IFRS and XBRL working together

It is noteworthy that 17 out of the 20 XBRL Jurisdictions in the world are IFRS-based (85%). They are Australia, Germany, IASB/IASC Foundation, Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, XBRL Europe, Belgium, Denmark, France, Poland, South Africa, Sweden and United Arab Emirates. Other XBRL Jurisdictions are Japan, Canada and the United States. Of these, Canada and the US are in the process of converging their GAAP with IFRS. To see how IFRS and XBRL work together, see the IASB Education Series. Also, Ernst & Young has prepared an IFRS Convergence demo that provides a walkthrough of how XBRL facilitates IFRS reporting.

Public companies and the move to international accounting

Over the next five years, public companies in Canada will move to financial reporting using IFRS. Bulletin #3 offers suggestions and a tentative timetable to manage the process as Canadian accounting standards go global. Further Bulletins will present more information on aspects of change involved in the transition to international financial reporting standards for publicly accountable enterprises and changes in the accounting standards for private companies and not-for-profit organizations. The series is available at www.acsbcanada.org.

IFRS Model Financial Statements

What would IFRS financial statements look like if they were to illustrate the typical presentation and disclosures required of a company preparing consolidated financial statements? Deloitte has prepared model financial statements to illustrate a UK company reporting for 2005, for the first time, under IFRS (for a first-time adopter, special rules apply under IFRS 1). Model financial statements have also been developed for existing preparers. To access these “models” and other useful checklists and questionnaires, see Deloitte’s IAS PLUS.