EFRAG Releases Summary Report on Workshop Series on Users’ Needs for Intangibles Reporting
EFRAG has published the report of the Intangibles workshop series held in November 2025 with the collaboration of the IASB. The workshops discussed the information needs of users on specific types of intangibles:
- Software, AI, data resources, algorithms, digital platforms;
- R&D, patents and unpatented technology;
- Marketing and customer/supplier related intangibles (brands, trademarks, internet domains, customer lists or relationships); and
- Intellectual property (copyrights and broadcast rights).
Across the workshops, a clear message emerged: information currently available in the financial statements is insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of intangibles. Participants consistently called for a combination of qualitative explanation and quantitative detail, centred on how intangible assets drive value creation within different business models. They highlighted the need for:
Greater disaggregation of expenditure and assets to distinguish investment from maintenance spending;
Understanding how intangibles contribute to future cash flows;
Better transparency around risks, governance and potential impairment triggers.
While recognising that not all intangible-related information belongs in the financial statements, users remarked inconsistent capitalisation practices, limited comparability between companies and the difficulty of linking narrative disclosures to reported numbers. As a result, analysts frequently rely on alternative sources and make their own adjustments—sometimes capitalising key intangible expenditures—to bridge information gaps, underscoring the case for more standardised, granular disclosures within the financial statements, complemented by narrative reporting elsewhere.
This initiative contributes to the IASB’s Intangible Assets project, which is assessing users’ information needs on intangible assets and related expenditure.