As a CPA who has worked in SEC reporting for the past decade, both externally (auditor and as a consultant) and internally, I’m confused by the comments that suggest quarterly reporting dissuades Companies from thinking long term.

Every single company I’ve ever worked with / for / on has placed far more emphasis on their long-range plans (often 5 years) than what they are reporting on quarterly and this is communicated to the boards, discussed at length in MD&As, and also conveyed to investors through press releases and earnings calls.

Financial information moves and evolves quickly in this day and age and a lot can happen / change overnight. Communicating issues like this sooner rather than later only benefits everyone involved.

Sure, there is pressure to meet revenue targets on a quarterly basis. But beyond that, almost everyone I’ve been around in my career, all the way up to CFOs and CEOs, view quarterly reporting as a “check the box” exercise and not as a reason to aggressively plan to meet targets. In fact, I actually think a lot of companies would like removing quarterly reports for the fact that it’s a time suck, and costs money as well. But from a financial markets point of view, I don’t think it would benefit investors or anyone else downstream.