Over-regulation of how council annual accounts should be presented is costly and time-consuming complain.

In the 'good old days', the humble council treasurer maintained budgets, produced cashflow forecasts, gave financial advice and enabled the general financial wellbeing of their organisations. In between these important tasks, they oversaw the closure of the accounts. The annual preparation of the previous year's accounts was, of course, important, but the process had its place among the support cast on the financial services stage.