Accounting rules in smaller companies

Limited companies must prepare financial statement in accordance with accounting standards and Company Law. As you can imagine, complicated rules and laws are often way too much for a small company to deal with. Most to the time, directors of small companies leave the work of preparing financial statement up to practicing accountants. In fact, in the UK and Ireland, small companies are also exempt from the requirement to have their financial statements audited provided they meet certain conditions.

In June 2008, the UK’s Accounting Standards Board (ASB) issue an accounting standard specifically designed to cater for and simplify the accounting rule for small companies. What constitutes a small company is specified by Company Law. In the UK, any company with turnover of not more than £5.6m, a balance sheet total of not more than £2.8m and has less than 50 employees is a small company. If a business meets these criteria, it can then adopt the ASB’s Financial Reporting Standard for Small Entities (FRRSE). This standard is very useful in that it incorporates all requirements relating to financial statements as set out in Company Law. Thus, by following this standard in the preparation of its accounts, a company is also fully compliant with the law. The FRRSE covers many areas of financial statements- for example: the profit and loss account, fixed assets, current assets, the Directors Report and much more. It also exempts smaller companies from some more complex requirements of other accounting standards. If your business is a small company, it might be worth while asking your accountant if the FRRSE is suitable for you. It might simplify their work, and as a result save you some fees.

Here is a link to the ASB’s website, where you can download the FRRSE for free;

http://www.frc.org.uk/documents/pagemanager/asb/FRSSE/FRSSE%20Web%20optimized%20FINAL.pdf