A Guide To Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS)

How global accounting standards evolved

Before the days of globalisation, each country or region had their own accounting standards that closely reflected their economy, politics, culture, and unique business practices. But with globalisation and the growth of international trade, there came a need for uniform, comparable, and globally acceptable accounting standards.

The International Accounting Standards Committee was set up in 1973 to address this need. It came out with the International Accounting Standards, the first set of globally comparable accounting principles. In 2001, the International Accounting Standards Committee was replaced by the International Accounting Standards Board, which published the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that are currently in use. The IFRS is the most universally accepted set of accounting standards – even though they are not used by major markets such as the United States and China, which continue to follow their own national practices. Singapore accounting standards are closely modelled on the IFRS and called the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS), which we will discuss in detail in this article.

What financial reporting standards achieve

The primary objective of universally accepted financial reporting standards is to help businesses make educated decisions through correct analysis and interpretation of financial statements. These are the ways in which these accounting standards make this possible:

• They make accounting language, practices, and standards consistent, irrespective of the company, its size and location.
• They promote transparency and accountability by ensuring that financial information is reliable and, therefore, fit to be compared internationally.
• They improve efficiency by helping businesses and stakeholders identify opportunities and risks.
• They do away with the need to study and analyse different national accounting standards, which costs time and money and is prone to errors.   

What is Singapore FRS?

As previously mentioned, the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS) are largely based on the International Financial Reporting Standards. A few differences remain – such as the effective dates for some provisions – and the idea is to fully converge with the international standards in the long run.

The SFRS comprises 41 standards, which are formulated by the Accounting Standards Council. Each standard deals with a separate topic. The topics cover wide accounting areas. Some deal with specific types of records or transactions, such as inventories, leases, employee benefits, and income tax. Others deal with accounting practices, such as the presentation of financial statements, or the preparation of separate and consolidated financial statements. Some topics are industry-specific, such as agriculture. 

As of 2003, all Singapore-incorporated companies as well as the Singapore branches of foreign firms must comply with the SFRS while preparing their financial statements. Financial statements include balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, notes to financial statements, statements showing changes in equity, and lists of accounting policies.

SFRS (International)

In line with its intention to fully converge the SFRS with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Singapore introduced the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (International) or SFRS(I) in 2017. The SFRS(I) is mandatory for all Singapore-incorporated companies that are listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). For annual accounting periods starting on or after January 1, 2018, eligible companies must prepare SFRS(I)-compliant financial statements. Non-listed Singapore-incorporated companies may also voluntary use the new standards.

Key principles of SFRS

The FRS in Singapore works on the following principles: 

1. Accrual accounting system

Financial reports must follow the accrual system of accounting, as prescribed in the accounting standards in Singapore. This means transactions (such as income or expenses) are recorded as and when they occur, not as and when they are paid. Accrual accounting is universally preferred to its alternative, cash accounting, where transactions are recorded based on when cash is received or paid. Experts are in agreement that accrual accounting makes financial statements easier to read as it presents a more accurate picture of a company’s cash flow and operational efficiency.

2. Comparability

The standardisation of accounting language and practices that the SFRS brings ensures that the information contained in multiple financial statements – whether of the same organisation or of different companies – can be easily compared. Those reading the statements are thus better able to understand a specific data set better and tell between similarities and differences in that data. In this way, comparability improves  decision-making in business.

3. Relevance

Financial statements must hold information that is both predictive and confirmative. This means that by using the information or data, the reader should be able to predict a result in the future or confirm a past prediction. This is important given that more and more companies today are making evidence-based decisions backed by data rather than relying on old-fashioned instinct and intuition.

4. Verification

The SFRS requires companies to prepare their financial statements in a way that allows readers to verify the information they hold. This means making disclosures about the methods used to compile the information and the assumptions made, if any, to interpret them. 

5. Accuracy

The information must be accurate, complete, error-free, and neutral. Measures must be taken to minimise human error, which is common while compiling and recording large amounts of data. But beyond that, it also means that the accounting assumptions and estimates used to arrive at various conclusions in the financial statements are reasonable.

6. Easy understanding

Finally, there must be a standard and consistent way of classifying and recording information. This will make reading, understanding, and comparing financial statements easy.

SFRS for Small Entities

Small businesses make up a large chunk of Singapore’s economy. In the years after the Singapore FRS was introduced, many of these small companies struggled to comply with the comprehensive requirements of the SFRS and found it a strain on their limited resources. To ease their burden, the Accounting Standards Council in 2010 adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs), which had been published the previous year. The Singaporean version is called the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards for Small Entities (SFRS for SE). It came into effect from January 1, 2011.  

How SFRS for SE differs from SFRS

The SFRS for SE is tailored to match the needs of small and private businesses. Under it, companies do not have to make as many disclosures as required under the full SFRS. Furthermore, rules on measurement and recognition have been simplified, ensuring that those reading financial statements that are compliant with the SFRS for SE only receive information that is relevant to them.

SFRS for SE eligibility criteria

To be eligible to use the Singapore accounting standards for small entities, a business must fulfil the following conditions:

1. It must be a small entity.
2. It must not be publicly accountable. 
3. It must publish general purpose financial statements for external users. General purpose financial statements provide information about a company’s financial position, performance, and cash flow and meet the information requirements of external users such as shareholders, creditors, employees, and the general public, among others.
4. It must fulfil these three conditions for two previous and consecutive years. However, a newly formed company may start using the SFRS for SE right away for its first and second accounting reporting periods post-incorporation if it meets the second and third conditions stated above.

To qualify as a small entity, a company must fulfil two of three conditions:

• Its total annual revenue must not exceed SGD 10 million.
• Its total assets must also be under SGD 10 million.
• It must not have more than 50 employees.

Furthermore, an entity is considered publicly accountable if it meets any one of the following criteria:

• It is a public company as defined in the Singapore Companies Act.
• It is a charity as defined in the Charities Act.
• It has traded or is in the process of trading its debt or equity instruments (loans, bonds, stocks, etc) in a public market (local or foreign stock exchange).
• It is in the business of holding the deposits or assets of a wide variety of outsiders (banks, insurance companies, etc).

Compliance with the SFRS for SE is not mandatory. Eligible companies may opt for it or continue to use the full SFRS. Also, once they make the switch, they must adopt the SFRS for SE in its entirety. They cannot use a mix of both the SFRS and its alternative for small entities. 

SFRS or SFRS for SE – key considerations

While the SFRS for SE is definitely easier to comply with, companies are advised to consider a few factors before making the switch from SFRS:

• Expansion and IPO plans: If a company has plans to expand or go public through an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future, which would make it ineligible for the SFRS for SE, it would be better to continue using the full SFRS.
• Transition cost: There are expenses (training of staff, investing in new software, upgrading accounting systems, etc) to be considered when making the switch from SFRS to SFRS for SE. Companies must ask themselves if it is worth the trouble and cost, especially if they will be using the new standards for a short time (as in the case of businesses with expansion ambitions).  
• Requirement of lenders: Small businesses are heavily dependent on external funding for their operational needs. But many financial institutions and lenders demand financial statements that are compliant with the full SFRS. Switching to the alternative would, therefore, mean fewer funding prospects.     ‍
• Impact on group companies: If the parent company follows the SFRS, the group companies might be better off adhering to the same standards. Switching to the simpler standards for small entities might create complications in their records.