Accounting information is perused by a number of parties, such as investors, lenders, creditors, and employees. In order to be useful to these readers, accounting information should have the following characteristics:

Prepared objectively. Accounting information should be developed without bias or personal influence, ensuring that financial results reflect economic reality rather than management preference. Objectivity requires using verifiable evidence (such as invoices, contracts, and independent valuations) to support reported amounts. It also means applying accounting standards consistently, so that similar transactions are treated the same way across periods. When information is prepared objectively, users can place greater confidence in its neutrality and reliability.
Consistency of recordation and presentation. A particularly important characteristic is for the accountant to record information using a consistent application of accounting standards, and to present aggregated results in the same way, for all periods presented.
In support of decisions. An experienced accountant will prepare financial reports that provide the specific information needed by management to reach a decision. That is, the accountant does not just issue the same boilerplate reports, month after month. It may also be necessary to create new reports that deal with new situations confronting a business.
Matches reader knowledge. The accountant should prepare reports that are tailored to the knowledge of the reader. Thus, a short address at a shareholders meeting may call for an aggregated presentation of just a few key performance metrics, while a presentation to an institutional investor may call for a considerably more detailed report.
Reliability and completeness of information. There should be an accounting system in place that is comprehensive enough to be able to routinely collect, record, and aggregate all transactions, so that users of the accounting information are assured that they are reading about the complete results of a business. This also means that there are no "surprises" that appear as retroactive adjustments to the financial statements.
Timeliness of issuance. Accounting information is only useful if it is issued sufficiently quickly for readers to act on the information. Thus, managers might need information within one day in order to take prompt corrective action, while investors might want to see financial statements within one week of the end of a reporting period. Conversely, delays in financial reporting can diminish the usefulness of accounting data because they reduce the ability of stakeholders to rely on this information for effective decision-making. For example, if an investor receives a company's financial statements several months after the accounting period ends, the information may have already become outdated, reducing the investor’s capacity to evaluate the company's current financial health, profitability, or risks accurately.

It can be useful to examine all of the reports issued by the accounting department to see if they adhere to the preceding list of characteristics. If not, consider upgrading the sources of information, altering the reports to exclude the less useful items, or eliminating reports entirely. This review should be scheduled to recur, preferably no less than on an annual basis. It can be interesting to see what types of information crept into the reports since the last review that do not meet the preceding standards, and determine why the information was added.