Over the years the informational needs of the financial statements users became more and more complex, generating the demand for an accurate and convincing valuation of a company’s potential to generate performance. In response to this need, theorists and financial consultants (practitioners) developed several methods meant to emphasize all elements that play a role in the increase of the investors’ wealth and, implicitly, of the financial performance of the company. A result of the concerns in this matter was the suggestion to pass from the net income to the comprehensive income in measuring performance.
The present paper will try to appraise the extent to which the results of Romanian companies can be reflected by this indicator, normalized in the international practice by FAS 130. In a further step we intend to quantify the usefulness of this approach for the financial statements’ users.