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Importance of Ifrs

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IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards, are a set of accounting guidelines and standards just like the GAAP (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 2012). This is the first thing that Marie Claveau needs to understand, since the firms will be expecting people who can help in the adoption of the new international accounting standards. The standards were established by the international accounting standards board to become the globally accepted standards for use in the preparation of financial statements, in public companies. It is supposed to be a set of standards that can be used globally for the public companies, as well as private companies willing to use them as their accounting standards. Currently, it has been adopted in as many as 120 countries all over the world, with an aim of having an accounting standard that is uniform and easy for global accounting purposes (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 2012). Unlike each country having its own accounting standards, IFRS seeks to standardize accounting standards across the whole globe for easy comparison of accounts especially now when countries can no longer be independently sufficient economically (Securities of Exchange Commission, 2011). Thus, having an accounting standard accepted globally makes it easy for large companies and corporations to have an easy time and efficient accounting policies within all its global subsidiaries. Considering that, these firms will be engaged in the adoption of the new accounting standards, the firms will expect to have a staff that is well aware of the situation and ready to help in the adoption. Thus, Claveau needs to have a good knowledge about the IFRS and adoption activities. The main aim of the IFRS by the Securities Exchange Commission, SEC, is coming up with a working plan to identify relevant areas for the smooth transition without causing any disruptions to the accounting operations. The working plan from the SEC, lays down a strategy that public firms should use in order to transition smoothly from their current accounting standards to the newly established international standards. The SEC seeks to do this through six areas of focus upon which research are conducted to find out the benefits of using the IFRS (Securities of Exchange Commission, 2011). The first area of focus by the SEC is the assessment of whether the new international accounting standards are sufficient for reporting within the United States domestic market. This will provide the green light of the usability of the international standards. Additionally, this goes ahead to identify the benefits that are available to the companies and firms upon adoption of the IFRS. The adoption of the IFRS will have several benefits to the four large accounting firms. Having the whole globe use the same accounting standards raises a better chance for comparison of firms across the whole globe. One of the advantages or benefits is the ability to compare financial statements or accounting processes across global competitors (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. 2012). With an identical reporting standard across the whole globe, competitors are able to compare and benchmark easily since financial statements are reported on the same basis. For instance, if they use the same accounting standards to report assets, companies could always make an easy comparison based on the same reporting standards. Additionally, multinational and international companies with subsidiaries across many countries have a chance to use one reporting standard instead of having to conform to different accounting standards in each country (Securities of Exchange Commission, 2011). Therefore, it provides such firms with a chance of using one accounting standards that make it easy for management and monitoring of operations within the whole company. Previously, companies have had to conform to different accounting standards within different countries, which posed huge problems in terms of accounting for the whole organization. Additionally, companies could raise capital from abroad since they can assess each other’s financial standings with ease due to use of the same standards of reporting. This allows companies issuing the capital to have a better understanding of the company’s financial status in a way they understand, than when reporting systems are different. These are some of the general advantages of adopting the IFRS.

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