In March 2020, given the extended and dangerous nature of the Covid-19 virus, the Italian government issued measures geared towards containing the effect of the pandemic, thereby identifying the national territory as a protected area and limiting the movement of people. This had great repercussions on the productive activities of businesses, which were forced to suspend production. Strong uncertainties, tied both to the time frame, as well as to the impact of Covid-19 on micro and macroeconomic levels, have made it extremely difficult to forecast what future outcomes might be in the short term, that is to say, it is related to the year 2020, and, specifically, on assumptions regarding the future operations of companies. This manuscript proposes a study of financial reporting, as required by accounting standards, which listed companies must provide in regard to disclosure due to Covid-19 as well as in regard to being a going concern. After having examined the main measures adopted by the Italian government, and after having outlined the existing literature on the relevance of the accounting information, an investigation is undertaken to analyze if the companies demonstrated, or failed to demonstrate, consistency in the reporting on future performance, by means of a comparison of what was represented in the financial statements for the year ended on December, 31, 2019, and the results actually achieved as of June, 30, 2020. It will be shown that negative judgments frequently emerge relating to future performance and that no critical issues attributable to going concern were found.

The uncertainty generated by the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced countless aspects of business management. In order to deal with the pandemic, managers had to make particularly complex choices regarding, for example, the cash management activities, investment decisions and workplace safety procedures. At the same time, the instability related to the performance and solvency of companies has made it necessary for companies to have adequate information disclosure, even more than that in the past. The Covid-19 pandemic has in fact increased the need for an effective communication about the main corporate events with all corporate stakeholders. Based on this premise, this study aims to highlight the main scientific contributions regarding the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on accounting and on corporate financial reports. The analysis carried out led to the identification of five thematic areas: Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Disclosure, Financial Statements Data and Audit. Moreover, considering the importance of providing adequate disclosure in a period of great uncertainty, this paper proposes an analysis on the disclosure about the Covid-19 pandemic provided by the companies belonging to the FTSE MIB index of the Italian Stock Exchange. Following a preliminary quantitative analysis of the performance of these companies, a content analysis was carried out on the financial statements and the main documents attached to it, in order to verify the presence of references to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be shown that the companies analyzed have made adequate disclosure of information regarding the emergency situation arising from the pandemic.

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