Upcoming accounting changes will affect your business operations Transition needs to be on your agenda now Three new standards in Australia are having a respond to the changes effectively and tell their major impact on business operations. Complying stakeholders early about the expected impacts on with the new Leasing, Revenue, and Financial financial results – crucial to bringing them along Instruments (i.e. hedging) standards will require on the company’s performance journey. many companies to change their business strategy, remuneration structure, tax plans, internal systems To help your company transition to these and controls, and investor communications. standards, we’ve developed a three-step model Companies that act now to take advantage of for how you should respond to the accounting the implementation timetable will be able to changes (see overleaf). Have you considered? • Your stakeholders and how you will communicate the impact of the changes on your results? • Your financial results and how you will go about determining the impact of the change? • Your organisation’s control environment and whether you are equipped to implement the changes efficiently and effectively? More than accounting Strategy (e.g. real estate strategy, Internal controls treasury strategy) Will there be an impact on the end-to-end Have you reassessed your existing strategy around processes and internal controls? business development, pricing decisions and operational behaviour? Tax plans Will there be an impact on tax planning HR and remuneration structure strategies and management of franking credits? Have you reassessed compensation, short-term incentive plans and structure; formulated Business operations communication plans for affected staff and Will you need to modify contracting procedures stakeholders; and developed and delivered and legal terms? Or change internal management training and tools for affected staff? reporting, budgeting and forecasting? What Systems and processes about the impact on covenant compliance and monitoring? Do you need to upgrade or change your systems due to expanded reporting requirements and Investor relations additional information needs? Will there be an impact on market guidance, KPIs and the remuneration report? Will you need to benchmark against your global peer group to understand differences? How will you manage market expectations of adoption impacts? What you need to know about changes to standards Revenue: Revenue profile Leasing: All operating leases Hedge accounting: Under will no longer equal will be recognised on the the new financial reporting billing. Rather, revenue balance sheet. The definition standard, it’s now simpler will be recognised when of a lease and the terms of to put hedge accounting in performance obligations are the lease will be critical in place and to prove hedge met. determining the obligations effectiveness in the future. recognised by lessees. How should you respond to the accounting changes? A flexible implementation model • Conduct an impact study assessment Assess 1 • Assess transition options • Map accounting policy differences to process and systems 2 Convert • Establish a road map • Establish a communication plan • Educate and communicate • Change processes and systems 3 Embed • Collect and convert data • Implement business process changes • Draft disclosures Let’s talk For a deeper discussion about how accounting standard changes will affect your business, contact: Sean Rugers Jonathon Moss Regina Fikkers Partner Partner Partner +61 (2) 8266 0309 +61 (2) 8266 2847 +61 (2) 8266 8350 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] © 2015 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the Australian member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. .