By: Jeremy Michael, CPA, Manager Assurance Services, Jeremy.Michael@BCGCompany.com
With the word “wiki” in the news lately I began wondering what exactly does “wiki” mean. So naturally I performed an internet search and found the most simplistic answer to that question on the American Heritage Dictionary website where it is defined as a collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone with access to it. I also found a very detailed, all-encompassing definition on a very well known “wiki” page; wikipedia.org.
By now you are probably asking yourself what in the world does this have to do with “Where in the World is IFRS?”? The answer to that question is quite simple and actually will point us to a very useful resource I found on IFRS.com entitled IFRS for SME’s – U.S. GAAP Comparison Wiki, a topic developed by the AICPA accounting standards team in an effort to help everyone learn about the similarities and differences between international financial accounting standards for small and medium-sized entities (IFRS for SME’s) compared to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The page site is organized on the right in a manner that resembles actual sections of the IFRS for SME’s standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). What makes this resource extremely useful is that the IFRS for SME’s standards are listed on the right with paragraph references and the new standard is then compared to treatment under U.S. GAAP. Anyone currently preparing financial statements under IFRS for SME’s or anyone who may be interested in the differences between the two sets of accounting standards will find this “wiki” site extremely useful. You may want to add this to your favorites and refer to it often since the site’s contents will continue to evolve as users contribute additional content on their experiences with adopting IFRS for SME’s.
