IFRS and XBRL: How to improve Business Reporting through Technology and Object Tracking

CHAPTER FOUR

Framework, standards and interpretations of IFRS

THE WORK ON STANDARDS, as explained in the preface to the standards, can be segmented into the following areas:

• updating of the Framework, a joint effort with the US FASB;
• IFRS (including IAS) which occupies most of the board time;
• IFRS for SMEs, a streamlining and codification effort at particular intervals;
• interpretations, a technical effort, addressing feedback from the market channelled through the large accounting firms.

In trying to become familiar with IFRS, the reader is encouraged to first look at IFRS for SMEs in order to gain an initial understanding and guidance. The IFRS Foundation provides access free of charge to the current year's consolidated unaccompanied IFRS in English as issued by the IASB and published in the Bound Volume.

Access to the accompanying documents, illustrative examples, implementation guidance and bases for conclusions is available via subscription-based services or by purchasing print versions of IFRS via the IFRS store (see www.ifrs.org/ifrss). You may download the content of this site for your personal, non-commercial use only. See www.iasb.org/home.htm for ­copyright notices.

4.1 FRAMEWORK

The current Framework (see content outline below) is outdated and the IASB jointly with the FASB is working on a new version as part of the IASB/FASB Conceptual Framework project. The different phases of the project are:

• Phase A: Objective and qualitative characteristics;
• Phase B: Elements ...