Introduction. Keeping The Day-To-Day Business Accounting

As the responsibilities of the global harmonization of accounting standards IFRS and GAAP transfer to IASB, FASB’s influence is waning. Advantages of the convergence include high quality financial reporting, which lowers cost of capital for investors and the cost of borrowing for companies. However, there are disadvantages to be noted, such as the costs of introducing IFRS to current and potential accountants and the risk of reducing the uniformity of financial reports due to the lax rulings of IFRS, which promotes earnings management amongst companies. Although arguments regarding the convergence remain prevalent, the completion of IFRS and GAAP is inevitable. Come year 2015, accountants, investors, and companies alike will discover whether or not the pros outweighed the cons; or vice versa.

The field of accounting is constantly evolving. This is true not only for the theory of accounting itself but also the entities that govern its theory and practice. Presently, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are faced with some of the biggest challenges to date. To understand the significance of these two boards, it is necessary to understand their histories, relations between the boards, and the standards that they set. Also how the knowledge of these boards and the field they lead, gained through the masters of science in accountancy

This research project will inform the reader of the difference between the United States accounting standards and International accounting standards. The United States uses the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to issue financial reporting procedures. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). There are proposals for the United States to adopt the International standards. Financial reporting procedures are debated about the United States using the Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) or following the global procedures. This

For nearly half a century, a movement has been underway to establish a high-quality, comprehensive set of international accounting standards, with the goal of facilitating international trade and investment. In the global capital market, differences in the rules of accounting for the purposes of recognition, measurement, and reporting of financial results have impaired the smooth transfer of information across borders. Given that it accounts for nearly a third of the global market, there is considerable pressure for the United States to conform to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). While moving to a single set of accounting standards could create

This essay will critically evaluate the adoption of International Accounting Standards by UK companies. IAS (International Accounting Standards) created by IASC (International accounting standards committee) are a set of standards stating how particular types of transactions and other events should be reflected in financial statements. Since 2001 the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) succeeded the IASC to create the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) which are “a single set of accounting standards, developed and maintained by the International Accounting Standards Board (the Board) with the intention of those standards being capable of being applied on a globally consistent basis—by developed,

Although, many authors write about these huge incidents in America, few are discussed about the scandals abroad. Other countries (Switzerland, Italy, Greece and others) also have their issues with frauds and scandals, just not as wide spread. Therefore, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) seek to implement a single global accounting standard, called the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (Street, 2012). The IASB was actually established during the 1970s to promote a worldwide acceptance of regulations, accounting standards and procedures (Schroeder et al, 2011). In 2002, the FASB and IASB agreed that there is a need for an international reporting standard. Due to the high volume of international trade and foreign operations, the two boards, decided that there should be one global approach to accounting standards (Zeff,

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) began operations in 2001. It is an organization committed to developing, in the public interest, a single set of high quality, global accounting standards that require transparent and comparable information in general purpose financial statements. The IASB has developed procedures that bring transparency, predictability, and consistency (IASCF Press Release, December 2, 2007).

To address the increasing challenges of legislating those governs our society today, “countries all over the world have begun to outsource rulemaking to bodies consisting of people familiar with the subject. For that reason, policymakers rely on private entities to establish financial accounting and reporting standards” (Donald Kieso, 2003, Intermediate Accounting). The two most influential standard-setters are the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

For decades, countries have designed their individual accounting standards principle-based, rules-based, tax-oriented, or business-oriented. Globalization has led to the greater needs with regards to harmonizing the standards (Kimmel, 2013). By late 1990’s the dominant standards were the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Thus, both the standard setters namely; FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) and IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) launched a convergence project prior to the IFRS being essentially adopted by several countries. Measures are being taken to reduce likely impacts the frameworks would have on financial statement and reduction of last minute changes (Kimmel, 2013).

The IFRS on the other hand is beginning to gain traction as more and more countries adopt this practice. The IFRS has two main sources of its standards and principles which are the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Accounting

The International Financial Reporting Standards “are a set of accounting standards developed by the IASB that is becoming the global standard for the preparation of public company financial statements.” (AICPA). IASB started operating in 2001 and is established as an independent organization that also sets accounting standards. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, IFRS is used by roughly 120 nations all over.

With the number of countries that have switched to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their financial reporting, as well as the continued efforts made between the IFRS and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), it is evident that international convergence is an overall appealing idea for global reporting. With that said, for decades now US GAAP has worked with IFRS to create a universal standard; and while progress has been made to diminish variances between the standards, there are still large, if not unattainable efforts ahead of us. The hype over a proposed uniform set of global accounting standards appears to be stunted by the lost efforts in the convergence project between the US GAAP and IFRS. As the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) moves forward with its standards setting, there must be a reevaluation of the goal for reporting standards and efforts with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

With the development of the globalization, the business connection between diverse countries is becoming stronger and closer. Thus finding a uniform business language among different enterprises is an increasingly important issue, which could help company owner to understand better and evaluate various investment opportunities in foreigner countries. Accounting is widely recognized as one of the most efficient and useful tools to communicate in the business word. However, there are a large number of accounting standards in diverse financial markets, such as Japan Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (JGAAP), Australian Accounting Standard (ASS) and the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (US GAAP). To fill the gap between discrepant accounting standard, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) attempt to set up universal accounting standard and make it universally accepted and applied. IASB has established in 2001 April, which was reorganized by the International Accounting Standard Committee (IASC), and its work is quickly approved by its target group. During this process, a common conceptual framework was initially developed by a joint IASB-FASB Project, which was used as a basis for accounting standards. In 2012, this project was suspended and replaced by an IASB-only comprehensive project (reference).

As an old dictum, “accounting is a language of business”. Each and every country had their own accounting standards. But after globalization, businesses around the world felt embarrassing having their own language. So the officials around the world decided that they need to talk in a common language and came up with a committee called IASC. IASC was formed in the year 1973. This board consisted of 22 member and was divided as 6-North America, 6-Europe, 6-Asia and 4-other region to ensure mutual opinion. The financial statements that are being developed from an accounting standard should be of high quality, transparent and comparable information. IASC was very keen on these factors and was keep on working on the development of their

Before 2001, none of the major economies in the world requires the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). However, since IFRS was adopted and required by the European Union (EU), IFRS is currently the most widely shared set of accounting standards with its application required or permitted by approximately 120 countries as indicated by the IFRS Resources (2015). IFRS, perceived as “a single set of high-quality, understandable and enforceable accounting standards” (IASB, 2007, p.4), shows its prevalence all around the world. Nevertheless, there are still some opponents against such harmonization. “The likelihood that any U.S. company will be forced to switch from using today’s version of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to using today’s version of IFRS is absolutely zero”(2010), said the specialist in corporate financial reporting, Bruce Pounder, doubting the possibility of eliminating differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP, not to mention sharing a single set of accounting standards in all countries.