With the Jan. 1, 2011 deadline for Canadian companies’ transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) looming on the horizon, a new survey indicates many companies will have a race to the finish line.
The survey by the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation and the research institute of FEI Canada showed despite the fast-approaching conversion deadline, more than 12 per cent of the 147 public companies surveyed and one in five of private companies had not yet taken the first step in their first assessments.
Of the 256 respondents of the survey, 147 were publicly-accountable enterprises, 51 were private and 28 were Crown corporations. The remaining 30 were not-for-profit, government or other type organizations.
Several reasons for their delay were provided, with about 41 per cent of public companies and 54 per cent of private companies stating they had other higher priorities. About 80 per cent of public companies remain short of the half way mark in their overall conversion process.
"Our survey shows that companies were more likely to put cost containment at the top of the list of activities rather than IFRS," said Diane Kazarian, PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada's national IFRS leader. "However, we’re not surprised by the status of conversion projects across the board. While there are many reasons a company might be waiting to begin the process, the fact remains that to be ready for 2011 ... they should have started long ago — especially for companies with multiple product lines, business units and complex IT environments.”
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