But with years in the planning and extensive consultation and redrafting, the much publicised FRS 102, or new UK GAAP, comes into force from January 2015 and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it now. Despite the scale of coverage and the potential disruption ahead it still seems to have caught some practitioners off guard. It is at least 30 years since the introduction of the current accounting framework, UK GAAP, undoubtedly decades of contented number crunching and application of accepted rules and standards without the requirement for finance teams to refresh and revise practice.

But the reality is that with only six months to go until the effective date for FRS 102, planning for a smooth transition is vital. The new framework is quite different to existing practice; companies will have to change their reporting practices and even for those recalcitrant accountants who do not want to make the transition, the comparative nature of accounts means that the year end 2015 accounts will have to provide a comparable balance sheet for the previous financial year.

Issuing a new standard has also allowed the regulator to reshape a somewhat dated framework, which has been amended and revised over the years. Of many significant changes is the return to a five-year life for goodwill; apparently the existing 20-year limit was a mistake anyway and should never have been standard practice, but little does that matter now. Derivatives are also accounted for correctly for the first time; in the past, these were left off UK GAAP balance sheets, but pretty much every business will have some kind of financial instruments in place, whether it is loans or forward hedge currency and they have to be accounted for at fair value. So the changes are substantial and it is essential to start planning for FRS 102 immediately, if you’ve been avoiding the issue.

For those companies who do not fall within the FRS 102 framework, and perhaps have reported under the small companies’ framework, FRSSE 2008, the future is less clear. This is mainly down to a drive by the EU to introduce simpler reporting for these organisations under the EU Accounting Directive. Although these rules have not been written into UK statute– the onus is on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to draft the legislation for the Companies Act - they are set to be enacted by mid-2015 and companies with turnover up to a much higher threshold of £10m will be able to report under this from January 2016. This means that many more companies will fall within the raised band. A welcome move, no doubt, although it could raise issues over bank covenants.

But it has caught the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on the hop as the standard-setter was planning to issue a new FRSSE 2015 to coincide with the FRS 102 rollout. Then the EU moved faster than expected and confusion ensued. Now there’s talk of consultations, perhaps a lightweight version of FRS 102, or even that the FRC might force all entities to use FRS 102 with reduced disclosures for small and micro businesses.

Ironically, this does not sound simple at all so perhaps the disgruntled practitioners have good reason to complain as what started off as a simplification exercise has turned into a rather murky and opaque future for accounting.