ODESIA’S CFO SIMON LEPAGE OFFERS HIS INSIGHT ON THE IFRS CONVERSION
Quebec CA’s prepare for new international standards
** Article written only in English**
ODESIA, a Montreal-based IT company that specializes in providing strategic solutions to large and medium-sized businesses, has already begun implementing tactics for the upcoming change in order to ensure a smooth transition.
"We are a fairly small public company, so we do not have a lot of resources in our finance department," said Simon Lepage, CA, chief financial officer for ODESIA. "This makes the transition to the IFRS a little more stressful, I guess for us, than for larger companies who can dedicate a committee to this project.
"As the CFO, I lead this project myself. In 2008, I gathered information on the subject to figure out what my team and I were dealing with exactly. I attended, with another member of my team, a full training on the IFRS in 2008.
"Our plan is to start "practicing", preparing our financial statements under both Canadian GAAP and IFRS formats in 2009 in order to understand perfectly all the implications of this transition. We will obviously rely on the expertise of our external auditors to guide us in this project. It is a huge challenge, but it will bring me great satisfaction, once we have everything in place."
In order to reduce the stress of implementing the new system, the Ordre des Comptables Agréés du Québec is helping its members to go through the conversion. The Ordre has developed several courses, documents and online tools to educate members in everything they need to know. For companies who are seeking to hire outside help, the Ordre can refer them to experts who can help them through the transition.
While privately held companies do not have to conform to IFRS standards, the Accounting Standards Board is currently considering whether to put together a self-contained simplified accounting framework that would apply to all non-publicly traded Canadian companies. The Ordre will update members as to the progress of this ruling.
Published in the Business Spotlight of the Montreal Gazette
Friday March 13th 2009
www.ocaq.qc.ca
www.decisionsmatter.ca
|
 |
