Company accounting information has been coming under pressure recently with a plethora of reviews of the audit market implying a low degree of confidence amongst investors in the quality of the reported accounts.

This week’s guest believes this focus is unwarranted because, as the title of his book, now in its second edition, declares “The signs were there.” What he means is that the astute consumers of information in company accounts can see the trends emerging which will undermined a companies’ profitability or even solvency at some stage in the future. Using nearly 30 recent examples Mr Steer’s book shows how legions of investment analysts neglect the report and accounts at their peril. Tim Steer talks to Brewin Dolphin’s head of research Guy Foster about some company examples within his book.