In 1901, the first billion-dollar company in the U.S. was founded.

That company was the United States Steel Corporation.

At the time, investor protections were minimal.

Companies weren't required to share financial information with investors.

But, U.S. Steel did.

From the beginning, the company issued annual reports with audited financial statements.

(Audited statements are independently verified for reliability and accuracy.)

This made it the first major U.S. company ever to publicly issue an annual report with audited financial statements.

Why would they do this when they didn't have to?

Among other reasons, it's likely they wanted to avoid problems with a society that was fed up with being abused by monopolies.

Transparency helps ease doubts about intentions.

And, in so doing, it set an important milestone and precedent in the history of financial reporting.

Many of the reporting practices pioneered by U.S. Steel, like issuing audited financial statements, would make their way into U.S. reporting standards and regulations developed in the following decades.

I'd never thought about it before, but there's a lot of history behind the modern annual report (10-K).

I got curious about the topic when I was writing about the peak and crash of Cisco's stock price in 2000.

I'd been digging through Cisco's filings on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website.

I noticed there aren't any from before 1995.

But, Cisco's Initial Public Offering (IPO) (it's first sale of stock to the public) was on February 16, 1990.

So... where were all the older filings?

As I looked into it, I learned that the SEC:

1. Only started requiring digital filings in 1995

2. Never digitized historical paper filings

The older filings are still available, but take a bit of effort to get a hold of:

"Paper copies of filing documents prior to 1994 may be available by filing a Freedom of Information Act request." [1]

The thread continued unravelling from there.

I learned that there's an organization called the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that creates the rules for generating financial statements.

I learned that the SEC's electronic filing system had been in development years before companies were required to file electronically in 1995.

I learned that a lot of the content in modern annual reports is required by the government as a result of historic scandals.

And lots more.

With all these interesting discoveries, I decided to put together a timeline to share a bit of financial reporting's fascinating history.

It's an attempt to give an idea of how we ended up with the annual reports companies issue today.

Everything has references, which are a lot more interesting than the bullet points summarizing them.

So, be sure to check out some of the original sources!

Note: If you find the historic timeline boring, try jumping past it and checking out some images of some historic financial reports instead.

Context

The United States has a lot of regulatory structure around how companies are formed and how companies report their financial situations.

But, this structure didn't always exist.

Accounting's been around for hundreds of years.

But, until the last 100 years or so, different practitioners often took different approaches to accounting and financial reporting.

This made it difficult for investors to assess the financial health and value of what they owned.

Then, the 1900's saw a whirlwind of advancements in regulation and standardization.

These advancements continue today.

Learning some this history's made me realize how much I've been taking for granted in the information provided by public companies today.

An seemingly trivial example is the immense value of regularly-issued annual reports (10-K's) with consistently-structure, audited financial statements.

Fortunately, I have a lot more appreciation now.

There's a lot of effort that goes into producing them, regulating them, and making them publicly available.

And there's well over a hundred years of history behind how (and why) that's all done.

Definitions

A couple names/terms recur frequently in the timeline. So, here're a couple definitions that provide some useful context in advance:

• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE): The world’s largest stock exchange. A stock exchange is platform for buying and selling securities like stocks.

• U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): The set of standardized accounting rules that needs to be followed for financial reporting done in the United States. The purpose of having GAAP is to improve consistency, level of detail, and comparability across financial statements.

• The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB): The non-profit organization that’s been in charge of establishing and improving Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States since 1973.

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA): A non-profit organization that creates and enforces auditing and ethical standards for Certified Public Accountants (CPA's). Until 1973, when the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was established, the AICPA was largely responsible for setting accounting standards.

• Certified Public Accountant (CPA): An accounting professional who's legally permitted to perform certain accounting and financial tasks that require specialized knowledge and skill. To be licensed to be a CPA, a person has to pass the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA's) Uniform CPA Exam and met certain education and experience requirements set by the state(s) they operate in.

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): The federal agency responsible for protecting investors and maintaining fair and efficient financial markets in the United States.

• 10-K: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) form used by publicly traded companies to file annual reports. Annual reports are required by the SEC to give investors comprehensive information about companies on a yearly basis. 10-K filings are required to include audited financial statements.

