Financial Reporting - Latest Articles
AppSlides announces the release of its iPhone/iPad app “IFRS Made…
On 17 August 2010, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)…
The concept of going concern has been in the profession’s…
Financial Reporting - Previous Articles
Provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets can often cause confusion among accountants, particularly in deciphering when to recognise a provision or disclosing a contingency. This article looks at the provisions laid down in FRS 12 and IAS 37 ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’ and FRS 21 / IAS 10 ‘Events After the Reporting Date’ and discusses when and when not to recognise a provision.
Definitions
A provision is a liability that is of uncertain timing or amount, to be settled by the transfer of economic benefits.
A contingent liability is:
(a) A possible obligation arising from…
In this article, Steve Collings provides a summary of the new standard issued in November 2009, that of IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ which is due to replace IAS 39 ‘Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement’.
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is in the process of revising the way that entities account for their financial instruments. On 12 November 2009, the IASB issued IFRS 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ in their plans to replace the current IAS 39 ‘Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement’ over the next year.
The objective of the IASB’s project is to simplify the way in which…
In this article, Steve Collings looks at how an entity should account for non-current assets which have been classified as held for sale.
The objective of IFRS 5 is to specify how assets that both qualify for, and are treated as, ‘held for sale’ should be presented and disclosed within a set of financial statements. The standard also deals with discontinued operations.
A non-current asset (or disposal group) that is held for sale must be up for sale in its present condition and the sale must be highly probable. In order for the sale to be classed as…
Steve Collings offers some more practical solutions to frequently asked technical queries as some areas of financial reporting are particularly complex and in many cases accountants will revert back to official standards or publications which may result in complexities becoming even more confusing.
Q: I have a building which is carried in the balance sheet using the revaluation model. Do I have to revalue this building every year?
A: FRS 15 requires valuations to be kept up-to-date as out-of-date valuations are meaningless where the revaluation model is used. FRS 15 does not require valuations to be carried…
Some areas of financial reporting are particularly complex and in many cases accountants will revert back to official standards or publications which may result in complexities becoming even more confusing. In this, and subsequent articles, I will look at a couple of the most commonly asked questions concerning areas of financial reporting which pose difficulties when dealing with the situation(s) in real life practice.
Can a company who changed from the ‘depreciated historic cost’ model of accounting for fixed assets to the ‘revaluation model’ switch back to depreciated historic cost?
FRS 15 ‘Tangible Fixed Assets’ allows an entity…
