More than 100 countries on all five continents require or permit the use of IFRS. Major economies in Asia-Pacific, North America and Latin America have set out a time line towards the full adoption of IFRSs.
Many companies around the world have either adopted or are in the process of transiting their local GAAP into IFRS. The jurisdictions in the Latin America region are actively engaged in the IFRS conversion process in the next few years. Argentina itself will fully align itself with IFRS by 2011 for some listed companies, and optional for other entities. The conversion to IFRS affects not only the accounting process but also the way in which businesses and day-to-day operations are run and which gives rise to an impact on the profitability of the enterprise. Our experience in other countries shows that the transition/conversion process is at the same time a challenge and an opportunity. Instead of simply reconciling local GAAP to IFRS as topside entries, management will prefer to take a "fresh look" approach towards its accounting principles and financial reporting under IFRS. This will give the opportunity to companies to take full benefit of the transition to improve their organization and overall performance.
Mazars can help you in the transition/conversion to IFRS. Our IFRS Team comprises of partners and senior staff members specialising in IFRS and located in offices around the world in Asia Pacific, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the USA. We have moved our experts from Europe to the Latin America region, to support the Asian conversion towards IFRS. This way, Mazars can provide you with existing knowledge and previous extensive experience of IFRS applications. Our IFRS team in Argentina is led by Gustavo Chesta. Our transition/conversion methodology to IFRS can briefly be summarised as follows: