September 2018 IFRS for SMEs Update

The IFRS for SMEs Update is a quarterly staff summary of news, events and other information about the IFRS for SMEs Standard and related SME activities. The staff summary has not been reviewed by the International Accounting Standards Board (Board). Past issues are available here.

• Comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard
• Update on IFRS for SMEs modules
• IFRS for SMEs Standard translations

Comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard

The Board expects to start its next comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard in early 2019 (as reported in the October 2016 edition of IFRS for SMEs Update).

We expect the Board will begin its review with the issue of a Request for Information (RFI). The RFI will seek public feedback on possible changes to the IFRS for SMEs Standard, at a minimum, for:

• the consequences of 2015 amendments from the initial comprehensive review, which became effective in 2017 reporting period;
• new and revised IFRS Standards; and
• any other application issues.

We will report further details of this review in forthcoming newsletters which you can access here. You may also register for free SME alerts on the dashboard—sign in to your account and select 'Supporting materials for the IFRS for SMEs Standard' from the left-hand list of topics to follow.

Update on IFRS for SMEs modules

The IFRS Foundation’s Education Initiative is updating the complete suite of 35 stand-alone modules designed to provide support to anyone learning about, applying or reading financial statements prepared using the IFRS for SMEs Standard. Each module covers one section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.

Fifteen modules have been published so far. These modules are on:

• Section 1—Small and Medium-sized Entities
• Section 3—Financial Statement Presentation
• Section 4—Statement of Financial Position*
• Section 5—Statement of Comprehensive Income and Income Statement
• Section 6—Statement of Changes in Equity and Statement of Income and Retained Earnings
• Section 7—Statement of Cash Flows
• Section 8—Notes to the Financial Statements*
• Section 11—Basic Financial Instruments*
• Section 12—Other Financial Instrument Issues*
• Section 13—Inventories*
• Section 14—Investments in Associates*
• Section 17—Property, Plant and Equipment
• Section 24—Government Grants*
• Section 25—Borrowing Costs* and
• Section 32—Events after the End of the Reporting Period*

* Nine modules were published during the quarter ending 30 September 2018.

Each of the modules includes:

• requirements—the full text of the section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard reproduced with added notes and examples. The notes and examples are designed to clarify and illustrate the requirements.
• significant estimates and other judgements—a discussion of the significant estimates and other judgements likely to be made in accounting for transactions and events when applying the section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.
• comparison with full IFRS Standards—a summary of the main differences between the section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard and the corresponding Standard from full IFRS Standards.
• test your knowledge—multiple-choice questions, with answers, designed to test the learner's knowledge of the requirements of the section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.
• apply your knowledge—case studies, with solutions, designed to develop the learner's ability to account for transactions and events in accordance with the section of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.

Other modules will be published when finalised.

IFRS for SMEs Standard translations

The following translations of the 2015 IFRS for SMEs Standard are available and have been approved by the IFRS Foundation:

Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian, Georgian, Japanese, Kazakh, Mongolian, Portuguese and Spanish.

The following translations of the 2009 IFRS for SMEs Standard are available and have been approved by the IFRS Foundation:

Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese (simplified), Croatian, Czech, Estonian, French, Georgian*, German*, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Khmer, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian*, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Available for free download here (for translations marked with an * please visit the IFRS Shop for details on how to purchase a hard copy).