FRS 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in Ireland and the UK
FRS 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in Ireland and the UK (the new Irish and UK GAAP) becomes mandatorily effective for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2015. It is to be noted here that a few entities are exempted from this requirement (earlier adoption of the standard is permissible). This blog focuses on some of the main practical transitional issues which practitioners and company accountants need to take into consideration when preparing to apply the new reporting regime for the first time and looks at:
- Identifying the date of transition to FRS 102
- Preparing the comparative information
- Presentation and software issues
- Filing requirements for Revenue Ireland
Identifying the date of transition Whilst FRS 102 does not come into mandatory effect until accounting periods commencing on or after 1 January 2015, financial information for earlier periods will have to be gathered because the rules must be applied retrospectively to the date of transition. Preparing the comparative information As discussed, the rules are retrospective and have to be applied from the date of transition. For example, assuming a 31 December 2015 year-end, adjustments will have to be made as far back as the 2013 closing trial balance as the closing balance sheet on 31 December 2013 will form the opening balance sheet on 1 January 2014 (the date of transition) and an opening FRS 102 balance sheet must be prepared as at the date of transition. Presentation and software issues Software providers are in the process of amending accounts production software packages so that they are ready for FRS 102. Whilst software packages will be able to deal with the transitional adjustments and associated disclosure requirements, it is important to emphasize that accountants will have to carry out much of the work in aligning accounting policies, dealing with the necessary transitional entries and ensuring correct disclosures are made within the financial statements themselves. Accounting programs must be able to cope with changes in accounting methodologies, terminology and in some cases structures of statements (such as the Cash Flow Statement). Filing requirements for Revenue Ireland Revenue Ireland will not require prior year financial statements to be resubmitted, nor will it require previous corporation tax returns to be amended as a result of the transition. This is because the transition to FRS 102 will be comprehensively disclosed in the notes to the financial statements to comply with the disclosure requirements. When dealing with the transitional disclosures, it is probably worthwhile including as much disclosure as possible to explain the transitional adjustments (particularly where tax relief is being claimed) by cross-referencing the adjustment to an appropriate disclosure note. For examples and more details, read the full whitepaper here. About DataTracks: DataTracks is a global leader in preparation of financial statements in XBRL and iXBRL formats for filing with regulators. With a track record of over 10 years, DataTracks prepares more than 12,000 XBRL statements annually for filing with regulators such as SEC in the United States, HMRC in the United Kingdom, Revenue in Ireland, MCA in India and ACRA in Singapore. The views expressed are that of the author’s and DataTracks is not responsible for the contents or views expressed therein. If any part of this blog is incorrect, inappropriate or violates the IP rights of any person or organization, please alert us at ceo@datatracks.com. We will take immediate action to correct any violation To find out more about DataTracks, or send an email to enquiry@datatracks.ie