IFRS Course for Beginners: Principles of International Financial Reporting Standards

Intercultural differences reflect in various industry fields. For instance, conventions for legal texts are somewhat unique in every country. What about accounting? International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were introduced to make cross-cultural relationships and communication between companies easier. In this IFRS course, you will learn about the meaning of this standard, the global economy, the differences between IFRS and GAAP, and you will be introduced to several use cases. 

Additionally, this course is beginner-friendly, meaning that you will be introduced to the basics of International Financial Reporting Standards. Therefore, you do not need to do any pre-research to be able to follow this course smoothly. 

What is IFRS? 

IFRS refers to a collection of conventions and rules that govern the way accountants work. For instance, IFRS indicates the internationally-accepted ways of writing financial statements and performing other transactions. This IFRS course goes over these rule-sets in a beginner-friendly way and improves the learning experience with the introduction of use cases. 

Therefore, accountants should go through IFRS training to be able to execute tasks in a manner that would be understood by companies from various countries. In fact, more than 100 countries have accepted IFRS as the standard for guaranteeing a smoother intercultural communication. 

What is GAAP? 

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) refers to the accounting conventions that are followed in the United States. Similarly to IFRS, GAAP contains rules for organizing and executing financial reports and statements. From a very basic perspective, IFRS is an international stated that many countries have adopted, while GAAP is a standard for the financial information of the United States. 

GAAP vs. IFRS

From the first glance, GAAP and IFRS seem similar since they both provide guidelines for accountants. However, the flexibility of these models differs. Specialists suggest that GAAP rules are stricter and require less interpretation by the accountant. It is similar to saying what you see is what you need to do. This IFRS course aims to explain the differences between these systems in a clear-cut way. 

What will you find in this course? 

In this IFRS course, I will go through the main principles of IFRS. For instance, I will introduce accrued expenses, inventory accounting, income taxes, impairment of long-lived assets, depreciation, and leases. One of the most significant topics during the GAAP vs. IFRS discussion is the inventory. I will explain both of these systems’ approaches towards the last-in, first-out, and first-in, first-out. 

Furthermore, this IFRS course introduces an action plan for your company and the overall influence of IFRS. As I mentioned, IFRS is a global phenomenon that is adopted by the European Union as well. This accepted standard is an excellent way of making financial information clearer and easily distributed across the globe. However, after completing this brief IFRS training, you will notice that this model leaves room for interpretation. This feature is different from GAAP that follows a more strictly imposed standardization of financial documents.