Willie Mullin, CPA’s Post

Quarterly reporting from U.S. public companies is back in the spotlight. Not because someone messed up. Because it's there at all. President Trump has reignited a push to eliminate quarterly reporting for U.S. public companies, calling for a shift to semi-annual (6-month) reporting instead. The Two Sides of the Coin Pres. Trump isn't along in this thinking. There have been discussions and surveys around this topic for a while now. The thought around the move is that too many companies are focused on short term growth, so they can hit their quarterly projections. As you can imagine, the opposition is strong on this one. Institutional investors and financial professionals oppose this by significant margins in surveys, with their primary reason being a loss in transparency since you'd only hear from companies twice a year. The Global Context Here's the interesting twist: if implemented, the US would align with UK and EU practices (semiannual reporting), while moving away from our traditionally more transparent approach. How Difficult Would it be to Make this Change? The surprising thing about all of this is that it's a pretty "easy" change to make. There's no Congressional approval needed, just an SEC vote. And if you haven't checked in a while, Republicans currently hold a 3-1 advantage (with one open seat) in the SEC. It could be done in as little as 6-12 months. (But you can rest assured that there will be a LOT of regulatory debate on this topic. As of yet, the SEC has not weighed in.) The Professional Reality As someone who's been a part of the reporting process for two decades, I see the complexity here. Yes, quarterly pressure can drive companies to make decisions because of an upcoming earnings call. But I also know how that regular disclosure rhythm maintains market confidence and investor protection. The decline in public listings over recent decades is real. But is quarterly reporting the culprit behind short-term thinking and the decreasing number of public companies? My Take I don't know if I'm in the minority here or not, but I'm not opposed to semi-annual reporting. I'm on the "quality over quantity" side of the bus. There is definitely value in companies publishing updates to their investors, but much of what is disclosed is boiler plate disclosures unless something is really bad. I would rather focus on creating more meaningful disclosures. And this is coming from someone who has written these disclosures for a long time. What's your take? For companies: Would semi-annual reporting truly free up management's focus? Would it create different problems? For investors: Would you be comfortable with longer information gaps if it meant companies could think more strategically? This could be the biggest shift in financial reporting in over 50 years. Let's chat 👇. -------------------------------------------- Follow me, Willie, for more insights into accounting and finance topics.