What has the International Accounting Standards Board accomplished by issuing IFRS for SMEs?
The types and needs of users of SME financial statements are often different from the types and needs of users of public company financial statements and other entities that would likely use full IFRS. Full IFRS were designed to meet the needs of equity investors in companies in public capital markets. Users of the financial statements of SMEs (or private companies in the U.S.) don’t generally have those same needs. Rather, users of the financial statements of SMEs are more focused on shorter-term cash flows, liquidity, balance sheet strength, interest coverage and solvency issues. Also, full IFRS impose a burden on SME preparers in that full IFRS contains topics and detailed implementation guidance that generally are not relevant to SMEs. This burden has been growing as IFRS have become more detailed. As such, a significant need existed for an accounting and financial reporting standard for SMEs that would meet the needs of their financial statement users while balancing the costs and
