However, others caution private-company CFOs to beware. "Many are assuming that [IFRS for Private Entities] will simplify things for private companies. I totally disagree," says Andy Thrower, a partner at NaviscentGroup, which provides part-time CFO services to private companies.

Thrower outlines 12 points of contention in a recent paper, including stock-option accounting. The proposed standard may be only 3 pages long, compared to GAAP's 286 pages, but Thrower argues that the IFRS approach is no simpler, because it incorporates by reference IFRS 2 — virtually the same as FAS 123R, the current standard that requires companies to calculate the cost of shares based on market valuations, not an easy prospect for non–publicly traded firms.

Continuing to have private companies hew to fair-value standards, which the IASB is likely to do, is also overkill, says Thrower. "The primary users of private-company financial statements are bank lenders, and they are trying to predict cash-flow coverage," which doesn't necessarily hinge on asset valuations, he says. "If the bank wants to know the fair value of your assets, it will just ask you to get an appraisal."

For better or worse, how quickly private companies adopt IFRS will likely depend on how readily bankers, auditors, and others accept such a move, says John Hepp, partner at Grant Thornton, and that remains a "wild card." — Alix Stuart and Tim Reason

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