IFRS: not a disaster but an embarrassmentMoving from adoption to harmonization of Australian accounting standards with international financial reporting standards, Australian businesses have been embarrassed and perplexed in the process of understanding and implementing the new standards. Problems arise in understanding the overly complex relationships between IFRS, A-IFRS (Australian equivalents of IFRS) and the original AASB standards. The distinction between them is not very significant, but they have some key differences that are essential to specific accounting transactions and operations. Recognizing the differences between IFRS and the AASB does not pose too many problems. The answer can be found in the manual: "the only substantial difference between the AASB and corresponding IFRSs is the removal of one or more alternatives permitted in IFRSs, or the expansion of a standard to address matters not covered or excluded by IFRS. » The inconsistency of IFRS and A-IFRS is even delicate to the point of saying “the devil is in the details”. Details of a demonstration can be seen in the contrast lists on pages 3 to 5, which were found and copied from the Internet. The adoption of IFRS affects many areas of financial reporting. Immediate and ongoing consequences are not uniform from company to company, but depend on factors such as the nature of business activities, balance sheets and capital structures. For some companies, the implications will be less significant, mainly representing a change in the presentation of their financial statements. For others, however, the implications will be more significant. They may involve changes in the amount and composition of financial performance and financial position reported, in the scope of future capital management, in the ability of reporting systems to capture the required information and in operational practices and risk management. The main issues arising from the adoption of IFRS and their prudential implications are described below..