Decades Old Global Cash Accounting Rules Set for an Overhaul

Global standard setters voted to write new accounting rules for cash flow statements, saying that relatively minor changes could help track non-cash deals that are important to companies’ liquidity, like leases.

The International Accounting Standards Board agreed unanimously Tuesday to launch a standard setting project without writing a discussion paper first. Cash flow statements are meant to show a company’s ability to meet its financial obligations at a given point in time, but the accounting rules that govern them date back to 1992.

The standards need to be modernized to take account of increasingly popular non-cash transactions that also include ...