Actually I am suggesting something more innovative (radical/extreme?) to companies. Toss away those GAAP crutches, and confess to the congregation all your transactions--realtime. Enter the kingdom of Real Transparency (TM).
I don't need your accountants, only your auditors. Imagine for a minute what that would do to the business of financial analysis. It would add real value, unlike today.
This idea is interesting, but you still need to figure out how to account for those transactions. In today's system of accounting a transaction can take many different forms with radical implications:
For example:
Company A sells product to Company B.
When is cash exchanged? When is the product delivered? How much interest if any is part of the transaction? etc.
What may be required to implement your idea would be to create a new system of accounting that has more depth than traditional accounting (Accrual Accounting).
*Also, what is "business of financial analysis"? There is no such business. There are many businesses that implement financial analysis, and all of them add value to the economy and to their clients, investors etc.
Transparency doesn't mean anything if you're just looking at a stream of symbols that have no standardized meaning. Companies can make anything look good through creative terminology when they aren't held to strict standards such as GAAP. Internal books kept to internal standards simply aren't helpful to people who aren't privy to the processes by which they're kept, even if you deliver the transactions at 21st-century speed through a 21st-century firehose.
The meaning of a transaction is generally understood. All I am saying is anything that would merit a journal entry gets feed through pipe instead of consolidated and reported months (or years!) later. I will do my own accounting, you can too.
I like the concept, but I don't think we have enough people who are capable of doing the work. Those that are would have a tremendous advantage. Why would they share with the public?
I don't need your accountants, only your auditors. Imagine for a minute what that would do to the business of financial analysis. It would add real value, unlike today.