IFRS Roadmap Milestones: Part 1

We are waiting to hear what the SEC decides to do with IFRS now that the comments are in. I expect them to issue a revised Roadmap later this year, but we’ll see their response soon enough. In the meantime I thought we would take a look at the IFRS Roadmap milestones over the next several weeks. As a reminder, here is a list of the Milestones. The SEC will judge progress on these milestones as a pre-requisite for moving forward with a mandate for IFRS adoption.

IFRS Roadmap Milestones

• Improving Specific Accounting Standards
• Improving the Structure and Funding of the IASB
• Facilitating the use of interactive data (XBRL) under IFRS
• Updating the Education and licensing of U.S. Accountants
• Evaluating the early adoption experiences of a limited group of companies
• Timing of future rulemaking
• Sequencing of companies required to use IFRS

Improving Specific Accounting Standards

The FASB and the IASB are continuing their progress on accounting standard convergence. They hope to complete their convergence plan by 2011. Their objective is a set of common, high quality reporting standards for companies around the world. The FASB and IASB have made significant progress on some important standards, but still have work to do in order to reach their goal. The summary below includes the progress of both boards. On some projects one board has issued a standard while the other board is still in the discussion memorandum or exposure draft stage. Some of the major standards already addressed as well as being worked on include:

Complete or Significant Progress Made

• Business Combinations
• Fair Value Measurement
• Consolidations
• Liability and Equity distinctions
• Financial Statement Presentation
• Post Retirement Benefits
• Revenue Recognition
• Derecognition
• Financial Instruments
• Income Taxes (IASB only)
• Joint Ventures (IASB only)

As you can see from the list above, the FASB and IASB are working hard on convergence and are trying to complete their work by 2011 at which time somewhat of a moratorium on modifying standards is expected to give companies a chance to transition to IFRS with a stable set of accounting standards.

Next week: Improving the Structure and Funding of the IASB