Updated IASB work plan — Analysis

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28 Jun, 2017

Following its June 2017 meeting, the IASB has updated its work plan. We have identified the changes since last month for you and have some general observations regarding the new format of the work plan the IASB has chosen since it moved to its new website.

General remarks

On moving to the new website, the IASB made several changes to the presentation of the work plan:

  • The new format has gone back to indicating exact timing - by indicating the half year, quarter or even month a development is expected to occur. This is much to be lauded, since it makes tracking developments (and progress and delay) much easier for users.
  • The new work plan has slightly changed categories: standard-setting projects, maintenance projects, research projects, and other projects. Taxonomy projects have become "other"; post-implementation reviews are now "research".
  • The IASB has split up the annual improvement process into individual "projects". Although the idea is still to treat certain improvements through the annual improvements process, it can no longer be traced on the face of the work plan whether a project is part of the annual improvement process and which cycle it belongs to. The expectation is that the IASB wants to allow itself more flexibility in deciding which improvement goes into which cycle.
  • The IASB has stopped dating its work plan and there is no longer a PDF version of the work plan available. For IAS Plus, we have experimented with various tracking tools to detect changes. We found a) that there a many minorest changes between Board meetings (down to spelling) and b) that to report on every little change would distract from the big picture. We have therefore decided to continue to analyse changes on a monthly basis for you - after each meeting.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since the last update in May 2017. For this analysis, we have ignored changes where the "within three months" to "after six months" classification translated smoothly into the new format of fixed dates.

Standard-setting projects

Maintenance projects

Research projects

  • Goodwill and impairment — this project was to see a decision on the project direction after 6 months and will now see a discussion paper in H1 2018
  • Post-implementation review — IFRS 13 — this project is now considered a research project
  • Post-implementation review — IFRS 10-12 — this project is no longer appears in the IASB work plan (was supposed to be initiated after 6 months)
  • Disclosure initiative — Principles of disclosure — this project was to see a decision on the project direction after 6 months and will now see a feedback statement on the discussion paper in H1 2018

Other projects

  • proposed taxonomy update regarding common practice in connection with IFRS 13 — expected in H1 2018
  • proposed taxonomy update on IFRS 17 — this project was to see a final update is expected within six months, however, as the next project step a feedback statement on the proposed update in Q4 2017 has been inserted

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB work plan at 18 May 2017 and at 28 June 2017. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

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