So what exactly is window dressing

Repo 105 has been making the news recently. Repo 105 is a technique used by the failed Lehman Brothers, under advice from Ernst & Young, to temporarily move some items off its balance sheet which it didn't really want there on key dates - the day in each quarter when its accounts are struck and made available to the world at large.

But repo 105 is just one way of window dressing that has been used to make a company's accounts look better at critical times - often on the one day a year that the accounts are produced. The very next day, we're back to where we were, but few external parties will ever know this - perhaps at least not until it is too late.

Understating what goes into a set of accounts, and the scope for judgement in how certain items - especially assets - are valued, is critical in making sense of financial statements. So in programmes such as Financial Awareness and Financial Analysis, we look beneath the apparent numbers and try to work out just exactly what is going on. Click the links for more details.