IFRS

The

Changeover
A Guide for Users of Financial Reports

A Canadian Performance Reporting Board Publication

IFRS

The

Changeover
A Guide for Users of Financial Reports

A Canadian Performance Reporting Board Publication

The IFRS Changeover — A Guide for Users of Financial Reports

Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants 277 Wellington Street West Toronto ON M5V 3H2 www.cica.ca ISBN 978-1-55385-512-5

Printed in Canada Disponible en français

July 2010 i PREFACE
This guide is published by the Canadian Performance Reporting Board (CPRB) of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Its purpose is to provide a perspective for users of external financial reports on matters arising from Canada’s imminent change in accounting standards for public companies. Members of audit committees and preparers may also find this guide a useful reference. For fiscal years commencing in 2011 and thereafter, Canadian GAAP for most public companies will transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). These global accounting standards should improve international financial reporting comparability in an increasingly global business environment. The conversion to IFRSs will potentially result in a myriad of changes in an entity’s financial statements, and, therefore, its performance metrics. In some cases these changes will have no material consequences. In others, however, the changeover will have a material impact on the majority of commonly used performance metrics. Users of financial reports need to be able to distinguish reported performance changes caused by the transition to IFRSs from those caused by changes in the business. While an entity’s first IFRS reports will be accompanied by extensive reconciliations to old Canadian GAAP, they will generally provide reconciliations of amounts rather