Understanding International Financial Reporting Standards: A Guide for Students And Practitioners

by David Cairns

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS/IAS) set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) provide a reliable and transparent framework for financial reporting to support economic decisions by investors, lenders and other users of general purpose financial statements. By virtue of a new EU regulation, all EU/EEA listed companies will be required to prepare and publish IAS consolidated financial statements from 2005, which will have a major impact on companies and accounting firms. In addition, governments, standard setting bodies and other regulators in many other markets ¿ both developed and emerging ¿ are increasingly requiring the use of IFRS either by listed companies or by all companies. This will be the first book to make IFRS/IAS accessible to students. It will cover the principles and application of the major standards through theme based chapters dealing with, for example, ¿Presentation of Financial Statements¿, ¿Consolidated Financial Statements¿, Asset Recognition and Measurement¿ and ¿Income and Expense Recognition¿. Understanding International Financial Reporting Standards is suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on accounting and business degrees, studying accounting standards, financial reporting, and international accounting. It will also be of interest to those studying for professional examinations based on IFRS and accountancy and business practitioners who need a general understanding of IFRS.

Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

David Adam Cairns is a British journalist, non-fiction writer, and musician, widely regarded as a leading authority on Hector Berlioz. The son of neurosurgeon Sir Hugh Cairns, he co-founded the Chelsea Opera Group in 1950 with Stephen Gray, presenting Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Oxford under a young Colin Davis, with whom he later championed Berlioz’s works. Cairns served as classical programme coordinator for Philips Records (1967–1972), providing sleeve notes for Davis’s landmark Berlioz recordings. His English translation of Berlioz’s Mémoires was published in 1969. Cairns held prominent journalism roles, including music critic and arts editor for The Spectator and chief music critic of the Sunday Times (1983–1992), and contributed to the Evening Standard, Financial Times, and New Statesman. His two-volume biography of Berlioz—The Making of an Artist 1803–1832 (1989) and Servitude and Greatness 1832–1869 (1999)—received widespread acclaim and multiple awards. He founded the Thorington Players in 1983 and has written on composers including Mozart, emphasizing the emotional depth of their music. Cairns was appointed CBE (1997), elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2001), and named Officier and later Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to French music.