Accounting Alerts

Navigating the Changes to IFRS (2018)

Every year the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) change. New Standards, Interpretations and Amendments are published that will affect companies’ future financial reporting. This publication, Navigating the Changes to International Financial Reporting Standards, is designed to give Chief Financial Officers a high-level awareness of these recent changes to IFRS. It covers both new Standards and Interpretations that have been issued and amendments made to existing ones.

 

What’s new in the 2018 edition?

The December 2018 edition of the publication has been updated for changes to IFRS that have been published between 1 December 2017 and 30 November 2018.

The publication now covers 31 March 2018, 30 June 2018, 30 September 2018, 31 December 2018 and 31 March 2019 financial year ends.

 

Effective dates of new Standards

The publication includes a table on page 2 which lists all the changes included, their effective dates and whether early application is permitted. However, the latter will also be dependent on local legislation. 

 The table can be used to identify the changes that affect you. It has been color coded to help entities planning for a specific financial reporting year end, and identifies:

  • changes mandatorily effective for the first time
  • changes not yet effective
  • changes already in effect.

 

Identifying the commercial significance of the changes

For each change covered in the publication, its commercial implications have been considered. This assessment focuses on two questions:

 

  • how many entities will be affected?
  • what will be the impact on affected entities?

 

A traffic light system indicates the assessment of the answers to these questions.