Advice on the latest changes to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been issued by Grant Thornton.

Navigating the changes to IFRS, a 44-page briefing document, is intended to assist Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) understand recent developments that will affect companies’ future financial reporting.

Prepared by the Grant Thornton International IFRS Team to give CFOs a high-level awareness of recent changes, it examines both new Standards and Interpretations that have been issued and amendments made to existing ones.

The updated bulletin focuses on changes to IFRS published between 1st December 2014 and 30th November 2015, covering financial year ends from 31st March 2015 to 31st March 2016.

Martin Kneale, a director at Grant Thornton in the Isle of Man, said: ‘Feedback we have received following the publication of earlier updates has shown this briefing document is extremely useful to CFOs in the Isle of Man. The easy-to-use layout has been designed to make understanding the changes, and how they affect you, simple.

‘The colour-coded contents table helps to easily identify changes mandatorily effective for the first time, changes not yet effective and changes already in effect when planning for a specific financial reporting year end. Where a change is not yet mandatorily effective for a particular year end, it may still be possible for an entity to adopt it early, depending on local legislation and the requirements of the particular change in concern.’

He added: ‘For each change covered in the bulletin there is a box on its commercial implications focusing on two questions; how many entities will be affected, and what will be the impact on the affected entities? Grant Thornton’s assessment of the answers to these questions is indicated by a traffic light system.

‘Where appropriate, references have been made to other Grant Thornton International publications that provide more detailed information on the changes discussed, so there is additional information available to CFOs in the Isle of Man as required.’

The updated Navigating the changes to IFRS publications is available here or by contacting Grant Thornton on 639494.