IFRS Learning Resources
The goal of the LVC company is to not only offer services in corporate consulting and training through our website, but also to refer our clients to appropriate information resources, which can assist all IFRS users (from accountants preparing financial statements and methodologists to auditors and analysts).
Information Resources
- Official IFRSs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)
- Professional publications on the interpretation of IFRSs
- Articles in professional journals and contributions in the proceedings of domestic or international conferences
- Electronic resources available on the Internet
Official IFRS issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)
- a basic document for everyone who works with the IFRSs
- IASB has issued the standards in the form of red and blue book, and it is useful to know the difference between the content of each book:
Red Book – contains the form of IFRSs, which considers all issued standards until publication of the book, i.e. a book for the year of 2011 includes e.g. IFRS 9, although this standard comes into effect from January 1, 2013. The book is published in the spring (April x May) of 2011.
Blue Book – contains the form of IFRSs, which considers only standards effective for that year, i.e. a book for the year of 2011 considers standards that came to effect from 1 January 2011 or earlier. The book is always published at the end of the previous year.
- publications can be ordered through the IASB e-shop here
- official IFRSs issued by the IASB can be also obtained in the electronic form through an annual payment to access the eIFRS; major advantage is access to continuously updated database of official information resources of IFRSs; it is possible to obtain the IFRSs from the database in different forms, original or updated, they can be printed or downloaded.
Professional publications dedicated to the interpretation of IFRSs
The availability of publications in the Czech language, which always reflect the updated state of IFRSs is very small, almost none. IFRSs are a „living organism“, which is developing and changing. Having a book where the updated state of IFRSs is January 1st 2010 or older, while preparing financial statement for 2011, is not appropriate or advisable.
IFRS Policies and Procedures.
Author: Mladek, R.
Publisher: Leges.
Year: 2009
Review:
The book of Robert Mladek has a certain advantage – it is bilingual – and while reading and studying the book it is possible to see the original English expressions that are used in the official standards. The book’s content is divided according to accounting topics and standards are explained through illustrative examples using a hypothetical chart of accounts with double-entry bookkeeping.
There is a much bigger market for books published in English. Considering that English is the official language of IFRSs and that the standards are international, we strongly recommend one of the foreign publications as information source. In this case, you can find plenty of books dedicated to IFRSs, which are published annually and reflect any changes related to the new accounting period. As an example we can mention the following two publications with which we work on regular basis:
Wiley Interpretation and Application of International Financial Reporting Standards 2011.
Author: Mackenzie, B., Coetsee, D., Njikizana, T., Chamboko, R.
Publisher: Wiley.
Year: 2011
Review:
The book is an extensive explanatory material of the current IFRSs. Where appropriate the book is supplemented with illustrative examples. In some parts the content may be similar to the content of the own IFRSs, but the advantage of the book lies in the arrangement according to financial reporting topics, not according to the number of standards and interpretations.
Financial Accounting: IFRS Edition.
Author: Weygandt, J.,J., Kimmel, P.,D., Kieso, D.,E.
Publisher: Wiley.
Year: 2010
Review:
This publication is designed as a college textbook of IFRSs. The book is interpretative and illustrative and contains many images, diagrams, and links to real financial statements. It also includes the differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP. The book can be strongly recommended for self-study of IFRSs, if English is not a barrier.
In addition, the following publications can be considered for the initial study of IFRSs since some standards are still in effect without change. Nevertheless, it should be noted that these publications consider standards effective for the year of 2010, respectively 2009 and some standards have been updated and changed since then!
Electronic resources available on the Internet
- www.ifrs.org – IFRS official website
- www.ifrs.com – AICPA (American Institution of Chartered Accountants)
- www.iasplus.com – Deloitte International website with information related to accounting world, including IFRS
- http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/ias/index_en.htm – European Commission website devoted to IFRS in the EU
- www.gaap.cz – website of Robert Mladek with active discussion sections on topics of IFRS and U.S. GAAP
