CICA releases IFRS omnibus exposure draft

We´ve talked at length in previous issues of Inside Internal Control and its predecessor e-newsletter, the PolicyPro Bulletin about the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). With January 1, 2011, the date IFRS will replace GAAP for profit-oriented Publicly-Accountable Enterprises (PAEs) now less than three years away, there´s more and more discussion of the new standards and the work involved to implement them.

The Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) has recently released an omnibus exposure draft of the international standards that will be incorporated into the CICA Handbook - Accounting.

The omnibus exposure draft provides a link to the IFRS standards, some 2400 pages of them. Considering that the AcSB asks for responses by July 31, it´s appropriate that the exposure draft provides a useful methodology to review the new standards.

For a copy of the omnibus exposure draft, click here.

Speaking of the new accounting standards, Release 2008-3 (June 2008) of Finance and Accounting PolicyPro (FAPP) will feature new policy FN 7.08 - International Financial Reporting Standards. For more information about FAPP and to try a 30-day trial, click here.

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Not-for-Profit PolicyPro is available!

We´re very pleased to announce that Not-for-Profit PolicyPro (NPPP), the latest addition to First Reference´s Internal Control Library, is now available.

Written by Stephanie F. Smith and Jeffrey R. Sherman (the same author team responsible for Finance and Accounting PolicyPro), NPPP is also co-published with the CICA.

NPPP contains 28 policies, organized in 5 tabs:

1. Corporate Administration
2. Governance
3. Advocacy and Public Policy
4. Financial Management
5. Human Resources

As with all PolicyPro publications, each model policy includes a comprehensive Overview with expert advice about why the policy is needed and how it can be implemented and customized to meet the needs of your organization. Because this content is included in the print manual and within the PolicyPro^TM software application, NPPP is both an authoritative reference work and a powerful tool to create and publish your own policy manual. And the powerful PolicyPro application is fully integrated with Word and Excel, so there´s no new software to learn.

For more detailed information about Not-for-Profit PolicyPro and to order your free trial click here.

For more information about other titles in the Internal Control Library, click here.

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Sustainability policy added to OMPP

In a nod to Earth Day (April 22^nd) we recently published a Sustainability policy in the Environmental Management tab of Operations and Marketing PolicyPro (OMPP).

As co-author Jeffrey D. Sherman writes in the OMPP Inside Policies Newsletter:

"In a business environment, sustainability can be viewed two ways:

• "Sustainable development - meeting present needs without compromising the future. This is the traditional approach, which focuses on the environment
• "Sustainable systems - systems and processes that facilitate the continuity of the organization. This is a control-based approach that corresponds to an enterprise-risk management or internal-control based conceptual framework

"Both types of sustainability are important objectives for any organization."

For a link to the Government of Canada page on Sustainable Development, click here.

For more information about OMPP and to try a 30-day, no obligation trial click here.

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Thumbs down for social networking

As promised in our previous issue, we´re following up on the poll conducted by HRinfodesk about the role of social networking sites, like Facebook, in the Canadian business context. Accordingly, we´re pleased to provide an article by Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B., Managing Editor of HRinfodesk, about the results of the poll and the pros and cons (and possible legal issues) associated with social networking in the workplace.

For a link to the article, click here.

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Ongoing amendments to CEO/CFO certification rules

The Canadian Securities Administrators have recently announced proposed amendments to National Instrument NI 52-109, the successor to Multilateral Instrument MI 52-109, the CEO/CFO Certification Rules regarding internal control over financial reporting.

We last talked about this in a previous issue of the PolicyPro Bulletin, when we discussed proposed revisions to MI 52-109 that, among other things, required attestation by the CEO/CFO as to the operating effectiveness of internal controls on an annual basis. The new rules were codified in National Instrument NI 52-109, which was released for comment for a period ending June 28, 2007.

Well, the comments were numerous, and they have led to significant amendments to NI 52-109, which will:

• No longer require the CEO/CFO of a venture issuer to certify that they have designed and evaluated the effectiveness of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting
• Require non-venture issuers to use a control framework for the design of internal control over financial reporting
• Change the threshold for reporting a weakness in ICFR to a "material weakness" rather than the previous "reportable deficiency"
• No longer require an issuer to remediate a material weakness. However, an issuer must disclose its plans, if any, to remediate a material weakness
• Allow an issuer to limit the scope of its design of DC&P and ICFR to exclude controls, policies and procedures of a business that the issuer acquired not more than 365 days before the end of the financial period to which the certificate relates. This compares to a 90-day period in the earlier proposals
• Expand the guidance for certifying officers

Are we finished yet? Not quite. The Canadian Securities Administrators are seeking comments on the amendments to NI 52-109 by June 17. It is expected to come into effect on December 15, 2008 and to apply to issuers´ financial years ending on or after that date.

For a link to the OSC Bulletin discussing the changes, click here.

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Have you built your corporate metaverse yet?

No? Don´t panic, there´s still time...

Until recently the exclusive domain of online gamers, the metaverse is a fictional place, where humans interact with each other in a three-dimensional virtual world.

Now both Sun and IBM are experimenting with their own intranet metaverses, built behind their corporate firewalls, to help their worldwide workforces collaborate on business projects.

The IBM metaverse project is still in its infancy, but includes a giant boulder that employees can kick around in the zero-gravity environment. There´s also an opportunity to meet by a waterfall, in an amphitheatre, and in a secret cave.

Although the metaverse is being used by one project team that doesn´t have the opportunity to meet in person, it´s really at the proof-of-concept stage, to demonstrate that IBM can build a secure virtual world inside its network. The company seems confident, though, that it will become a useful part of its collaboration infrastructure.

For more information, click here.

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About Inside Internal Control

Editor: Colin Braithwaite, Managing Editor, PolicyPro.

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