International standards are not necessarily appropriate to govern all financial reporting obligations, this being especially the case with International Accounting Standards (IAS) / International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). There is an urgent need for the International Accounting Standards Board to specify the circumstances in which the use of “full” IAS/IFRS is appropriate, and to develop different standards that would meet the needs applicable to the users of financial statements of other entities, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Many stakeholders continue to have misunderstandings with respect to the very nature of international standards, which complicates efforts to plan, define.
