Lady Godiva Accounting Principles - LGAP

We’ve all (hopefully) heard of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, which dictate how companies put their financial statements together. Lady Godiva Accounting Principles, or LGAP, are a little different; they advocate complete and utter disclosure of all accounting information, with nothing held back and nothing left to the imagination. Kind of like Lady Godiva when she rode her horse through town back in the 11th century wearing nothing but, uh...her hair.

Or so the legend goes, anyway. But just as we can’t prove the au naturel tale of Lady Godiva—no livestreaming smartphones back in 11th-century England—we also can’t force companies to report absolutely every little thing. There are certain financial matters that they can, under the law, keep to themselves. Which is why LGAP are largely considered hypothetical or theoretical; companies don’t have to abide by them, though some suggest investors might find such a high level of naked transparency...attractive.