The paper builds on the fundamental concepts and principles as captured by the IIRC's International Integrated Reporting Framework issued in December 2013. It explains how a connected approach supports the other four key areas of integrated thinking: an external value focus, integrated planning, effective governance and oversight, and integrated communications. The authors argue that with a broader view of an organisation, the CFO and the finance function can begin to ensure that all aspects involving people, processes, and systems are better connected while a disconnected approach can lead to important drivers of value being omitted from both information provided to management and external reports.

Please click to access the thought paper on the IFAC website.

The purpose of the TRG is to seek feed­back on po­ten­tial issues related to im­ple­men­ta­tion of the boards’ new revenue stan­dard. By an­a­lyz­ing and dis­cussing po­ten­tial im­ple­men­ta­tion issues, the TRG will help the boards de­ter­mine whether they need to take ad­di­tional action, such as pro­vid­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion or issuing other guid­ance.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

Agenda papers for this meeting are avail­able on the IASB's Web site.

In October 2015, AcSB chair Linda Mezon and several board members of the AcSB met with Roger Marshall, chair of the British standard-setter, and Andreas Barckow, president of the German standard-setter, who are also EFRAG interim president and EFRAG board member, respectively. They discussed international processes for endorsement, which may, depending on their length, lead to different effective dates. A summary of the meeting has been made available on the CPA Canada website.

In her paper, Ms Tokar splits the question into several subquestions:

• How specific and prescriptive should standards be?
• How should cost considerations influence requirements?
• How should standard setters balance comparability with effective communication of an entity’s strategy and business model?
• What are reasonable expectations for the use of judgement?
• What is the interaction of the types of standards with the training – both skills and subject matter knowledge – of accountants?

Ms Tokar primarily uses revenue recognition and IFRS 15 to illustrate the subject and writes about comparability versus communication and the role of the business model, the role of judgement in financial reporting in general, mutual expectations, and the role of feedback. She concludes that there is no single answer to all the questions she touched upon but states:

The objective of IFRS is to provide useful information to users of financial statements. To achieve this goal, they need to be a communication tool and not a compliance exercise. Setting standards that support this goal requires the participation of many stakeholders, as does interpreting and applying the standards after they have been issued. Good faith application of judgement, seeking to realise the objectives of the standard and questioning established practice are all part of achieving this goal.

Please click to access the paper on the JAMIS website (please note that you need to use the Download button on the far right, otherwise you cannot access the full text of the paper). Ms Tokar's article is based on a speech that she gave at Bucharest University in June. The transcript of the speech is available on the IASB website.

The meeting will discuss the IASB's agenda consultation 2015, the Trustee's review of the structure and the effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation, EFRAG's pro-active consultation on its own priorities and the the FEE paper on the future of corporate reporting.

A formal invitation offering more information is available on the FSR website.

The EC argues that IFRS 14 Regulatory Deferral Accounts is a temporary standard offering an accounting option to companies that adopt IFRS for the first time. Therefore the EC will not propose IFRS 14 for endorsement in the EU as very few European companies would fall within its scope. The Commission will consider any future standard on rate regulated activities for endorsement in the EU under its normal process.

The EC's decision is reflected in an updated EFRAG endorsement status report.

Following the post-implementation review of IFRS 3, several projects related to IFRS 3 were added to IASB’s research agenda. At their joint meeting in September, the IASB and FASB discussed their respective projects related to their Business Combinations Standards, and how the boards could work together on these projects. At its October meeting, the IASB decided to follow a staff recommendation to propose changes to IFRS 3 that are the same as the amendments proposed by the FASB, and to issue an Exposure Draft rather than a Discussion Paper.

Consequently, the new version of the work plan shows the definition of a business project no longer as a research project but as an implementation project with an Exposure Draft expected in the next three months.

One small additional update regards yet again the practice statement on materiality. Although ED/2015/8 IFRS Practice Statement - Application of Materiality to Financial Statements was published on 28 October, the work plan published later that day still had it as "upcoming". This has now been rectified.

For a full analysis any other changes please see our news item dated 27 October. The newly revised IASB work plan is available on the IASB's website.