More on classification of liabilities, or: no state of grace

You’ll recall that following amendments to IAS 1 in 2022, an entity classifies a liability as current when, among other things, it does not have the right at the end of the reporting period to defer settlement of the liability for at least twelve months after the reporting period. The standard specifies that if the right to defer…

Expectations for the modern company, or: we could so easily buckle!

Canada’s Globe and Mail recently published, on the same day, a couple of interestingly contrasting opinion pieces. The first, titled Small companies risk buckling under the burdens of mandatory sustainability reporting, was by Andrew McLaughlin. Here are some extracts: The second article, titled How many LGBTQ+ corporate directors does Canada have? We investigated, was by…

Hall of Fame!: or, Animal House!

The Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame announces its 2024 inductees! There are eight of them, six of whom are still with us. This is perhaps the most distinctive of the eight summarized bios: The other seven inductees are I’m sure no less worthy, although in a more conventional vein (I worked a bit with one…

Let’s stay connected, or: we can no longer go it alone!

With his “Let’s Stay Connected” address to the European Accounting Association Annual Congress, Andreas Barckow delivers one of the all-time most interesting speeches by an IASB Chair. Rather like identifying the world’s largest gnat, you say? Not at all! I’ll devote the entire space today to some extracts: The closing thought of Barckow’s thoughtful and…

More on the quality of audits, or: your mission is confused!

Let’s take another look at the report published by the University of Sheffield’s Audit Reform Lab, titled Reward for failure: The paradox of audit partners’ record payouts amidst poor audit quality. These are some of its recommendations: The report doesn’t specifically suggest how the client-pays model should be reformed or replaced (some have suggested, for…

Contracts for renewable energy – don’t hedge on our hedging!

As we addressed here, IASB recently issued the exposure draft Contracts for Renewable Energy. We already looked at the proposals relating to applying the ‘own-use’ requirements. The exposure draft also addresses the IFRS 9 hedge accounting requirements, noting that application challenges arise in designating and measuring the hedged item if a contract for renewable electricity…

The quality of audits, or: reward for failure?

Auditors failed to raise alarm before 75% of UK corporate collapses, announced the title of a recent Financial Times article. Here’s some of what the article, written by Simon Foy, had to say: The article concludes by quoting the report as follows: “Until the culture of audit is reformed and a new and more effective…

Shares for debt transactions, or: it’s all relevant!

Five years ago, we looked at the issue of an entity that settles a loan due to a shareholder by issuing equity instruments, and the accounting for the difference between the fair value of the consideration paid and the carrying value of the loan extinguished. Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group (as it was called at the…

Contracts for renewable energy – give us a break!

The IASB has issued the exposure draft Contracts for Renewable Electricity, with comments requested by August 7, 2024. Here’s part of the summary in the news release: Taking the first of those bullet points, the underlying premise is that “if an entity uses the electricity in its operations, the recognition of the fair value changes…

Compelling accounting narratives, or: Ghost in the Double Entry!

As we noted here, the Accounting Café’s Toby York, recently asked: “Could accounting, a field too significant to be left solely to accountants, also be a compelling drama if given a chance? What would be the dramatic narrative?” I passed on some examples provided by others, but failed to pitch in with any of my…