The IFRS Theme Park

For US CPAs looking to learn International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the good news is that IFRS guidance is approximately one-tenth the length of US GAAP. The bad news is that IFRS is still more than 2,800 pages long. The author has developed an approach to learning IFRS that relies on four simple themes. These themes emerge from the International Accounting Standards Board's Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (Framework) and recur across subject areas. The aim of the themes approach is not to classify differences between the two sets of standards, but rather to demonstrate the extent to which they are similar and to explain the logic underlying IFRS so that it can be applied by professionals to novel situations. These themes are: 1. more similar than different, 2. the balance sheet reigns, 3. what goes down can come up, and 4. disclosure.