• 10-Q: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) form used by publicly traded companies to file quarterly reports. Quarterly reports are required by the SEC to keep investors updated between annual reports. Like 10-K's, 10-Q's required financial statements, but the financial statements don't have to be audited.

• EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval): A system created and managed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide online access to corporate filings. That is, it provides access to documents like companies' 10-K's and 10-Q's.

Timeline

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1494: Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli publishes the book, "Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita". It's the first printed book to organize the concepts of double-entry bookkeeping (the foundation of modern accounting) and explain them in detail. [2]

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1787, September 17: The U.S. Constitution is signed. [3]

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1792, March: The U.S. Financial Panic of 1792 begins. Leading up to this, the use of leverage (i.e. loans) for speculative purposes ended in defaults on loans. That triggered a combination of reduced willingness by lenders to provide credit, falling asset prices, paniced selling of assets, and fear-driven withdrawals of money from banks. This all contributed to near-catastrophic financial instability. [4]

1792, May 17: Stock brokers in New York sign the Buttonwood Agreement in response to the Financial Panic of 1792. They commit to coordination and collaboration with goals of increasing the integrity of transactions, creating trust among market participants, and building public confidence in the financial system. [4]

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1817, March 8: Stock brokers operating under the Buttonwood Agreement adopt a constitution, creating a formal organization called the New York Stock and Exchange Board. This organization would later become the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). [5, 6]

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1856: The United Kingdom enacts the Joint Stock Companies Act, 1856, which allows any group of at least 7 people to form a limited liability company. The Act requires that companies issue a balance sheet, undergo a financial audit, and hold a general meeting at least once per year. [7]

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1861, April 12: The U.S. Civil War formally begins. [8]

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1865, May 26: The U.S. Civil War formally ends. [8]

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1886, December 15: The number of shares traded (trading volume) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a single day passes 1 million shares for the first time. [5]

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1887: The American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA) is formed to advance the accounting profession and ensure ethical practice. The AAPA would eventually become the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which continues play a critical role in the advancement of accounting practices today. [9]

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1903: U.S. Steel becomes the first major U.S. company to publicly issue an audited annual report, setting a precedent for modern financial accounting. The report includes an income statement, balance sheet, and details about the operations of the business. [10]

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1905: The Journal of Accountancy launches, accelerating advancement in the fields of finance and accounting by providing a platform to share and discuss ideas, news, and other industry developments. [11]

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1907, October 16: The Panic of 1907 begins when speculators attempt to manipulate stock prices and fail, resulting in huge losses. As a result, people rush to withdraw their money from banks that lent money to back the attempted manipulation. A chain reaction proceeds, approaching systemic collapse, though collapse is avoided largely due to actions taken by prominent bankers. In response to these events, the U.S. Congress begins an investigation into the causes of recurring financial panics in the U.S., eventually resulting in the creation of the Federal Reserve as a solution. [12, 13]

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1912: Robert H. Montgomery publishes the book, "Auditing Theory and Practice". It’s an important step in the advancement of auditing practices because it’s one of the earliest comprehensive guides for U.S. financial auditors. [14]

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1913: The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 establishes the Federal Reserve System (commonly called "the Federal Reserve" or "the Fed") as the central bank of the United States, with a goal of making the U.S. financial system more stable. The Federal Reserve's given the power to manage the money supply, act as a lender of last resort, and oversee and regulate banks. It's powers would grow over time via additional legislation passed by the U.S. government. [15]

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1914, July 28: World War I begins, when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. [16]

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1916: The American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA) changes its name to the American Institute of Accountants (AIA). [11]

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1917, April: The Federal Reserve issues a proposal for a uniform system of accounting, with a key goal of improving trust and stability in credit (lending and borrowing) markets. The system proposed was primarily developed by the American Institute of Accountants (AIA) (i.e. the organization that would later become the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or AICPA). It represents the first guide to standardized accounting issued by a professional accounting organization. [17, 18]

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1919, June 28: World War I ends, with the signing of Treaty of Versailles. [16]

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1929, October 24: The stock market crashes in what would become known as "Black Thursday". It was followed by additional major stock market declines on the proceeding Monday and Tuesday, which would similarly become known as "Black Monday" and "Black Tuesday". From Black Thursday through Black Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index often used to represent the overall market for that time period, declined by around 25%. This decline was part of the chain of events that led the U.S. into the Great Depression. [19, 20]

