IFRS implementation 'problematic' for companies

News Article - 01 February 2007
Category:

Businesses are implementing international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in fundamentally different ways and undermining the point of the regulations, it has been claimed.

The standards are compulsory for companies to follow, however their benefits are not being achieved because of differing methods of implementation, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has stated.

"Although companies have amended their financial statements and reports to comply with the new standards, the extent to which IFRS is embedded in corporate financial reporting systems and processes varies widely," Accountancy Age quotes analysts Sue Harding and Raam Ratnam as saying.

While some businesses have been following the outlined standards, others have yet to fully put in place the regulations and use them in their daily financial reporting, the analysts add.

According to VNUnet.com, the cost of moving from generally accepted accounting principles to IFRS is beyond calculation.

The website cites recent findings by Ernst & Young highlighting that the standards are difficult to implement because they are more complex than most national regulations.

Article keywords: <img src='http://pictures.directnews.co.uk/liveimages/Cityscape_700_18824610_0_0_7000949_300.jpg' align='right' style='width:150px; margin-left:10px;' />There is a genuine commitment to environmental issues among FTSE 250 companies, a new survey has found.<br/><br/>According to a poll by BSI British Standards, 95 per cent of companies polled believed their environmental performance had improved over the decade.<br/><br/>This is an 11 per cent increase compared to two years ago and supports further evidence from the survey that environmental attitudes are changing.<br/><br/>More than one third (35 per cent) cited rising energy costs as their largest concern, while 81 per cent claimed to have introduced an environmental management system, such as <a href="http://www.access-accounts.com/carbon-emissions.aspx" target="_self">carbon</a><a href="http://www.access-accounts.com/" target="_self">accounting software</a>.<br/><br/>Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards, said he hoped that businesses of &quot;any size and sector&quot; would appreciate the environmental benefits of such a system for their business processes.<br/><br/>He said: &quot;Most people now accept that everyone must take action on the environment and it&#146;s clear that there is recognition of the business and social benefits of going green in the boardroom.<br/><br/>&quot;The challenge is to use specific standards to measure the impact and reduce costs.&quot;<br/><br/>Underlining the commitment to the environment in the business world, a derelict tyre factory in Birmingham has recently been transformed into an ecobuilding care of redevelopment company Urban Splash.<br/><br/>Features include one of Europe's largest green roofs and water conserving facilities.<br/>

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