The principle of comparability refers to the ability to compare financial statements from year-to-year, company-to-company, and industry-to-industry. IFRS requires that financial statements focus primarily on the needs of the users of the financial statements rather than the desires of those producing the statements. Comparability is one feature that definitely benefits the end user. Being able to easily compare financial statements

Accountants certainly have a challenge to meet when it comes to applying the IFRS principle of relevance. IFRS says that an item is relevant if the information about that item has the potential to influence significantly the decisions of lenders, investors, and other users of the financial statements. The IFRS principle of relevance corresponds to the GAAP principle of materiality.

In the first part of the series, we talked about clarity, the first of the four IFRS principles.  In this article we’ll examine the second principle, reliability. True and fair Reliable information means that the financial statements are a reflection of the company’s economic reality. In other words, are they a true and fair presentation of the company’s operating results

In conversations with individual accountants, I am discovering an initial reluctance to accept the change to IFRS, which relies more on the accountant’s judgment. IFRS requires that financial statements be prepared using four basic principles: clarity, relevance, reliability, and comparability. The principle of clarity requires that financial statements be easy to read and easy to understand. IFRS guidelines allow substantial