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1932, March: Kreuger & Toll, one of the most heavily traded companies on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), collapses, revealing massive fraud. [21]

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1933, January 6: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announces that applications for being listed on the exchange will now require an independent audit that verifies the correctness of submitted balance-sheets, income statements, and surplus statements. A key motivator for this is the collapse of Kreuger & Toll. [22, 23]

1933, May 27: The U.S. Congress passes the Securities Act of 1933. It requires that securities (like stocks) intended to be sold in the U.S. have to be registered and that registrations have to include a prospectus with independently audited financial statements. A key reason for making these requirements is to address the causes of the Great Depression and cases of fraud, like the Kreuger & Toll scandal. [24, 25]

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1934, June 6: The U.S. Congress passes the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It creates the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), giving it authority and disciplinary power over the securities industry. It also requires companies to file annual and quarterly reports (10-K's and 10-Q's). [18, 24, 25]

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1936: The American Institute of Accountants (AIA) (i.e. the organization that would later become the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or AICPA) forms the Committee on Accounting Procedures (CAP) to standardize accounting practices. It's the first such organization for the U.S.’s private sector. [11, 24]

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1939: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates McKesson & Robbins, revealing blatant fraud that wasn’t caught by audit procedures. This leads to the SEC requiring companies' auditors to be chosen by a committee of non-executive directors and approved by by shareholders. [26, 27]

1939, September 1: World War II begins, when Germany invades Poland. [28]

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1940: The American Accounting Association publishes "An Introduction to Corporate Accounting Standards". Most prior literature focused on procedures, while this publication emphasizes the objectives of financial reporting (providing accurate, relevant, and useful information to stakeholders). It's one of the first publications to offer a principles-based framework. This would greatly influence future work on the accounting standardization. [18, 24, 29]

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1945, September 2: World War II ends, when the U.S. accepts surrender from Japan [28]

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1953, June: The American Institute of Accountants' (AIA's) Committee on Accounting Procedures (CAP) releases "Accounting Research Bulletin No. 43", which consolidates and organizes earlier bulletins into one, cohesive document. Consolidations like this are important steps in the standardization of accounting practices. [30]

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1957: The American Institute of Accountants (AIA) renames itself to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which is the name the organization still uses today. [18]

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1958: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) establishes the Accounting Principles Board (APB) to develop an overall conceptual framework of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). [31]

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1959: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) phases out the Committee on Accounting Procedures (CAP) and replaces it with the newly established Accounting Principles Board (APB). [18, 31]

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1964: The U.S. Congress passes the Securities Acts Amendments of 1964, which included stricter reporting requirements for publicly traded companies and extends those requirements to "over-the-counter" (OTC) stocks (stocks not listed on a stock exchange). The Amendments were made in response to a report issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1963 called the "Special Study of Securities Markets". The study identified numerous ongoing issues like insider trading, market manipulation, inadequate financial disclosures in reports, etc. [32, 33, 34]

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1968, December 17: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adds the disclosure of risk factors to its "Guides for Preparation and Filing of Registration Statements". [35, 36]

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1970, October: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA's) Accounting Principles Board (APB) publishes "Basic Concepts and Accounting Principles Underlying Financial Statements of Business Enterprises", a cohesive guide for preparing financial statements. Unlike the "Accounting Research Bulletin No. 43" from 1953, which was more of a rules-based reference, Basic Concepts is more of a principles-based guide. The focus on principles would significantly influence the later development of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). [37, 38]

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1971, February 8: The NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) system becomes operational. It vastly improves the access to, and accuracy of, trading information for the over-the-counter market. Automated trading would be added later, in 1984. The exchange would adopt its current name, "Nasdaq" (using lower-case letters), in 2017. [39, 40, 41]

1971, July 29: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins requiring disclosures related to environmental risks in company reports. [35]

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1972, March 29: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) issues the "Establishing Financial Accounting Standards" report (commonly called the "Wheat Study" after the chairman of the study group, Frank Wheat). It's primary focus is on how accounting principles are established and would lead to the formation of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). [18, 42]

