Counting on new standards

The cost and time it takes to prepare audited financial statements for small businesses should be reduced with the recent adoption by Barbados and its regional counterparts of new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
According to Andrew Brathwaite, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB), financial statements prepared in line with the new standards should also be more easily understood by users and directed more to their specific needs.
A statement from ICAB said SMEs were defined as entities that do not have public accountability – those that were not publicly traded or that were traditional financial institutions.
Brathwaite explained that this included most Caribbean companies, adding that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) estimated the standard would be applicable to more than 99 per cent of all companies.
Financial practitioners from ten Caribbean countries were in Barbados last week for a workshop at the Accra Beach Hotel on reporting standard for SMEs.
The Caribbean is the first regional bloc to fully adopt the IFRS for SMEs.
Sponsored by the Caribbean Development Bank as part of its technical assistance to Caribbean SMEs, it was hosted by the IFRS Foundation in collaboration with ICAB and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean.
It was facilitated by Paul Pacter, IASB member, and Michael Wells, director of the IFRS Education Initiative. (GE)