What happened to assets, earnings, dividends, and cash flows during the financial year? Accounting practice in the United States follows the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which is a nangovemmental, professional standards body that monitors accounting practices and evaluates controversial issues. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires all publicly traded companies to periodically report their financial information. A publicly held corporation must publish an annual report that contains the balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, statement of retained eamings, and other financial information for analysis. The following table lists descriptions of the major financial statements and reports that a firm publishes. Identify the correct statement or report for each description. Accountants focus on creating financial statements, whereas finance professionals use these statements to evaluate a firm and answer questions about its performance. Indicate which financial statement you would refer to when answering the questions in the following table. True or False: As long as the information reported follows the generally accepted accounting prindiples (GAAP) guidelines, accountants in a firm have the liberty to use personal judgment to report transactions in the firm's financial statements. True False