Since the mid 90s there has been debate within accounting circles on whether there should be two versions of GAAP – one for public companies and one for private companies. Big GAAP and little GAAP. The logic is that there are sections of GAAP that do not apply to non publicly accountable entities, and time [...]

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The CICA announced late last year a draft version of a new accounting framework for small, owner-managed businesses. The framework is being developed because these types of companies don’t have complex reporting needs like public companies, non-profit organizations, or private companies with significant third party investors or creditors.
I haven’t begun working on public company [...]

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The Accounting Standards Board of Canada has confirmed recently the changeover date to IFRS for publicly accountable for-profit organizations, set for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2011.
The announcement is available in PDF format.
It sounds like we’re going to have to know and be able to apply two sets of principles, as private companies [...]

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Canada’s CAs have announced guidance for a key metric of income trusts, that of distributable cash.
The term ‘distributable cash’ generally refers to the cash that an income trust could potentially distribute to unit holders. Investors use this information when assessing the entity’s ability to fund future distributions and to help value their investments.
But the problem [...]

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CA Magazine might be freely giving away their content for the benefit of all stakeholders in the CA profession and public accounting in general, but the goodwill doesn’t extend to the CICA when it comes to Canadian accounting and auditing standards.
The CICA, through the Accounting Standards Board (AcSB), develops public accounting standards through a remarkably [...]

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