INTERNATIONAL GAAP® 2005

Reviewed by Colin Eastaugh

First a word about the actual physical book, it is over 2,000 pages long, hardback, the actual pages are printed on very good but extremely thin paper, but even so, it is a brick of a book. So not a publication for those whose bookshelves are in danger of collapsing. But International GAAP® (I find the registering of the name by Ernst & Young rather irritating) is a joy to use. Being a hardback, it is easy to go to any section and open the book up and be able to read all the text with ease. Well done the printers.

And well done the authors, the book is a bargain because it covers so much ground.

I concentrated mainly on the sections on IAS 39 but the book covers the complete ambit of international accounting standards. Although a tad light on effectiveness testing of proposed hedges, the chapters on accounting for financial instruments are some of the best I have read on the subject. Other topics I read through were mergers and deprecation, both covered at just the right level. There are plenty of examples through the text to guide readers through some of the more esoteric points.

Each chapter starts with an excellent introduction, and there are concluding remarks on what may happen in the future, this is particularly relevant as many standards are under attack from various interested parties. So International GAAP® is not a book only for students but for all accountants who wish to understand where we are and where we are heading with the proposals by the IASB on fair value accounting. The authors have done a first class job in stating the scene of why fair value accounting has been introduced. The first chapter is an absolute joy and will help any student who is learning about accountancy for the first time. Hence I recommend the book to anyone taking accounting as a course at college, certainly in my day (25 years ago) recent developments were not put into context, and without that context how can students form a view on whether we should be looking to fair value all assets and liabilities in the balance sheet and as a result move away from the current obsession with the profit & loss account?

An excellent brick of a book on accounting at a time when accounting has never been so controversial.

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Colin Eastaugh
November 2004