This research provides an extensive discussion of materiality, a cornerstone notion in accounting that guides the decision-making process for financial reporting. Information is material if omitting, misstating, or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions that the primary users of general-purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements, which provide financial information about a specific reporting entity.
The use of this notion influences decisions on recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of particular transactions and information in financial statements or associated notes.
Moreover, prominent regulatory and accounting bodies including the FASB, SEC, AICPA, and IASB, whose responsibility is to establish accounting standards, have devoted decades to examining the notion of materiality till now.
Furthermore, numerous initiatives and projects have been undertaken by these regulatory and accounting bodies to enhance the comprehension and application of the materiality notion in accounting.
Consequently, this paper commences by providing a concise overview regarding the Progression of materiality notion definition from the perspective of Key Regulatory and accounting bodies, followed by examining Materiality Determination process, Finally, it concludes with an analysis of the main projects underlying materiality.