AcSB working on new accounting standards for private enterprises and NPOs

We´ve been keeping you up to date with the deliberations of the Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) regarding the adoption of international financial reporting standards for private companies and other non-publicly accountable enterprises (including not-for-profits).

After extensive consultation, the AcSB has decided to develop a separate "made in Canada" set of standards based on the existing CICA Handbook - Accounting. These standards will be available to all private enterprises, regardless of size, but private enterprises can still adopt IFRS if they choose to do so.

For a succinct description of the objective, approach and timetable for the development of this new set of standards, click here.

On the recommendation of the Not-for-Profit Organizations Advisory Committee, the AcSB is considering permitting NPOs to use the new private enterprise standards, together with additional standards specific to not-for-profits.

The AcSB is moving ahead quickly. The first step, which it hopes to have complete by the end of the year, is to organize the sections of the existing Handbook as follows:

• Sections that are not relevant to private organizations and do not need to be considered
• Sections that can be retained without no or only minor modification
• Sections that will need further discussion and probable revision

Click here to see this breakdown on the AcSB site, which also includes postings of working drafts of new and revised sections.

Stay tuned to Inside Internal Control for more news. And you can be confident that the new accounting standards will be integrated in Finance & Accounting PolicyPro and Not-for-Profit PolicyPro in the months to come through those publications' regular update releases.

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Is it time to consider a safe cell-phone use policy?

There´s been a lot of recent news about the possible health hazards associated with cell phone use. Toronto Public Health has released a fact sheet, warning parents of possible health effects in children with prolonged exposure to radiofrequency (RF) waves.

The fact sheet includes several common-sense suggestions, including:

• Limit the length of phone calls
• Use "hands-free" devices like headsets or earphones
• Use speakerphone mode
• Use text messaging instead
• Use phones with the lowest emissions of RF waves
• Limit cell phone use when reception is poor, or during high speed travel (when power emitted from the cell phone peaks)

The head of a prominent U.S. cancer institute recently echoed this warning. The problem is that there is no scientific proof that exposure to RF waves causes any negative health effects. To which the skeptics say - there´s no proof, yet.

There are some commentators who are advocating that businesses that require employees to stay connected with wireless devices be proactive and issue policies or guidelines for safer use. For an example, click here.

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Small to medium size businesses frequent victims of cybercrime

A recent blog entry discusses research that shows that 32 percent of small and medium businesses in the United States and Canada have been attacked more than four times by cybercriminals in the last three years. In Canada, more than a third of these victims were still struggling to recover a week after the attack, a real problem for any business that does business online.

With more than 75 ready-to-use information technology policies and procedures, Information Technology PolicyPro (ITPP) covers Physical and Systems Security, Network Security, and Backup and Disaster Planning. Click here for more information on ITPP.

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Lost in a cloud

The Ontario Privacy Commissioner has released an interesting and thought-provoking whitepaper, Privacy in the Clouds: Privacy and Digital Identity - Implications for the Internet dealing with the privacy concerns inherent in cloud computing.

Cloud computing uses the Internet as a computing platform, where applications and technology-enabled services are made available "in the cloud," without users needing to control, understand or have any knowledge of the technology infrastructure.

As the Commissioner describes it: "[The Internet] is becoming a platform for computing - a vast, interconnected, virtual supercomputer, which presents complex security and privacy challenges."

For a link to the press release introducing the Whitepaper, click here. For the paper itself, click here.

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New ISO privacy protection standard

There´s a new standard, ISO 22307:2008, Financial services - Privacy impact assessment, to protect the privacy of people´s financial data when it´s processed by automated, networked information systems.

The standard sets out a methodology for private and public sector organizations that helps them identify privacy issues and mitigate risks associated with processing the financial data of customers and consumers, business partners and citizens. The new standard keeps pace up with advances in technology and the burgeoning quantity of personal data processed, and reduces the risk that organizations will trample on privacy rights.

For an article from CA magazine on the new standard, click here. For a link to the related ISO page, click here.

Information Technology PolicyPro (ITPP) is a fast, easy, cost-effective way to extend your organization´s IT controls. For more information on ITPP, click here.

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CRA provides background information to proposed fundraising policy

We discussed the proposed Canada Revenue Agency fundraising policy for registered charities in Volume 1, Issue 4 of Inside Internal Control. Now the CRA has provided additional background information for the proposed policy, and has extended the comment period to August 31, 2008.

On the CRA site, you can either access the background information by following links from the proposed policy document, or you can go directly to the background document itself.

For a link to an article, Be Careful What You Ask For: CRA Proposed Policy On Fundraising, by Theresa L. M. Man, LL.B., LL.M. and Terrance S. Carter, B.A., LL.B. of Carters Professional Corporation, a full-service law firm with a focus on charities and not-for-profit organizations, click here.

As CRA positions and policies evolve, you can count on the quarterly update releases of Not-for-Profit PolicyPro (NPPP), to keep you on top of the latest changes. For more information on NPPP, click here.

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About Inside Internal Control

Editor: Colin Braithwaite, Managing Editor, PolicyPro.

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