Under AASB 18, entities will be able to tell their story better through their financial statements. Users will benefit from greater presentation consistency in income and cash-flow statements and more disaggregated information.
AASB 18, the IFRS 18 equivalent, replaces AASB 101/IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements. AASB 18 has a new objective – it sets out requirements for the presentation and disclosure of information in general-purpose financial statements to help ensure that they provide relevant information faithfully representing an entity’s assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses.
The revised standard is likely to affect many aspects of how information is reported in the income statement. Certain ‘non-GAAP’ measures – management-performance measures –will now form part of audited financial statements.
Changes will need to be made to the extent of information disclosed in the notes to financial statements. Financial-reporting systems, processes, and controls will all need updating.
Given the enhanced flexibility in AASB 18, it is likely to be a consideration for early adoption.
Session topics include:
- What are the key changes and why were they made?
- Differences between the for-profit and NFP standard
- Pros and cons of early adoption
- What changes to financial reports need to be made with early adoption?
- What remains unchanged?
- What to disclose for ‘issued and not yet operative standards’
- How is interim reporting affected? and
- What is in store for AASB 1060 General Purpose Financial Statements – Simplified Disclosures for For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Tier 2 Entities?
Now is the time to get ready to report under the new standard. It is effective from 1 January 2027 and applies retrospectively. This means that for companies with December year-ends, changes to systems, processes, and controls will need to be in place from 1 January 2026.
In addition, companies will be required to present the new income-statement categories and subtotals in interim financial statements in the first year of AASB 18.
Not-for-profit private and public-sector entities as well as superannuation entities will apply AASB 1056 Superannuation Entities a year later.
