Canada - IFRS Briefings by KPMG

KPMG publishes a periodic newsletter called IFRS Briefings to keep clients informed about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) news and developments occurring internationally and in Canada. The newsletter provides commentary on how IFRS will affect Canadian publicly accountable enterprises. (To subscribe, visit the KPMG website.)

Canada - IFRS and Canadian GAAP Differences Series

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Canadian GAAP are both principle-based frameworks. From a conceptual standpoint, many of the general principles are the same, but the application of general principles in IFRS can be significantly different from Canadian GAAP. Therefore, to understand the magnitude of the differences between IFRS and Canadian GAAP, it is essential to look beyond the general principles to the detailed guidance provided in the standards. This series of BDO Canada publications provides detailed information on the key differences between IFRS and Canadian GAAP. (Access the IFRS - Canadian GAAP Differences Series on the BDO Canada website.)

IASB - New IFRS for SMEs Update newsletter

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published the first issue of the IFRS for SMEs Update newsletter. It provides a regular staff summary of news relating to the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). (To receive the IFRS for SMEs Update by e-mail, subscribe to the IFRS for SMEs Alert.)

10 Examples of Tremendous Business Leadership

Great leadership can be hard to come by. With all the politics and blaming that can go on within an organization, many companies are lacking good, solid leadership from people who are willing to stick to their word. That's why it's always refreshing to see examples of great leadership in our society. Here are 10 examples of top-notch leadership from leaders who ultimately led by example, letting their actions (and bottom lines) speak for themselves. (Read the article 10 Examples of Tremendous Business Leadership at Open Forum online.)

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Technology enables broader innovative business model possibilities — allowing us to enter other markets and secure new capabilities, for example — and causes us to start thinking about things we couldn’t do before that we can now. That’s innovation in its purest form. (Read the article Creating a Culture of Innovation: Learning From the Best at Open Forum online.)

CFOs Gravitate Toward Cloud Computing

A majority of CFOs at US technology companies are using cloud computing platforms in some capacity, according to a survey by BDO Seidman. The survey found that 90% plan to maintain or increase their current cloud computing use this year. Cost and increased scalability were the top reasons for using cloud computing applications. (Read the article CFOs Gravitate Toward Cloud Computing, Clean Tech at WebCPA online.)

Promoting Your Business With Images

A picture is worth a thousand words, but that picture may be worth quite a bit more because of two interesting facts that most businesses never consider when promoting their products or services online:

• Google presents something called blended search results, which means they show images and videos alongside text links for ANY search conducted through their site.
• It is much easier to get an image onto the first page of Google than it is to get any kind of text link or website.

(Read the article "The Great Photo Experiment: 5 Steps To Promote Your Business With Images" at Open Forum online.)

The Current State of Social Media and Investor Relations

On February 14, 2010, Darrell Heaps, one of North America’s leading authorities on social media for investor relations, hosted a guided tour of “The Current State of Social Media.” The tour provided a current snapshot of what is happening in the use of social media for investor relations and why it is important to a company’s investor relations program. The full replay of the webinar The Current State of Social Media and Investor Relations – A Q4 Webinar from Q4 Web Systems Inc. is also available in HD at Vimeo online.

Practical updates on accounting standards for Canadian companies

The IFRS in Canada newsletter provides practical, thorough and concise updates on changing accounting standards. Written by finance professionals with extensive industry experience, IFRS in Canada is a valuable and relevant resource for finance professionals in industry. With over 4,500 subscribers, it is a source of practical information on IFRS transition issues for public companies, as well as the new Canadian GAAP for private companies. (Subscription is free.)

IASB - Live webcast on classification and measurement of financial liabilities, March 22, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) staff will present a webcast regarding the status of the Board's discussions about the classification and measurement of financial liabilities and the next steps in the project. The webcast will be on Monday March 22, 2010 at 10:30am and 3:00pm UK time. (Register to participate and view the project webpage.)

US Executives want earlier implementation of IFRS

A survey of 2,500 executives by accounting firm KPMG found that 49% of US executives want to move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) earlier than the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tentative 2015 potential adoption date. The desire for an earlier shift comes even before US regulators have made a formal decision to adopt IFRS. In February 2010, the SEC said US companies would not be able to use the standards until 2015 at the earliest. (Read the article Half of US execs want to use IFRS early-survey at Reuters online.)

IASB - IASC Foundation Constitution effective March 1, 2010

The IASC Foundation approved changes to the Foundation's Constitution in January 2010 to take  effect March 1, 2010. One of the changes was to rename three groups to be more closely aligned with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): the IASC Foundation becomes the IFRS Foundation; the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee becomes the IFRS Interpretations Committee; and the Standards Advisory Council becomes the IFRS Advisory Council. (Read the IASC Foundation Constitution.)

UK - Developments in New Reporting Models

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published Developments in New Reporting Models. The report argues that business reporting must reflect changes in business, in information technology and in user needs. The debate on the future of business reporting needs to be reframed in terms of continuing evolutionary improvements. Copyrighted by ICAEW, the report is posted on Deloitte IAS Plus with permission of the ICAEW Financial Reporting Faculty.

Using Social Media for Investor Relations

In September 2009, IR Alert conducted a survey of investor relations (IR) professionals to establish a benchmark of social media usage. Results of the survey, in which 270 executives participated, indicate that about 60% of industry professionals use social media in some way, especially those who work at smaller firms. However, only 12% of IR and CFO respondents indicated that they use social media to disseminate financial information to shareholders and the market.