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1973, June: The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) is created to develop international accounting standards. It's the outcome of an agreement between accounting professional organizations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the United States. [43, 44]

1973, July 1: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is established as an independent non-profit to replace the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA's) Accounting Principles Board (APB). The FASB's organizational structure enabled greater effectiveness and efficiency in the ongoing development of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). [45]

1973, December 20: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issues "Accounting Series Release No. 150 (ASR 150)". It effectively recognizes the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as the authority on defining U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which private sector companies are expected to follow for creating financial statements. [18, 46]

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1976, August 31: The Vanguard Group launches the first retail index fund, which was a Fortune 500 index fund. [47]

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1980, September 25: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adds the "Management’s Discussion and Analysis" (MD&A) sections to Form 10-K. [35]

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1981: IBM introduces its first Personal Computer, the IBM Model 5150. It's the first PC to gain widespread adoption by industry. [48]

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1983: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins developing an electronic filing system. This would become their EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) system. [49]

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1984: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins testing an early version of their electronic filing system with volunteer users. [49]

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1987, November: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issues "Statement No. 95", which establishes standards for cash flow reporting and makes them a mandatory in financial reports issued after July 15, 1988. [50]

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1989, March: Sir Tim Berners-Lee presents his vision for what would become the World Wide Web (what we commonly refer to this as "the Internet" today, even though this usage isn't technically accurate). [51]

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1990: The first web page becomes accessible on the open internet. [51]

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1992, July 15: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opens access to its electronic filing system, EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval). [49]

1992, October 16: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins requiring disclosures related to executive stock compensation in company reports. [35]

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1993, February 23: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announces it'll gradually require documents to be filed electronically, replacing the paper filing process. [49]

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1994, December 19: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalizes the dates when companies will be required to file documents electronically rather than via paper. The roll out of the requirement would begin on January 30, 1995. [49]

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1998, October 1: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) "Plain English Disclosure" rule goes into effect. It requires company prospectuses (documents that provide detail about the company and investment risks) to use "plain English". This means their content has to have characteristics like short sentences, everyday language, active voice, no legal jargon, etc. Submissions that don't comply won't be accepted. [52]

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2000, October 23: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) "Regulation FD" (Regulation Full Disclosure) goes into effect. It prohibits companies from intentionally disclosing material information to select entities without simultaneously disclosing it the the general public. [53]

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2001, July 1: A restructuring of The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) goes into effect and the organization is replaced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the IFRS Foundation. The new organizations would develop and promote adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). [43, 44]

2001, December 2: Enron files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's the largest bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history at the time. Leading up to that, investigations revealed accounting fraud and audit failure. The company's auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, was found guilty of illegally destroying documents relevant to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) investigation. [54]

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2002, July 21: WorldCom files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's the largest bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history at the time (surpassing Enron). In June, WorldCom had publicly admitted to overstating income by over $3.8 billion over the previous five quarters. Like, Enron, Arthur Andersen LLP had been WorldCom's auditor during the period of falsification. [55, 56]

2002, July 30: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is enacted in response to recent cases of accounting fraud. It introduces requirements for rigorous internal controls (risk-reducing processes) over financial reporting at companies, external audits of these controls, etc. It also requires for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to be funded by fees assessed on publicly traded companies. [57]

2002, September 18: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) commit to The Norwalk Agreement. The agreement involves gradually unifying U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to enhance the consistency and comparability of financial reporting internationally. [58, 59]

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2003, November 4: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves new rules proposed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq regarding corporate board composition. These rules require a majority of board members to be independent and gives a strict definition of what it means to be independent. They also require certain board member responsibilities to only be assigned to independent members. [60]

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2007, November: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins allowing non-U.S. stock issuers using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to present measures of profit or loss and owner’s equity without reconciling them to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This signals progress towards a unified international standard for financial reporting. [59]

2007, December: The U.S. enters into recession, marking the start of the 2008 Financial Crisis/Great Recession. [61]

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2009, July 1: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) launches the "FASB Accounting Standards Codification™", making it the single source for U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Accountants previously had to piece together the state of rules from years of new rule introductions and rule updates. [62]

