Beyond the GAAP - the monthly newsletter on financial and sustainability reporting

Each month, the newsletter Beyond the GAAP aims at keeping readers informed of financial and sustainability reporting developments.

Beyond the GAAP, Mazars’ monthly newsletter on accounting standards, is totally free. 

Each month, the newsletter Beyond the GAAP aims at keeping readers informed of financial and sustainability reporting developments.

You will notably find in each issue:

  • The news related to IFRS Accounting Standards (new Standards, amendments to Standards, IASB projects, IFRS IC agenda decisions, endorsement process in Europe)
  • The news and priorities set by ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority)
  • The news related to the issuance of sustainability reporting Standards (ESRS issued by EFRAG, IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards issued by the ISSB)

Each issue is available in PDF format.

If you no longer wish to receive Beyond the GAAP, send an e-mail to newsletter-doctrine@mazars.fr with “unsubscribe” as the subject line of your message.

Collection of all issues

beyond the GAAP - June 2018 issue

After focusing on half-yearly reporting and on IFRS 15 and IFRS 9 in our last edition, this month’s special study presents a Benchmark on disclosures by entities at 31 December 2017 on the future impact of IFRS 16. The level of information provided varies greatly, and, unsurprisingly, is on average rather limited. It is as well to remember that entities should expand these disclosures at 30 June 2018.

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Beyond the GAAP - May 2018 issue

Target: the half-year accounts! With the disclosures required by the two standards that came into force on 1 January 2018 and the full list of applicable texts, three ‘A Closer look’ studies will support you in their preparation.

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Beyond the GAAP - April 2018 issue.

Again this month IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 take centre stage in our highlights as they are the focus of attention for market regulators and the Monitoring Board of the IFRS Foundation.

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Beyond the GAAP - March 2018 issue

The year began quietly with few major developments relating to standards, but March has seen a whole series of projects coming to fruition. Some of these are highly concrete, with three very detailed decisions published by the IFRS IC on the application of IFRS 15, which we explore in our ‘A Closer Look’ feature. Others are much more conceptual, such as the publication of the IFRS Conceptual Framework, and still others are forward-looking and are prompted by the European Union’s action plans on sustainable development and the fitness of public reporting by companies.

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Beyond the GAAP - February 2018 issue

With less than a year to go before the effective date of IFRS 16 on Leases, the report of the ANC’s (The French accounting standards setter) decisions on the duration of 3/6/9 leases, published in February, is certainly the most anticipated announcement for French entities. This is because it should enable most of them to resolve this thorny question in their plans for implementation. This decision will of course also be useful to entities with subsidiaries in France.

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Beyond the GAAP - January 2018 issue

Since 1 January 2018, IFRS 9 - Financial instruments and IFRS 15 - Revenue from Contracts with Customers have been effective, as the the IASB headline announced on its website on 8 January. In parallel, work to assess the impact of IFRS 9 on long-term investment is continuing at the European level, with the publication of the outcomes of a first factual analysis by EFRAG. This research has also acted as a spur to the IASB, which has followed up the EFRAG publication by issuing two presentations of its own on the contributions of IFRS standards to financial stability and long-term investment.
At the last minute, 2017 witnessed the passing of a tax reform bill in the US, which is expected to have substantial impacts - to the extent that the US accounting authorities have published some texts intended to facilitate accounting for its effects, but which ESMA says are unacceptable under IFRSs. This month’s special study describes these aspects.

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Beyond the GAAP - December 2017 issue

2017 ended fairly quietly, since the European Commission had already endorsed several texts in November and the IASB’s December meeting decided to postpone publication of most of its texts and draft texts, with the exception of the annual improvements to IFRSs, which we discuss in this month’s ‘A closer look’ study. This being the case, the implementation of IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 in January 2018 will be more than enough to keep entities and their auditors busy, on top of the preparation of the 2017 financial statements.

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Beyond the GAAP - November 2017 issue

Over the past decade, the IASB has been working on the process of converging IFRS with US GAAP, and this month saw EU endorsement of the remaining resulting standards. With implementation now set to go ahead, this marks the end of a chapter. The one remaining major standard awaiting endorsement – namely IFRS 17 - Insurance Contracts – was not a joint project with the FASB, and moreover is not scheduled for endorsement until the end of next year.

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Beyond the GAAP - October 2017 issue

The IASB has put some last-minute finishing touches to IFRS 9, with an amendment on debt instruments with symmetric prepayment options and with the inclusion (in the Basis for Conclusions) of its analysis of the standard’s provisions on the modification of financial liabilities. All that remains is for the European Union to accelerate the endorsement of the amendment so that European entities do not have to switch accounting policies between 2018 and 2019!

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Beyond the GAAP - July August 2017 issue

July was a busier period for Europe than for the IASB. The European Commission sent two draft texts (deferred application of IFRS 9 for insurers and financial conglomerates, and IFRS 16 on Leases) to the European Parliament and Council for endorsement before the end of the year, while ESMA published three documents on financial information and its enforcement activities.

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