Standards/Interpretations Issued Not Yet Effective as at 31 July 2009
IAS 8 requires that when an entity has not applied a new Standard or Interpretation that has been issued but is not yet effective, the entity shall disclose: ....read more.

* Annual Technical Report for the year 2008 please click here 
* For current developments on accounting issues click here 

ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES COMMITTEE (APC)- UPDATE 2009

The Zimbabwean economy was effectively ‘dollarised’ when the National Budget was presented in United States Dollars (USD) in parliament on Thursday 29 January 2009. For many months prior to that date, almost all sectors of the economy were trading in various currencies, particularly USD and the South African Rand (ZAR). The new budget proposal simply made the change official. In place of the Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWD), any recognised currency is permitted to be used in transactions and to record transactions.
In light of these developments the Accounting Procedures committee (APC) in consultation with various stakeholders (local and foreign) developed a guidance for preparers of financial statements. The guidance was forwarded to the Zimbabwe Accounting Practices Board (ZAPB) and the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB) for adoption. For full details please click here.

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Audit

Following the issuance of a Guidance on Change in Functional Currency, by the Accounting Procedures Committee (APC), the Auditing and Professional standards Committee (APSC) in consultation with various stakeholders (local and foreign), drafted and issued a guidance on what it considered to be the most appropriate Audit Opinion given obtaining environment. Consultations with the Zimbabwe Accounting Practices Board ("ZAPB") and the Public Accountants and Auditors Board ("PAAB") are still in progress. Any references in this document to these bodies is tentative and they are not bound by the conclusions we have made pending finalisation of the consultation process. However, we have briefed both these bodies of our project and the tentative conclusions that we have reached.
For full details please click here.

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January 2009

For Audit consideration in respect of Going Concern in the current Economic Environment please click here.

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All the information on audit please click here

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Business

SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE ENTITIES

Since the early 1970s, International Financial Reporting Standards have been designed to meet the needs of companies whose securities trade in public capital markets. This has affected the scope of issues covered in IFRSs, the amount of implementation guidance and the volume of disclosures.

In many countries, this complexity has been pushed down to small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) because they have adopted IFRSs as their national accounting standards or have been converging their national standards with IFRSs. Concerns have been raised about the burden to financial statement preparers and the relevancy of the resulting information to lenders, vendors, credit rating agencies, family investors, development agencies and others who use SME financial statements.

At the same time, accounting standards used by SMEs in other countries are minimal or outdated or not aimed at providing information to those who provide capital to SMEs. In those countries, SMEs’ access to capital maybe impeded or the cost of capital is raised to reflect the “information risk”.

In recognition of these concerns, the International Accounting Standards Board (which develops IFRSs) is working to develop a simplified, self contained set of accounting principles that are appropriate for smaller non –listed companies. In February 2007, the IASB published and Exposure Draft of an International Financial Reporting Standard for SMEs . The proposed standard is based on full IFRSs with modifications to reflect the needs of users of SMEs’ financial statements and cost benefit considerations.

The proposed IFRS for SMEs incorporates five types of simplifications of full IFRSs:

1.Some topics in IFRSs are not included because they are not relevant to a typical SME.

2.Where an IFRS allows an accounting policy choice, the SME Exposure Draft includes only the simpler option.

3.Simplification of many of the principles for recognizing and measuring assets , liabilities , income , and expenses that are in full IFRSs

4.Substantially fewer disclosures.

5.Simplified drafting

The result is an SME standard that is roughly 15 percent the size of full IFRSs.

The exposure Draft offers a workable, self contained set of historical cost-based accounting standards that would allow investors for the first time to compare SMEs’ financial performance across international boundaries on a like for like basis.

IFAC through IASB is still inviting comments in the Exposure draft before a standard is created.
ICAZ has made submissions firstly through ECSAFA. Additionally ICAZ will on the encouragement and recommendation of IFAC, encourage PAAB to submit comments with regards to the exposure draft since Zimbabwe has a large number of SMEs. In addition IFAC compliance staff encourages ICAZ to make its own submissions to the IAASB.

These developments in the SME sector are in line with government policy of supporting SMEs.