Implementation of IFRS reporting in Sweden : an interview study
Abstract: In 2002 EU decided to require all listed companies in the European Union to prepare group accounts in accordance with IFRS for accounting periods starting on or a er 1 January 2005. e overall aim of this study is to explore public companies’ implementation of IFRS. More specifically, the study will identify and analyse the changes and challenges in group accounting for pu- blic companies implementing IFRS. e study explores how the companies in question actually experienced the implementation of IFRS instead of merely speculating on what might happen.e study is an explorative study, and consists of an interview-based study with nine interviews. e companies included in the study are listed on a Swedish market and the study consists of interviews with key people, such as Heads of Group Accounts, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) or people with similar positions in the companies.e findings show that the implementation from a de jure point of view se- emed to imply significant group accounting changes for the public companies. As Swedish standard setters had started the convergence to international stan- dards before the implementation of IFRS, the changes in group accounting were not as great as they could have been. Overall, the companies in the study did not experience a lot of issues when implementing IFRS. Most of the issues discussed in the interviews seems to have been minor in nature. While the extent of issues experienced was minimal when the companies in the study implemented IFRS, the most common solution to a problem was to hire an accounting consultant company. Another finding from the study was that the companies most o en followed the new standards and also agreed with most of the requirements in- cluded in them. e standards was enforced mainly by the auditors and these were o en the very same companies that provided accounting consulting.
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