Click for Press Release. XBRL is a computer language for preparing Internet web pages in a way that makes the exchange of corporate financial information (including IFRS financial statements) easier and more reliable. Info about XBRL.

We have updated our agenda project pages to reflect the Board's decisions at its February 2004 meeting:

• Business Combinations Phase I;
• Business Combinations Phase II;
• Consolidation;
• Financial Instruments (macro hedging and fair value option);
• Insurance Contracts Phase I;
• Revenue Recognition;
• Short-term Convergence (ED 4, IAS 19, and IAS 20); and
• Small and Medium-sized Entities.

IFRS 2 also requires some disclosures about equity compensation arrangements (though not policies). Link to the full Consultation Paper. Comments are due 12 April 2004.

Link to Download (PDF 293k).

We have posted two new Australian Accounting Alerts: Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation.

We have now completed updating our Summaries of Standards to reflect all of the revised IASs published in late December 2003. These are IASs 1, 2, 8, 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 39, and 40.

The new ISA, The Auditor's Responsibility to Consider Fraud in the Audit of Financial Statements, requires the auditor to focus on areas where there is a risk of material misstatement due to fraud, including management fraud. The standard is effective for audits of financial statements for financial periods beginning on or after 15 December 2004. The two quality control standards approved by the IAASB (both effective 1 July 2005) are:

• Quality Control for Firms that Perform Audits and Reviews of Historical Financial Information, and Other Assurance and Related Services Engagements
• Quality Control for Audits of Historical Financial Information

Click for link to IFAC Press Release which itself has links to the new standards. They may be downloaded without charge.

The programme will be open to ICAEW members and nonmembers. Subject to member approval, a Certificate and Diploma will be available. The training and assessment will encompass the new and improved international standards currently being developed by the IASB. Click for More Information.

The model financial statements reflect the requirements of IFRSs in force for 2003. They also contain additional disclosures that, while not required in standards, are considered to be best practice, particularly where such disclosures are included in illustrative examples provided with a specific standard. The model financial statements do not reflect the changes that might be required when the IASs and IFRSs issued during 2003 take effect in 2005 (including the changes resulting from the IASB's improvements project).

The regulation takes effect 30 March 2004. A foreign issuer may also use US GAAP, but a reconciliation is required unless the issuer is also a US SEC registrant. A foreign issuer may also use national accounting standards from several other designated countries without reconciliation, or still other national GAAPs with reconciliation. Currently, 39 of the 3,602 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange are foreign (mostly US companies with Canadian operations). Click for Regulation (PDF 242k).