Although conference calls (and press releases) remain the single most commonly used methods of communicating investor relations information to shareholders and the market, about 6.3% of respondents now use a corporate blog to communicate financial information, but 13.6% of companies with annual sales under $50,000,000 use one. IROs and CFOs are definitely involved in social media with 60% of respondents using social media tools from Del.ic.ious and Digg to Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Twitter ranks as the most-used social network for this purpose, used by about 79% of social-media. LinkedIn is by far the most popular social network among investor relations professionals, with almost 80% of social-media-engaged respondents using it at least once a month.

IR Alert survey respondents indicated that the investor relations industry's best-read blogs are the IR Web Report Investor Relations Blog, written by Dominic Jones, and IR therefore I AM, written by Gene Marbach.

Social Media - How to Deal With Negative Feedback

Unlike traditional broadcast and print mediums, which are often one-directional, social media is very much a two-way channel. Not only can businesses communicate with their customers, but their customers can communicate with them and with each other. By and large, this type of communication is a good thing. Businesses can form more personal relationships with customers and customers can become part of a community around the brands and businesses they want to support. However, a conversation with anyone can also potentially invite negative criticism. For a quick guide to dealing with negative feedback on social media, read the article How to Deal With Negative Feedback. Additional guidance is available by reviewing the results of a search on the term “negative feedback” at Open Forum online.

Social Media Can Affect Reputation

A recent Canadian social media survey examined how businesses in Canada are using social media for building online communities around their product offerings, and how they are using social media to increase brand authority and visibility online. The survey produced surprising statistics on the use of social media by companies in Canada, finding that 61% of respondents said their company tracks what is said about the company online. In addition, the survey asked practitioners whether they believe social media affects reputation more than users. While 40% of users believe that companies involved in social media are working hard for their business, only 20% feel that social media affects a company’s reputation with regard to trust, transparency, loyalty or relationships. Practitioners, however, believe their involvement with social media has much more impact. (Read the Canadian Social Media Survey online or view as a Slideshare presentation.)

Using Google to improve communications, collaboration and security

Google is changing the way that people communicate. Although many organizations aren’t ready to discard out-of-the-box software, there are many advantages to computing “in the cloud.” Web-based tools from companies such as Google offer cost-effective solutions (often free), better scalability, easier collaboration and enhanced security. Many businesses are starting to make the switch to Internet applications without suffering any major technical setbacks. (Read the article 5 Tools to Googlize Your Business at Open Forum.)

How to Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business

Facebook is known for its uniformity. Although all sorts of content can be provided, the actual design and layout of your profile is the same as everyone else's. However, with Facebook Fan Pages and the array of applications you can plug into them, there are a few ways to customize what people see when they land on your Page. (Read the article How to Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business at Open Forum online.)

Focus on Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation

Public focus on corporate conduct and high-profile corporate governance reviews have brought board performance to the forefront of the governance debate. Board evaluations are nothing new. But, while many companies conduct some form of board review and some elect to have an external agency conduct or facilitate their board evaluation, approaches to this particular area of corporate scrutiny vary. (Read the articles on Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation in the February 2010 issue of GAA Accounting online, also available in digital page-flip format.)

SEC rules require more disclosure on risk management

The US Securities and Exchange Commission's new proxy disclosure rules may assist audit committees from taking on too much risk. The new rules require disclosure about how risk supervision is divided among boards and board sub-committees. To learn more about how senior executives can work with their boards on risk oversight, read the COSO report Strengthening Enterprise Risk Management for Strategic Advantage as well as the online articles Who's Minding Risk? and Internal Auditors Urged to Heed New SEC Proxy Disclosure Rules.

IOSCO - Principles for Periodic Disclosure by Listed Entities

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published a report Principles for Periodic Disclosure by Listed Entities. The report makes recommendations for disclosures in periodic reports, such as annual reports, of entities whose securities are listed or admitted to trading on a regulated market in which retail investors participate. The disclosure principles also cover other issues, such as the timeliness of disclosures, disclosure criteria and storage of information. The principles are intended to provide a useful framework for securities regulators that are reviewing or revising their regulatory disclosure regime for periodic reports. (Read the IOSCO Press Release.)

Using social networking for business purposes

In as little as five years, Social Networking has become pervasive in families, relationships, places of work and classrooms. Social Networking using the internet started with e-mail, mailing lists, bulletin board services, internet forums and newsgroups. Social Computing services emerged together with the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Despite the gawkiness of these initial attempts at Social Networking using the Internet, Social Networking has become extremely profitable and popular. The technology responsible for this new evolution of Social Networking is Web2.0 (second generation Web-based platforms designed to aid online collaboration and user-generated content sharing). (Read the article Social Networking Revisited in Accountancy South Africa online and on the Global Accounting Alliance website.)

Using Twitter Search for business purposes

In today's world, there is an undeniable need to search, filter and otherwise interact with the volumes of news and information being transmitted every second. Twitter Search helps filter all the real-time information coursing through its service. When using Twitter Search for business purposes, start with the simple things. Type in your company name. Type in a product name. Type in your city name. Type in your competitor's name. See any opportunities? (Learn more by reading the article Twitter Search and Money at Open Forum online.)