IFRS Will you be ready for a very important date?

A very important date is coming soon,



or should we say a series of very important dates. CSA Staff Notice 52-320 was issued last May. The release "Disclosure of Expected Changes in Accounting Policies Relating to Changeover to International Financial Reporting Standards” was reviewed and discussed in a post here in May.


The Release can be found at http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/Regulation/Rulemaking/Current/Part5/csa_20080509_52-320_fin-rpt-standards.jsp

It requires disclosure of IFRS conversion plans by issuers as well as effects of the change from now to implementation date. It appears as I said before that the CSA seems to be asking for the disclosure with some granularity.


For calendar year issuers the first required MD&A disclosures will be for the December 2008 year end. Earlier compliance is encouraged in quarterly reporting during 2008.


What are your plans? The level of granulatory expected in the disclosures will be discussed in a session at the upcoming Economist IFRS Conference in Toronto.
See http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/25828/20080623140335/graphics.eiu.com/conferences/programmes/IFRS_agenda.pdf

See also Paul-Emile Roy's blog concerning this matter
http://migratingtoifrs.blogspot.com/2008/08/canada-disclosing-ifrs-changeover-plans.html



Mr. Roy's blog referred to a new publication by Deloitte
How to monitor a Sea Change - http://www.iasplus.com/ca/0808seachangeenglish.pdf
That publication provides some additional insights into making these disclosure and issues relating to them


Here is a quote from the Deloitte document:
Announcing the consequences ofaccounting policy determinations as suggested by the Staff Notice presents another challenge to disclosure controls: when will an entity “know” that an accounting policy and its effects have been determined with sufficient certainty to provide before-the-fact communication when the financial statements are not yet finalized and/or published?



Well the party is over or is it just beginning? We are getting out of the doldrums of the summer and some very tough strategic and tactical decisions will have to be made on your IFRS disclosures. Plan! Plan! Plan!