Effort to Curb Non-GAAP Reporting a Success: SEC Accountants

Efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to control companies’ financial reporting that stray too far from generally accepted accounting principles—the dubious use of so-called “non-GAAP measures”—have succeeded, two top SEC accountants said May 4.

A year ago, the SEC staff’s Mark Kronforst and Wesley Bricker said the commission would be cracking down on the unaudited non-GAAP financial reporting practices.

“I have to say, I think it was a success,” Kronforst, chief accountant at the Division of Corporation Finance, said at a Baruch College accounting forum. Bricker, currently the SEC’s chief accountant, concurred.

Companies’ reporting, and particularly reporting in quarterly ...