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2010, July 21: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is enacted as an outcome of the 2008 Financial Crisis/Great Recession. It results in a complete overhaul of the financial regulatory system to reduce the risk of future economic crises. [63]

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2018, June 22: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopts a rule allowing companies to distribute shareholder reports via a website, rather than mailing paper reports to investors. Though, the rule requires giving investors the option to continue receiving paper reports. [64]

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2022, November 11: FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company had illegally used billions of dollars of customer assets and lost much of them in speculative trades. John J. Ray III, the CEO put in place to guide the company through bankruptcy, declared, "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here." To put this statement in context, he was the person who lead to effort to recover assets after the Enron scandal and bankruptcy of 2001. [65, 66]

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2024, March 6: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) begins requiring disclosures related to climate risk in company reports. [35, 67]

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As financial events, corporate scandals, and technology unfold, we'll continue to see accounting and regulation evolve.

It's interesting to see how corporate reporting done 100 years ago is so similar, yet so different, from reporting done today.

And, of course, to think that the same will apply to corporate reporting done 100 years from now.

Historic documents

The following sections show what some historic financial documents looked like.

The Joint Stock Companies Act, 1856

Here's an extract from "The New Joint Stock Company Law, (of 1856, 1857, and 1858)" by Charles Wordsworth.

It shows a section of the U.K.'s Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 related to financial statements:

Key points are that the new company must:

• Maintain financial records using double-entry accounting

• Create an income statement including broken-out revenue sources and expenses at least once per year

• Create a balance sheet showing assets and liabilities at least once per year

• Have the balance sheet audited by an independent auditor

Here's how the balance sheet's required to look:

Pretty sophisticated. And, that was 168 years ago!

U.S. Steel's first annual report: 1902

U.S. Steel's history of annual reports and financial statements is really fascinating.

They were the first major U.S. company to publicly issue a detailed annual report with audited financial statements.

After that, they continued to issue reports using state-of-the-art and forward-thinking financial practices.

There's actually an entire book about U.S. Steel's financial reports

You can check out the table of content and read the introduction for free here.

Here's the balance sheet from U.S. Steel’s famous 1902 annual report (issued in 1903):

Here's the income statement:

And, the certification of audit:

The Quaker Oats Company annual reports: 1920, 1926, 1943, and 1964

This's a fun one.

Commentary in Quaker Oat's 1920 annual report (the earliest one I could find) indicates that company started issuing annual reports as far back as 1891.

Here's a little background [68]:

• 1877: Quaker Oats is registered as a trademark.

• 1888: Seven oat millers combine to become the American Cereal Company.

• 1901: American Cereal changes its name to The Quaker Oats Company.

And here's a selection of reports.

The 1920 report is just 4 pages. The financial report is entirely on one page.

The 1926 report is 9 pages (excluding blank pages). It's the first of the reports where:

1. The financial statements are audited

2. The financial statements are separated out into multiple pages (they have substantially more detail than previous reports)

3. The Income Statement includes data for multiple years

Recall that companies weren't required to have audited financial statements until 1933. At that time, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) began requiring them. Then, in 1934, the U.S. Congress made them mandatory when it enacted the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The 1943 report is 18 pages (excluding blank pages). It's:

1. The first of the reports to use the heading "Property, Plant, and Equipment" (PP&E)

2. The second report to use the terms "Cost of Goods Sold" (COGS) and "Other Income" (this first was the 1942 report)

3. The first of the reports to include a "Statement of Consolidated Earned Surplus"

The 1964 report is 24 pages. It's:

1. The first of the reports to include a "Statement of Consolidated Source and Use of Funds"

2. The second report to include Deferred Federal Income Taxes (the first was the 1963 report)

The Statement of Consolidated Source and Use of Funds is essentially a cashflow statement. Official standardization and requirement of cash flow statements in financial reports wouldn't happen until 1987.

You can see all the Quaker Oats annual reports from 1920 to 1974 here.

Cisco Systems Income Statements: 1995-2024

The era of electronic access to company reports began in 1995. That year, the SEC began requiring companies to file reports via their EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval) system rather than via paper.

By then, the standardization of financial reporting was well established. So, the content of reports didn’t change drastically moving forward.

However, formatting of the digital content did.

