With the January 2011 transition date for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) looming for all publicly accountable enterprises in Canada, 48% of Canadians who hold the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation indicate they favour the transition to IFRS, but also say there is much room to improve their understanding of how IFRS will impact Canadian public companies.

These and other survey findings were released Thursday from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in conjunction with the Canadian Advocacy Council for Canadian CFA Institute Societies (CAC).

According to the suvery, more than 47% of CFA charterholders are not very confident that they have a full understanding of what the impact of IFRS will be on the companies they invest in or follow; almost 20% are not at all confident.

Over 74% of respondents have a fair to poor understanding of the differences between IFRS and Canadian GAAP and 57% think IFRS only has some differences from Canadian GAAP.

Sixty-six per cent are interested in IFRS training sessions to learn more and 51% say their company has not invested any budget towards training; accordingly, almost 75% of respondents have not registered or allocated any time for training.

“Preparedness and communication to stakeholders to make sure they are aware of conversion plans and the results of IFRS both financially and organizationally is critical,” says Diane Kazarian, IFRS national practice leader and partner at PwC.

“There are significant accounting differences between IFRS and Canadian GAAP which often reside in the details, causing recognition, measurement and/or presentation differences.”

Respondents were somewhat split on their knowledge of whether there are industry specific issues with 41% saying “yes” versus over 38% saying “no”. Those who indicated which industries would have specific issues cited energy (23.2%), financials (21.8%) and real estate (10%).

Meanwhile, since this survey was conducted the Canadian Accounting Standards Board released an Exposure Draft on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for Private Enterprises. These proposed new standards provide a choice for private enterprises to adopt a simpler, less time consuming, cost effective accounting approach, without compromising the quality of financial information.

“This will likely change the number of respondents who are aware of the work being done for private companies or what differences there will be. Private companies are going to have to examine their options and choose a solution that best serves their purposes,” says Kazarian.

IE