The viable solution is to disassemble the financial statements and then reassemble them using globally consistent standards that repair the problems cited above.
Research shows more than 130 adjustments are necessary to create uniformity in financial reporting standards. As-reported standards are inconsistent in either rule or application across GAAP and IFRS to such a degree that any one of these 130+ adjustments has been shown to create a material inconsistency in reported assets, earnings, or even revenue when conducting trend analysis or comparing peers.
Another important issue regarding the necessary adjustments is that to attain uniformity, automated and manual adjustments are necessary. Thankfully, many adjustments to the reporting standards can be done on an automated basis. In other words, for those adjustments, one can simply create a formulaic rule for creating uniformity.
An example would be in the reporting of cost of goods sold wherein all companies would be set to a LIFO, last-in first-out method, to remove the distortion of some firms reporting on a FIFO first-in first out basis.
For firms where cost of goods sold is a significant portion of expenses, or the firm does not turn over inventory frequently, clearly varying LIFO and FIFO methods can create inconsistencies in assets and earnings. The fix is easy and automatable.