By the end of this year the Securities and Exchange Commission will decide whether to set a firm date by which U.S. companies must convert to IFRS. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were developed by the IASB as a principles based standard that enable international companies to speak the same financial language, by providing for clear and comparable financial statement preparation and disclosure the world over.
Currently, more than 100 countries are permitting or requiring the new standards, and the U.S. will soon follow. Whether we implement IFRS in place of the GASB standards we are currently using, or combine the two for a new version altogether, it’s imperative that business owners and CEO’s start learning and planning for the change. Even those who consider themselves ‘small-to-midsized’ should take note. The IASB recognizes that around 95% of the world’s enterprises fall in this category and have therefore created a scaled-down, more targeted version of IFRS them.
It is a great time to start researching how the new standards will impact your organization, and planning for how you can implement them in the near future.