The past months have been turbulent for financial reporting and the result has been much uncertainty. But now that the dust has settled over the latest changes in company law, it looks as though the future is going to look quite different from the present.

The problems started with the peremptory abandonment of the planned operating and financial review - the mechanism for putting more non-financial and narrative information in the annual report and accounts - which had long been factored into their plans by big companies.