SEC accounting standards move to hit private, public firms - Orlando Business Journal:

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The has released a timetable of necessarh steps before adopting International Financial Reportintg Standards and abandoning Generally Accepted AccountingPrincipless (GAAP), the system in place in the Unitedr States since the The commission said it would decide by 2011 whethe to require the switch in anothef three years. About 100 countries, including memberw of the European Union, use the internationapl standards, which are based on guidinb principles more than the detailed prescriptive rulesof "The United States is the outsider lookinv in right now," said John managing partner of the Columbus, Ohio, office of LLP.
"This makes a lot of sense, that we should have a standard accounting language acrossthe world. When you look at a set of financial statements it ought to be readablde by someone in Chinwand London." The switch woulsd affect not just annual reports but everything about a businesz from the compensation plan to an insurancre company's actuarial tables. The differences can be subtlew -- like encountering a "lift" in England instead of an elevatoer -- but they add up. A studhy of 129 companies by analysyt Jack Ciesielskiof Baltimore-based accounting research firm found two-thirda reported higher profits under internationall standards than under GAAP.
Just two of the companied ended up with the same earningw when followingboth systems. "There may not be a lot of companies that want to be pioneers in this but therde could besome advantages," McEwan Even companies that have only U.S. operationse are preparing for the switch because they haveinternationao competitors. "It's going to providew a benefit of comparability thatjust doesn'rt exist today," said Joe Buonaiuto, senior vice presidentt and controller at Columbus-based (NYSE: AEP).