The new Alberta Advantage – a stimulating disclosure report!

The Alberta Securities Commission has recently issued its 25th Annual Corporate Finance Disclosure Report The report contains observations on MD&A, prospectuses and other matters, but I’ll just focus here on what it has to say about financial statements. It highlights four IFRS-related areas in particular, and digs into some of these in somewhat greater detail…

Opportunity knocks – new career paths in IFRS!

The wonderful possibilities for advancement in and around the IASB When the burdens of life get me down, I like to fantasize about escaping to a brighter existence, of the kind you might have if you worked for the IASB. Just consider the possibilities of this real-life opportunity: “We are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable hedge…

An IFRS for everyone, or: Irish Frogs Really Stink

The wonderful multiple identities of the world’s favourite acronym Of course, acronyms are terrific time-savers, but sometimes, inevitably, they cause a little confusion too. For instance, as someone who worked for a few years in securities regulation, I spent time immersed in the detailed grindings of the CSA, that is the Canadian Securities Administrators, so…

IFRS – all the news that’s not fit to print!

Like many of you I’m sure, no emails are more important to me than those that arrive from eIFRS. I’ve been known to miss vital events (deaths in the family, that kind of thing) because of not checking my email, but whenever I see eIFRS is the sender I click on it immediately, no matter…

IFRS touches the clouds!

How the standards do and don’t address an emerging area of practice It’s often interesting when the standards have to be applied to a fact situation that didn’t exist, and wouldn’t reasonably have been foreseen, at the time they were developed. The Canadian IFRS Discussion Group recently addressed such a case – the accounting implications…

Materiality in financial statements – I thought the point was to disclose less!

As we discussed here, the IASB has issued for comment an exposure draft of a proposed practice statement Application of Materiality to Financial Statements, with comments to be received by February 26, 2016. Although the document’s primary purpose is to reduce unnecessary disclosures, it also sets out various instances where focusing on materiality might lead…