The Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) announced that it has approved the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises.

These standards are designed to provide privately owned Canadian businesses with a streamlined accounting and reporting alternative to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are mandatory for public companies.

Private enterprises must adopt either the International Financial Reporting Standards or the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises for their fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2011, and early adoption will be permitted.

The AcSB issued the standards on December 15, 2009 so that they may be used for 2009 calendar year-end reporting. The CICA emphasizes that these are "a set of "made in Canada" standards that are robust, straightforward to implement, and most importantly, fit the nature of Canada's privately held companies and organizations".

Notable changes include simplification of recognition, measurement and presentation in areas that were identified as being overly complex, particularly accounting for financial instruments. The simplified accounting requires less use of fair values. The new standards also significantly reduce the burden of disclosure requirements.

See http://www.acsbcanada.org/ for more details.

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