Clarity ‘delaying business plans’

LACK of clarity is delaying critical advancement of business preparations dealing with the new accountancy standards to be introduced on January 1, 2005, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland has warned.

Its president, Terence O’Rourke, said concern exists whether a complete set of standards will be in place by the start-up date.

His comments are based on a survey carried out by ICAI among members and their client companies.

“These findings show that there is still considerable work to be done in advance of the introduction of IFRS in January but that there is a recognition of that fact in Irish business,” he said.

61% of respondents working in business whose companies will be obliged to report using IFRS said companies were either very or fairly well prepared.

The corresponding figure for respondents in practicing firms with clients who must comply with IFRS from 2005 was 74%.

Similarly 79% of business respondents said their companies held or planned to hold discussions with their auditors. 77% indicated that their companies had assessed the impact of IFRS on the financial statements or planned to in the near future.

86% who took part in the poll in practicing firms indicated their firms were running or planned to run staff training programmes.