The IFRS for SMEs Update is a staff summary of news, events and other information about the IFRS for SMEs® Standard and related SME activities. The staff summary has not been reviewed by the International Accounting Standards Board (Board).
This edition of the IFRS for SMEs Update includes:
Dr Jianqiao Lu joined the Board in September 2017 from the Chinese Ministry of Finance, where he served as the director of the Accounting Regulatory Department. During his time in the department, he played a leading role in aligning Chinese accounting standards with IFRS Standards.
He has also made an important contribution to the establishment and work of the Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group (AOSSG), an independent forum of accounting standard-setters from across the region. He has been involved with the IFRS Foundation for many years, including as a key facilitator of the Board’s Emerging Economies Group and as a member of the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum.
Dr Lu has a PhD in management from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China.
I am delighted and honoured to be appointed as Chairman of the SMEIG.
The SMEIG has been playing an important role to support implementation of the IFRS for SMEs Standard and provide technical advice to the Board. I would like to particularly thank Darrel Scott for his excellent leadership of the SMEIG in the past seven years. The second comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard is at a crucial stage and SMEIG members’ continued support is vital to the success of the project. I look forward to working with the SMEIG members to meet our objective.
Jianqiao
Overview of feedback on the Request for Information
On 28 January 2020 the Board published the Request for Information Comprehensive Review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard, which was open for comments for 270 days.
Feedback sources
The Board acknowledged the resource constraints for SMEs that may want to respond to the Request for Information and therefore provided several ways for respondents to give feedback, including outreach events, comment letters, an online survey, a user survey and user interviews. The charts below provide an analysis of respondent by type and geographical region.
Outreach events
During the comment period, Board members and staff met remotely with over 2,000 stakeholders in 15 virtual meetings (including roundtables and discussion forums) in over 90 jurisdictions in Africa, Americas, Asia-Oceania and Europe.
Supporting material (such as webcasts) on the Request for Information were viewed by more than 2,600 stakeholders globally.
Comment letters
The Board has received 66 comment letters.
Online survey
An online survey was published on 22 April 2020 for stakeholders who did not have the capacity to submit a comment letter. The survey replicated the questions included in the Request for Information. The online survey had received 30 responses when it closed for comment on 27 October 2020.
User survey and user interviews
To obtain feedback from users of SMEs financial statements, a 13-question user survey was made available on 15 August 2020. The user survey had received 54 responses when it closed for comment on 27 October 2020.
The Board also conducted 13 interviews with users from seven jurisdictions.
Next step
The Board will ask the advice of the SMEIG on what the Board should do next in its second comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.
Overview of the IFRS for SMEs Standard’s use
The IFRS for SMEs Standard:
- is permitted or required (as issued by the Board or with some modifications) in more than 80 jurisdictions; and
- influences the development and maintenance of local accounting requirements for SMEs in some jurisdictions, as noted in comment letters from respondents of jurisdictions that have not adopted the IFRS for SMEs Standard.
More information about the jurisdiction profiles is available here.
Upcoming SMEIG meeting
The SMEIG is responsible for considering whether the IFRS for SMEs Standard should be amended and for making recommendations to the Board on new and amended IFRS Standards that have been approved since the IFRS for SMEs Standard was issued or last amended.
A public SMEIG meeting will take place 4–5 February 2021. At this meeting, the SMEIG will:
- discuss a summary of feedback on the Request for Information; and
- recommend what the Board should do next in its second comprehensive review of IFRS for SMEs Standard.
The agenda papers of the SMEIG meeting will be available on the IFRS Foundation website in January 2021.
More information about the SMEIG, including its terms of reference and operating procedures, is available here.
Online resources
The Board and the SMEIG provide educational materials to support the adoption and implementation of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.
These materials include:
- presentations; and
- articles and other publications.
The IFRS Foundation has also made available a package of 35 supporting modules to help those preparing and reading financial statements prepared applying the IFRS for SMEs Standard or learning about the Standard.
