Continuing on our recent theme of happy takes on accounting…

…this time from a perhaps unexpected source, the Chair of Canada’s Accounting Standards Board, Armand Capisciolto. He’s instigated a series of “Inside Standard Setting” articles, comprising “A little “inside baseball” on accounting standard setting” – a serious purpose, executed with a light touch. The first post set out his perspective on standard setting, including:

• I am a proud accounting nerd. But the last thing I would want anyone to think is that you must be an accounting nerd to be a standard setter. 
• Standard setting is much different than my previous role as a technical partner at a large accounting firm. I am no longer in the weeds, trying to figure out the appropriate accounting for a specific transaction. Now, I spend most of my time talking to people. Yes, I talk about accounting – but I’m no longer rhyming off paragraphs of the Handbook or using terms like bifurcation (although I do love bifurcating financial instruments…)  
• Now, I talk about information needs and the challenges of meeting those needs. I talk about problem identification and finding a workable solution collaboratively. And you most definitely don’t need to be an accounting nerd to do that.  

“Us accounting nerds have to stick together!!!!” said an IASB member in the comments. (Actually, he wrote “Us accounting needs have to stick together,” which may or may not be what used to be called a Freudian slip, depending on how much neediness you perceive in the plight of the accounting nerd). Moving on, it’s not surprising if people sometimes wonder why Canada even needs an Accounting Standards Board in an age of IFRS (this and related questions are presumably somewhat relevant to the country’s ongoing accounting wars). Capisciolto’s second post tried to convey the degree of active collaboration involved in his position:

• Many people have asked me: what does the AcSB do when accounting standard setting been outsourced to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)? This question is a good one because it allows me to talk at length about the AcSB’s work and how we work with the IASB to ensure Canada’s voice is heard and IFRS Accounting Standards meet the needs of the Canadian and global capital markets. 
• The past couple of months, we spent time discussing the Post Implementation Reviews of IFRS 9 and IFRS 15  with our various committees, including the User Advisory Committee, Academic Advisory Committee and IFRS® Accounting Standards Discussion Group. For these projects, we conducted public outreach sessions and discussed them with relevant industry groups. We have also discussed the IASB’s Primary Financial Statements; Extractives; and Business Combinations Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment projects with various groups. Almost all these discussions were attended by the IASB staff, as the IASB values how we bring people together to provide great input.  

There’s also the work on Canada’s domestic standards for non-public enterprises:

• Our outreach to date on (current) projects has included webcasts, virtual roundtables and in person roundtables in Vancouver and Quebec City and a presentation in my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie. 
• If you attended one of our sessions, you would have seen that we consider every comment and question that comes through, not with the goal of trying to convince you of the proposals are correct but to ensure our proposals address your needs. We take notes at these sessions to ensure all comments are recorded and summarized along with the written responses we receive. Every one of these comments makes its way to the AcSB for consideration as we re-deliberate the proposals after the outreach period.  

Well, of course, no one can keep on like that non-stop, and the third post reflected on August as a “time for relaxation, reflection and preparation”:

• One of my favorite things to do at the camp (cottage for anyone not from Northern Ontario) is to go for an early morning paddle on my stand-up paddle board to the mouth of the Batchawana River. I do some of my best thinking on the paddle board when it is quiet in the mornings. Many of thoughts I will express at the many meetings/events we have in September likely originated on one these early morning paddles. 

On reading this, it occurred to me that during the long life of this blog I’ve never provided even that much personal reportage. So as a small gesture, let me reveal that I’m never ever to be found on a paddle board. Maybe that’s why my thinking is mostly quite banal and trivial. Anyway, no doubt Capisciolto’s articles won’t convince everyone that being inside standard setting is that great a place to be, but any initiative that boosts the sense of its relevance and immediacy has to be welcomed. Of course you can’t please everyone all the time. Objectives for future posts include “(needing) to find a way to combine baseball and accounting talk in one post.” Oh man, I might not make it through that one…

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.