Book Description

U.S. private entities considering adoption of International Standards for Small- and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs) need to understand how the new standards will modify financial reporting. However, there has been no determination of the significance of the financial statement impact of changing from United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP) to IFRS for SMEs. Without this knowledge, private entities in the United States will not be able to make an informed decision as to the benefits or consequences of adopting IFRS for SMEs. Based on stakeholder theory, this study sought to determine how adoption of IFRS for SMEs would affect the financial reporting of U.S. private entities. Using identified reporting differences between the 2 sets of standards, hypothetical 2010 IFRS for SMEs’ financial statements were prepared for 3 participating entities. Analysis of variation between the hypothetical IFRS for SMEs’ financial statements and the original U.S. GAAP financial statements provided a means to determine the financial reporting impact of IFRS for SMEs’ adoption. In each of the 3 case studies, adoption of IFRS for SMEs did not significantly influence the financial reporting of U.S private entities, indicating that the communication of financial information would be fundamentally the same using the simplified IFRS for SMEs or the more complex U.S. GAAP. The results of this study suggest that IFRS for SMEs should be considered an acceptable set of standards for the preparation of quality financial statements by U.S. private entities. This study positively contributes to social change by providing new knowledge to assist private companies in the evaluation of the adoption of IFRS for SMEs; such knowledge could, in turn, reduce financial reporting costs and improve the SMEs’ economic conditions.