Learning from the European Experience

IFRS conversions have been completed in numerous countries and it can be instructive to consider those experiences.The European experience can offer such lessons.One cannot say that the"European experience"was consistent across all involved countries but some general insights can be gained.

The conversion from national GAAP reporting to IFRS was first mandated by the Council of the European Union in 2002 for all member states.Many of those conversions occurred beginning in 2005 and additional countries later became subject to the same requirement.

European companies generally had only about two years to convert to IFRS.Many companies approached the change from an accounting and reporting perspective and dealt with business and operational issues later in the process.While meeting the short-term requirements companies sometimes experienced longer-term inefficiencies attributable to incomplete planning or insufficient up-front investment in processes and systems.

Some lessons learned from the European experience include the following:

·Start the planning process early.Most readers understand that technology projects often require long lead times.The average IFRS conversion time is likely to be between two-and-one-half and three years.

·I dentify difficult accounting or systems issues early in the process.It would be a mistake to leave such items to the tail end of a planning or implementation process.Researching and securing the judgment of professionals on technical issues usually takes time.

·Allow for unforeseen problems as you near implementation.Systems should be tested well ahead of the time to"go live."

·When evaluating accounting/reporting issues,give due consideration to long-term impacts of the resulting decisions.

·Devote extra attention to the extensive disclosure changes that may be required by the conversion.Such footnote information may need to be gleaned(or created)from various internal sources and systems.Consequently,when planning IT infrastructure needs,envision how required information will roll up to the financial statements.

·Complete training early and often.Though some groups within a company may be"experts"on IFRS,there is a need to extend that understanding beyond a small group.As described above in the paper,changes are often required at transactional or country-specific levels during a conversion to IFRS.Having trained people at different levels and locations will make for a smoother conversion and will also provide a broader talent pool as people transfer or advance within the company.

It should be noted that the costs to convert to IFRS will likely be higher on a per company basis in the United States than they were in Europe.Several factors are at play here.The SEC requires two years of historical comparative financial statements.Also,moving from a"rules-based"U.S.GAAP to more"principles-based"IFRS may be more onerous compared to some European companies who were operating under national GAAP more akin to principles-based standards.