New FRS – Your Next Steps

Accountants in the UK serving small and micro entities should by now be aware of the transition to FRS 102 Section 1A and FRS 105 for accounting periods beginning on or after 1st January 2016.

We've examined some of the factors that you and your clients (or corporate colleagues) will need to consider if you want hit the ground running as the regulations come into force, and we're convinced that by preparing for the new FRS now, you’ll avoid any negative impact on your day-to-day business later.

In fact, as our FRS Hub shows, a properly managed FRS transition represents an opportunity, not a threat.

Ultimately, company directors are responsible for decisions around what to disclose and which accounting policy to adopt, but they will look to you, their accountant, for guidance and will rely heavily on your professional advice.

This may promote more collaborative relationships than you have at the moment. At the same time, you can move higher up the value chain, beyond compliance work. For accountants in practice, helping clients to deploy the new legislation to the best advantage is the perfect opportunity to become their virtual finance director.

FRS: Not just about the software

IRIS have an unbeatable track record of being ready for new statutory requirements ahead of deadlines, and our developers have been no slouches in helping our customers comply with new FRS.

We fully supported the original IFRS compliance for publicly listed companies back in 2005 and now similarly support accountants working with non-listed companies and smaller businesses as they make the transition to FRS 101 and FRS 102.

This means that if you’re an IRIS user you can be confident of having the right tools in place. We help our customers apply new FRS with minimal change to the way they use our software; for example, there’s no new chart of accounts to learn in our solutions.

So far, so good, but it would be misleading to claim that FRS is all about having the right software in place. However FRS-compliant the software, it can’t take away all the effort of the transition.

It’s worth noting that many publicly listed companies moving over to the original IFRS regulations seriously underestimated the scale of the task, resulting in significant time and resources having to be expended at the last minute to ensure their compliance.

Smaller entities – and their accountants – can learn from their experience.

A number of practices that have already started producing FRS accounts have found that it can take up to 5 times as long as the prior year, so you’ll need all the information available to you to make the process as painless as possible.

At IRIS, we’re fluent in FRS

We’ve been consistently ahead of the field when it comes to helping customers meet these new challenges.

Our FRS Hub has been expressly designed to impart all the info, knowledge and resources (such as a handy FRS Transition Impact Calculator) you’ll need so you can avoid making the same mistakes the PLCs did and benefit from the changes instead.

VISIT OUR FRS HUB