Financial Reporting.

This article looks at a new way of measuring the financial performance of a company. Overwhelmed by data, many people find only a vague idea of how a company is doing financially. To remedy this, two accounting professors are suggesting that companies try an unusual but apparently effective visual aid: a software program that generates drawings of the human face with facial expressions that are tied to four critical financial ratios. The professors, Richard J. Taffler of the City University Business School in London and Malcolm Smith of the University of South Australia in Sydney, found that participants in their study predicted solvency and bankruptcy more accurately and more quickly when using the software. INSETS: A good face on the numbers.;The changing face of a British company..