandemic has pushed investor communication to newer heights by making the corporate world answerable on many indicators other than only financial numbers.  With SEBI announcing additional disclosure requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for companies to provided adequate disclosures.

Our financial accounting advisory services (FAAS) practice has researched March quarter reporting of top BSE 300 Indian companies and 115 global companies spanning over 12 sectors to evaluate and summarize the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on their reporting calendar, profitability, financial position, liquidity, disclosures and other key parameters.

The publication showcases a high-level analysis of the overall sectoral level and does not attempt to provide in-depth exhaustive analysis or conclusive views on the impacts of the outbreak. Our analysis is based solely on information available in the public domain.

Thinking Beyond

• Building a resilient finance function

Data and smarter technologies have revolutionized organizations’ way of working. Yet when it comes to finance, there’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of leveraging digital technologies. Sometimes, this is because organizations’ onboard systems are not sufficiently automated

• Finance for the future through digital transformation

Technology and digital transformation continue to be central to the futuristic design and vision for finance. Across industries and sectors, technologies such as advanced data analytics, robotics, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are creating new opportunities and driving finance transformation. Organizations should be as disruptive and innovative while thinking about leveraging technology for finance. This is not just about reducing costs but also improving financial performance. When organizations trust their finance data and are able to generate multi-faceted KPIs, they have the potential to transform their operations and unlock value more widely.