IFRS for SMEs / Is your FY2028 year-end ready for the IFRS for SMEs third edition?

Is your FY2028 year-end ready for the IFRS for SMEs third edition?

Which year is your first third-edition year

The third edition applies to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027. The first year it applies to depends on your year end:

• February year end: the year from 1 March 2027 to 29 February 2028.
• June year end: the year from 1 July 2027 to 30 June 2028.
• December year end: the calendar year 2027.

Why the preparation starts now

Those statements show comparative figures for the year before. For a February year end, the comparative year runs from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, so the information behind it is being recorded now. Unless the transition requirements in Appendix A give relief, a change in accounting policy that the new edition brings is applied retrospectively under Section 10, and the comparative year is presented on the new basis.

The ten-item checklist

• Early application (A1): decide whether to apply the third edition before 2027. If you do, the basis of preparation must say so.
• Revenue (Section 23): review contracts with more than one obligation, deposits received in advance and variable consideration.
• Accounting policies (3.17(e); 8.5): keep only material accounting policy information.
• Financing liabilities (7.19A): prepare an opening-to-closing reconciliation for every loan and finance facility.
• Receivables ageing (11.43): make sure invoices carry due dates.
• Liability maturity (11.43A): keep each loan's repayment schedule, including interest.
• Fair value (Section 12): ask valuers to state their technique and inputs.
• Supplier finance (7.19B–7.19C): identify suppliers paid through a finance provider.
• Uncertain tax treatments (29.34A–29.34D): identify deductions SARS may dispute.
• Dividends after year end (6.6; 32.8): record any dividend declared before the statements are approved.

What does not change

• Leases stay on the finance-lease and operating-lease model of Section 20.
• The Public Interest Score still decides whether a South African company may use IFRS for SMEs and what assurance it needs.
• A company already on IFRS for SMEs does not apply Section 35, which is for first-time adopters.

How Sight helps

Each engagement has a framework edition. On the third edition, Sight shows the same ten items with their status: automatic, captured, missing or awaiting confirmation. The pre-flight lists anything open before the statements are finalised.

Related

• IFRS for SMEs third edition: what changes for small companies
• Public Interest Score: which framework and what assurance