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Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has set a 2011-2015 timetable for moving from U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to International Financial Reporting Standards, how long will it take the accounting world to make the change? Judging from past revolutions in accounting, not that long. "It's like any other new thing," points out Manny Fernandez, KPMG's managing partner for university relations and recruiting. "When we implemented SOX 404, we learned it on the go and that was a pretty quick turnaround - six to nine months that we had to get up to speed on SOX and internal controls."
With the IFRS change, the SEC is giving public companies at least three years advance notice and has laid out a planned progression from GAAP to IFRS that could last seven years.
Educators Take It Slow
The professors who teach accounting, meanwhile, don't appear to be rushing to get IFRS into their curriculum. A recent KPMG survey of 535 university accounting program officials found 62 percent had not taken any significant steps to integrate IFRS into their courses. Only 14 percent had created a separate course on IFRS.
Teaching IFRS means not teaching something else, given the limited number of days in the academic calendar - unless academics find a way to teach two sets of standards during the same time period now used to teach only one.
"The biggest challenge they have is trying to get room in the curriculum to integrate IFRS," Fernandez says. "At the beginning, people will compare and contrast the accounting guidance, the conceptual framework and the technical standards. Then, if IFRS becomes the primary accounting guidance, there may be standalone courses, but it's more than two years out for that."
Meanwhile, the students who joined KPMG in August - as well as accountants already working for the firm - will get IFRS training on a need-to-know schedule. "They'll get our training to get up to speed as our management determines the need for our people to get trained on IFRS," Fernandez says. "We have both Web-based internal training and also instructor-led training that is going on throughout the firm. You want to train the ones that are going to use it in the next six months or year and then get every else up to speed. Not everyone will need it in the next two or three years."
What Happens After 2011?
After all, the SEC isn't scheduled to make a final decision on the issue until 2011. Even then, the shift to IFRS wouldn't apply to government or private enterprises. Privately held companies may, or may not, decide to adopt IFRS. "The question is: Are we going to continue with two sets of standards beyond 2015?" Fernandez says. "The Financial Accounting Standards Board needs to make some decision as to what their existence and ongoing environment will be."
If you don't want to wait for your local university to offer a course, and your firm isn't going to train you, there are other options for picking up IFRS knowledge:
• The International Accounting Standards Board will sell you a CD-ROM of IFRS for just over $100.
• The American Institute of CPAs is offering a self-study book this fall, Are you ready for IFRS? Moving Beyond the Basics for about $200
• A 4-day IFRS immersion course is $4,000 from IASeminars Ltd. in Washington, D.C. AICPA members get a 10 percent discount.
• Becker has an IFRS vs. GAAP course, and
• Wiley sells nearly a dozen books about IFRS.
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