Here's how the appearance of Cisco System's Income Statements has evolved since the first year of electronic filing through today:

As can be seen, the format settled into a consistent layout over time, with the last several years looking identical.

More historic reports

A couple other great collections of historic reports include:

• The Archive of Annual Reports

  • General Electric Company Annual Reports: 1892–2009

  • The Coca-Cola Company Annual Reports: 1920–2017

  • National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) Annual Reports: 1898–1969, 1972–1987

  • F.W. Woolworth Company, Woolworth Corporation, Venator Group, and Foot Locker, Inc. Annual Reports: 1912–1999, 2001–2004

• Ericsson: 1901 and after (older reports are in Swedish only)

• Art Institute of Chicago: 1883 and after

There're a lot of historic annual reports in libraries, too. But, they're in physical form and not digitized.

Conclusion

Originally, I just wanted to see the differences in appearance between Cisco System's oldest and newest 10-K's (annual reports).

I had no idea this'd turn in to a big research project understanding the history of financial reporting.

But, one question led to another, and I ended up down the rabbit hole.

I was surprised to learn what a rich foundation modern 10-K's are built on. Even in the "plain English" they're written in today is an intentional result of governmental regulation.

I find it particularly interesting to connect things we find in financial reports today with historic events like financial disasters and major fraud. These events resulted in evolving regulation and reporting requirements.

I feel like every step of my learning journey deepens my sense of awe at what an incredible technology modern accounting is. Something I previously took for granted.

I hope you found this brief history of financial reporting interesting, too!

Be sure to check out some of the original sources of information. They're where all the best material is.

Happy hunting!

And now for something completely different

In 2019, I spent a couple weeks in Tokyo, Japan.

While there, I discovered the Bank of Japan Currency Museum.

I loved it!

Recently, I came across a site that lists similar museums all over the world: Bank Museums around the world.

I'll definitely be checking the list the next time I make travel plans.

One museum I'd like to visit that's not on the list is the Museum of American Finance in New York, USA.

That museum has the Buttonwood Agreement on display! (If you’re not sure what that is, see year 1792 on the timeline!)

References

Noted references:

1. Accessing EDGAR Data | How far back does EDGAR data go?. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed 2024-10-31.

2. Keith Devlin. How double-entry bookkeeping changed the world. Mathematical Association of America. May 1, 2019.

3. Constitution of the United States (1787). The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed 2024-10-29.

4. Crisis Chronicles: Central Bank Crisis Management during Wall Street’s First Crash (1792). Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics. May 9, 2014.

5. The History of NYSE. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Accessed 2024-10-29.

6. Buttonwood Agreement on display. Museum of American Finance. Accessed 2024-11-01.

7. Charles Wordsworth. The New Joint Stock Company Law, (of 1856, 1857, and 1858). Shaw and Sons. 1859. Accessed via Internet Archive.

8. Civil War Timeline. . Accessed 2024-10-29.

9. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Wikipedia. Accessed 2024-10-29.

10. First Annual Report of the United States Steel Corporation for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 1902. United States Steel Corporation. April 6, 1903. Accessed via Case Western Reserve University.

11. Stephanie Moussali. Accounting for the Journals First 100 Years: A Timeline From 1905 to 2005. Journal of Accountancy. October 1, 2005.

12. Ellis W. Tallman and Jon R. Moen. Lessons from the Panic of 1907. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review. May, 1990.

13. Donald P. Morgan and James Narron. The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics. November 18, 2016.

14. Howard B. Levy. History of the Auditing World, Part 1. The CPA Journal. November, 2020.

15. Federal Reserve Act. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Accessed 2024-10-30.

16. A World at War | Timeline (1914 - 1921). U.S. Library of Congress. Accessed 2024-10-29.

17. Uniform accounting: a tentative proposal submitted by the Federal Reserve Board. United States Federal Reserve Board. Federal Reserve Bulletin, April, 1917. Accessed via The University of Mississippi eGrove.

18. Lynn E. Turner. Speech by SEC Staff: The Future is Now. Keynote Address at the Accounting Hall of Fame. November 10, 2000.

19. Paul Dickson. The Crash of 1929. Bill of Rights Institute. Accessed 2024-11-02.

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