On Wednesday 30th March we had the pleasure to attend the evening talk “Mind the Gaap: Differences and Similarities in Accounting Frameworks”, organised in collaboration with Kingston Smith, Patron of the Chamber, which took place at their premises in London.
The main objective of this talk was to provide a practical training about the main differences and similarities between the accounting frameworks FRS 102, old UK GAAP and IFRS and summarize the impact for companies in the UK.
On this occasion, Mr. Paul Spindler, Partner at Kingston Smith, and Ms. Viviana Arenas welcomed the attendees on behalf of Kingston Smith, a company which offers accounting, taxation and consultancy services to businesses in the UK, Spain and Latin America.
Ms. Viviana Arenas, Project Accountant at Kingston Smith and the speaker for the session, gave attendees a general overview of the FRS 102, which is based on IFRS for SMEs amended for use in the UK. This new standard applies for accounting periods beginning on or after 1st January 2015, and replaces the old UK GAAP.
Ms. Viviana Arenas during her explanation about the new accounting standard.
After this brief introduction, she moved on to give a brief explanation of the companies that need to adopt this new accounting regime. She emphasised the fact that companies that have previously presented their accounts under UK GAAP will apply the new standard unless they prepare their accounts under IFRS, or they are able to adopt the FRS 105, which replaces the FRSSE, for micro companies.
She then introduced the key differences compared to the old UK GAAP, considering several aspects, such as, potential effects on banking covenants, profit related bonus schemes or dividend policy, property, plant and equipment, business combination and financial instruments, among others. Ms. Arenas highlighted the topics where the accounting treatment under FRS 102 is substantially different and analysed the impact on the major changes for companies when switching to the new standard.
She ensured that attendees knew the most important changes that could significantly affect the figures presented in their accounts in order to face all the challenges and requirements for accounting in the UK.
Once the talk had finished attendees had the opportunity to network and axchange their opinions about the session.
After the explanations, Viviana encouraged attendees to share their thoughts in order to identify the areas that may affect their accounts on the transition to FRS 102.
Once the session finished, participants could enjoy an interactive networking over drinks and nibbles while sharing thoughts and discussing further all the ideas covered in the talk.
Before finishing, we would like to thank all attendees for joining us as well as the team of Kingston Smith for delivering this productive presentation on the new accounting framework.
If you want to find out other activities that the Spanish Chamber of Commerce is organising, we encourage you to keep an eye on our UPCOMING EVENTS section within our website.
