With the start of 2015 comes not only the New Year, but New UK GAAP as well. Long in the making, with the initial discussion paper in 2009, the new standards finally take effect for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015. But what does it mean for preparers as they move to FRS 102, asks Julia Penny FCA?
If you are thinking that surely nothing needs to be done yet - accounts aren’t needed until the end of the year, then you are sadly mistaken.
Even now, you are really a year behind on your planning if you have not yet considered the impact that new UK GAAP - FRS 102, Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Ireland, will have on your or your clients’ accounts.
Because the new rules must be applied retrospectively in the first year, there is a need to know figures for the balance sheet at the date of transition (two years’ before the first new UK GAAP balance sheet) and at the comparative balance-sheet-date (one year before this).
You may, for some figures, be able to calculate these retrospectively, but this won’t always be possible – in particular valuations need to be done as close to the relevant year-end as possible.
L
