New UK GAAP and changes to FRS 100-103

UK GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) has been the subject of a substantial overhaul with the publication by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of:

• FRS 100, Application of Financial Reporting Requirements (which establishes the applicable financial reporting standards for different entities)
• FRS 101, Reduced Disclosures Framework (for certain qualifying group entities preparing individual accounts under EU-adopted IFRS)
• FRS 102, The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland and
• FRS 103, Insurance Contracts. 

FRS 102 is the single financial reporting standard that will replace all the existing accounting standards and abstracts apart from the FRSSE, the standard for smaller entities, and FRS 27, which deals with life assurance business and that will be replaced by FRS 103.

The FRSSE will be retained under the new UK GAAP framework as the single financial reporting standard for smaller entities. However, as a result of the changes introduced by FRS 100 and FRS 102, an updated version, the FRSSE (effective January 2015), was published by the FRC in July 2013.

The new UK GAAP framework, including the FRSSE 2015, will become mandatory for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015 and all extant financial reporting standards and Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF) abstracts will be superseded from that date.

In particular, FRS 102 introduces a number of significant changes to the financial reporting requirements applicable under current UK GAAP.

Details of the changes brought about by FRS 102 can be found in a section of the ACCA website dedicated to the future of UK GAAP; this can be accessed via the 'Related links' section on this page.

ACCA has also published Technical Factsheet 181, which includes an analysis of the changes to terminology and formats from current UK GAAP, of the adoption timeframe and transition provisions and a detailed comparison of topical areas between the current and the new UK GAAP framework, including analysis of the potential tax impact of the new accounting requirements.

Additionally, ACCA has published individual model accounts for a small company voluntarily applying FRS 102 and model accounts for a company applying the FRSSE 2015, so that it can be easy to draw a comparison between the implications of the two accounting standards in terms of recognition and disclosures for specific items.