This Framework is the first step in responding to the needs of stakeholders – such as investors, contributors, lenders and other resource providers – about the performance measures reported by entities.

The AcSB wants to discuss and improve financial and non-financial performance measures reported outside of financial statements.

The concerns they want to address include:

• The quality of performance measures being reported.
• The lack of consistency, transparency and comparability of performance measures reported period to period.
• The “expectation gap” about the governance practices of entities over how performance are developed and reported, and whether those measures are subject to assurance.
• The limited guidance available on how to develop and report performance measures not usually subject to assurance.

Review the press release and reference materials on the AcSB's website.

The topics covered include:

• Key financial metrics
• Debt covenants
• Cost of borrowing
• Reporting systems
• Other implications

Review the publication on the Board's website.

In the publication, they state that in their opinion there is a lack of clear guidance in IFRSs and, as a consequence, digital currencies could be accounted for under IAS 2 Inventory or IAS 38 Intangible Assets depending on certain facts and circumstances. They do not think that the measurement guidance in IAS 2 and IAS 38 provides relevant information to users of financial statements in the context of digital currencies. They think that digital currencies should be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognised in profit or loss. Furthermore, they think that the accounting for digital currencies highlights a broader issue with IFRSs in that there is no accounting standard that deals with investments in intangible assets or other commodity type assets that are not financial instruments or inventory. Consequently, they recommend that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) develop a standard that would address the accounting for investments in intangible assets and commodities.

Review the publication on the IASB's website.

The topics covered include:

• What are the biggest challenges facing the preparer community?
• When it comes to revenue recognition, what lessons can be learned from year-end public companies?
• How significant is the impact of adoption?
• Do you think the new standard is actually better than what we had in place?
• Moving to the leases standard, where should calendar year-end pubic companies be in the process of their adoption?
• What about private companies?
• How impactful was this change on ICFR (internal control over financial reporting)?
• What about tax reform? How have companies handled the guidance put out by both the SEC and the FASB?
• What advice do you have as they continue to assess the impact throughout the year?
• What do you tell companies you work with about the PCAOB's auditor's reporting standard?

Review the Q&A on FEI's website.

At Compliance Week's 2018 conference, partners at Deloitte said certain changes in accounting rules for leases and revenue recognition are driving discussions about whether companies should change the way they manage contracts and compensate certain employees.

The discussions seem a little more advanced in the context of new revenue recognition rules, but lease implications are causing some reflection. Even new rules for recognizing loan losses are driving new conversations at financial institutions.

Review the full article on Compliance Week's website.

In addition, the webcast answers certain questions presented to the Board during the exposure draft period, as well as next steps in the project.

Review the press release on the Board’s website.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on April 30, 2018.

Maintenance project

• Classification of Liabilities (Proposed Amendments to IAS 1) [ED] – The IASB now expects to decide the project direction in Q3/2018. Previously the final amendments to IAS 1 were to have been issued in the second half of 2018.
• Definition of a Business, proposed amendments to IFRS 3 [ED] – The IASB now expects to issue the final amendments to IFRS 3 in the second half of 2018. Previously they were to have been issued in June 2018.
• Lease in­cen­tives (amend­ments to IFRS 16 Il­lus­tra­tive Ex­am­ples) — Added pro­ject to work plan as part of the Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2017-2019 Cycle [Research]; previously no mile­stone or ex­pected date was listed.

Research project

• Discount Rates [Research] – The IASB now expects to issue the research summary in Q3/2018. Previously it was to have been issued in June 2018.
• Goodwill and Impairment [Research]  - The IASB has removed the expected date of issuing a discussion paper or exposure draft. Previously the date was shown as the second half of 2018.
• Management Commentary (Wider corporate reporting) [Research] – The IASB now expects to issue an exposure draft in 2020. Previously no expected date was listed.
• Share-based payments, potential amendments to IFRS 2 [Completed] – The IASN now expects to issue a research summary in Q3/2018. Previously it was to have been issued in June 2018.

Other pro­jects

• IFRS Taxonomy Update – Common Practice (IFRS 13) – The IASB now expects to issue the proposed update in Q3/2018. Previously, it was to have been issued in June 2018.

The re­vised IASB work plan is avail­able on the Board's web­site.

The topics discussed at this meeting include:

• Contract boundary for premium allocation approach
• Reinsurance contract boundary
• Educational materials
• Boundary of reinsurance contracts held with repricing mechanisms
• Combination of insurance contracts
• Determining the risk adjustment for non-financial risk in a group of entities
• Cash flows within the contract boundary
• Determining the quantity of benefits for identifying coverage units
• Implementation -challenges outreach report
• Reporting on other questions submitted to the IASB Transition Resource Group for IFRS 17

Review the summary on the AcSB's website.

Few, if any, analysts have questioned financial executives about their lease plans during the Q&A sessions of recent earning calls, where a majority of the accounting discussions revolved around revenue recognition issues.

And even once implementation begins in earnest as the 2019 deadline grows nearer, equity analysts admit they see fewer ramifications on their buy/sell decisions and models.

Review the full article on FEI's website and an article on how companies are still unprepared for leasing standard on Accounting Today's website.

The proposed amendments would introduce a new threshold that requires a company to consider the expected benefits to users of financial statements and the cost to the company of applying accounting policy changes that result from IFRS Interpretation Committee agenda decisions retrospectively.

Review the press release and the overview on the Board's website.