Compliance with IAS7 by issuers of listed securities in the Czech Republic

As the cash flow statement presents important information about the company's operations, its quality and the related disclosure are essential to the financial statements' users. This paper analyses the range and quality of cash flow statements along with the accompanying notes, presented by a sample of selected companies within the Czech business environment. There are four main research areas which discuss the structure of the cash flow statement, approach to questionable items such as interest and dividends, quality of the data and notes provided and quality of the optional data provided. After setting the criteria for the sample of companies, five hypotheses and ten research questions are raised in order to evaluate the level of compliance with the requirements set in the IAS 7 Statement of Cash Flows. The research leads to the conclusion that companies in general comply with the mandatory requirements, but do not go beyond these. None of the companies has disclosed voluntary information and about half of the companies have chosen the easiest way to present interest in the operating part, although the selection of companies excluded financial institutions whose majority of interest transactions are indeed from operations.