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

CHAPTER ONE

IFRS disclosure

IN THE FIRST PART OF THE BOOK we focused on providing an overview of the administrative set-up of the IFRS Foundation (IFRSF), an organisation that is responsible for creating IFRS, the complete set of standards, and also touched on XBRL linkage to those standards.

Besides measurement, recognition and de-recognition, as related to the IFRS, it must be stated that disclosures are a very important part of IFRS. These disclosures can be presented in the body of financial statements, or can appear in the footnotes associated with such reports.

As might well be apparent, there is a vast amount of data in disclosures. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the type, and volume, of disclosures varies significantly between the standards. However, nearly all standards have a section on disclosure. Some standards, such as IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements, as the name of that standard suggests, provide guidance on presentation of financial reports. Similarly, and as stands to reason, IAS 24 Related Party Disclosure makes it mandatory to disclose specific information on related parties.

Nevertheless, it is particularly interesting, as well as very important, to understand that there is no pattern on how much disclosure is required. Essentially, everything in relation to the application of disclosures, and the extent of any connected information provided thereby, depends on the particular standard. Historically, as a related matter of interest, when the ...