Singapore FRS
There are more than 40 Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) issued in Singapore.
Each Singapore accounting standards covers a specific topic and hence, not all the standards will be relevant to a particular business. However, by following the standards, financial transactions will be recorded and disclosed based on a consistent set of principles and guidelines. This will allow the information presented in financial statements to be comparable across companies. This will in turn allows users of the financial statements to make more informed decision about the performance, cash flow and financial position of a particular company.
The full set of Singapore FRS (SFRS) is available at Accounting Standards Council website.
The ASC has also issued the Singapore–Financial–Reporting– Standard for–Small–Entities (SFRS for Small Entities) in December 2010 for financial reporting period beginning on or after 1st January 2011. This standard is modeled after the IFRS for SMEs, with modified scope and applicability. It is an alternative to the Singapore FRS for the preparation and presentation of financial statements.
An entity is eligible to apply this standard if it is not publicly accountable and meet at least two of the following criteria:
- Annual revenue of not more than S$10 million
- Gross assets of not more than S$10 million
- Number of employees of not more than 50
Although SFRS for Small Entities are more streamlined and simplified for small and medium enterprises (SME), SMEs should still weigh carefully the cost and benefits of adopting it. There may be retraining costs for the finance staff as well as impact of future growth to be considered.
Brief description of each SFRS:
No | Titles |
FRS 1 | Presentation of Financial Statements Guideline and minimum requirement for the presentation of financial statements, which consist of:
|
FRS 2 | Inventories Guideline for accounting for inventories, including how to determine the cost of the inventories (for example, weighted average costing) and requirement for inventories to be measured at the lower of cost or net realizable value. |
FRS 7 | Cash Flow Statements Requirements for the preparation of a cash flow statement, classifying the cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities. |
FRS 8 | Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors Criteria for selecting and applying accounting policies, as well as the accounting treatment and disclosure of changes in accounting policies, accounting estimates and correction of prior period errors. |
FRS 10 | Events after the Balance Sheet Date Accounting and disclosure of events AFTER the balance sheet date, which may impact whether the financial statements should be prepared on a going concern basis. |
FRS 11 | Construction Contracts Accounting and allocating the revenue and costs of construction contracts into the appropriate accounting periods in which construction work is being performed |
FRS 12 | Income Taxes Accounting treatment for income taxes, including recognition of deferred taxes and disclosure of income taxes in the financial statements. |
FRS 16 | Property, Plant and Equipment Accounting treatment for property, plant and equipment, including determining the carrying value, depreciation charges as well as impairment losses, if any. |
FRS 17 | Leases Accounting treatment for leases, for both lessees and lessors. |
FRS 18 | Revenue Accounting treatment for revenue, including when to recognize the revenue and how much to recognise. |
FRS 19 | Employee Benefits Accounting treatment and disclosure for employee benefits, including recognizing and accruing for short-term employee benefits when the employee has rendered services in exchange for those benefits. |
FRS 20 | Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance Accounting treatment and disclosure for governments grants and other government assistance. |
FRS 21 | The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates Accounting for foreign currency transactions and foreign operations in the financial statements as well as presentation of financial statements in foreign currency. |
FRS 23 | Borrowing Costs Accounting for borrowing costs, including the type of borrowing costs and the type of assets that qualify the related borrowing costs to be capitalized. |
FRS 24 | Related Party Disclosures Disclosure of related parties relationships, transactions, outstanding balances and commitments in the financial statements. |
FRS 26 | Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plan Accounting and reporting by retirement benefit plans, this is regarded as a separate reporting entity from the employers of the participants of the plan. |
FRS 27 | Separate Financial Statements Accounting and disclosure for investment in subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates, where separate financial statements are prepared. |
FRS 28 | Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures Accounting for investments in associates and requirement for equity accounting in investment in associates and joint ventures. |
FRS 29 | Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies Financial statements requirements when the functional currency is the currency of a hyperinflationary economy. |
FRS–31– | Interests in Joint–Ventures Accounting for all interests in the joint–ventures, which includes joint venture income reporting, expenses, assets and liabilities in the investors’ financial statements. |
FRS 32 | Financial Instruments: Presentation Presentation of financial instruments (unless specifically exempted by the standard) as liabilities and equities, and for offsetting financial assets and financial liabilities. |
FRS 33 | Earnings per Share Presentation and disclosure of earnings per share (EPS) in the financial statement, focusing on determining the denominator of the EPS calculation. |
FRS 34 | Interim Financial Reporting Minimum requirement when preparing interim financial reports. |
FRS 36 | Impairment of Assets Accounting for impairment of assets and ensuring assets are carried at no more than their recoverable amount. |
FRS–37 | Provisions, Contingent–Liabilities and–Contingent–Assets Recognition–criteria and measurement to be applied to contingent liabilities, contingent–assets and provisions. |
FRS 38 | Intangible Assets Accounting for intangible assets, including how to measure the carrying amount and the related disclosures. |
FRS 39 | Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement Principles for recognizing and measuring financial assets, financial liabilities and some contracts to buy or sell non-financial items. |
FRS 40 | Investment Property Accounting and disclosure for investment property, using either fair value model or cost model. |
FRS 41 | Agriculture Accounting and disclosure for agricultural activity. |
FRS 101 | First-time Adoption of Financial Reporting Standards Requirements for entities preparing their first financial statements according to SFRS. |
FRS 102 | Share-based Payment Disclosure for share-based payment transactions in the financial statements. |
FRS 103 | Business Combinations Accounting for business combinations from the perspective of the acquirer. |
FRS 104 | Insurance Contracts Accounting for insurance contracts from the perspective of the insurer. |
FRS 105 | Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations Requirements for the classification, measurement and presentation of non-current assets held for sale. |
FRS 106 | Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources Reporting for the exploration and evaluation of mineral resources, including accounting for the expenditure incurred during the exploration and evaluation processes. |
FRS 107 | Financial Instruments: Disclosure Disclosure for all types of financial instruments (unless specifically exempted). |
FRS 108 | Operating Segments Reporting requirements for operating segments, including providing guidelines for determining an operating segment |
FRS 110 | Consolidated Financial Statements Presentation and preparation of consolidated statements, when consolidated financial statements should be prepared and how they should be prepared. |
FRS 111 | Joint Arrangements Reporting principles for entities that have an interest in arrangements that are controlled jointly. |
FRS 112 | Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities Disclosure of significant assumptions an entity made in determining the nature of interest in another entity or arrangement, including interest in subsidiaries, joint arrangements, associates and unconsolidated structured entities. |
FRS 113 | Fair Value Measurements Definition of fair value, its measurement and disclosures. |
Other than FRS 110, 111, 112 and 113 which are for accounting period on or after 1st January 2013, the rest of the accounting standards are already effective. However, there are some standards which have been amended and of which the amendments are only effective on or after 1st January 2013.
The panel of service providers selected by Singapore Accounting is well versed in Singapore FRS. You can rest assured that the accounting records will comply with Singapore FRS requirements. Please refer to Accounting and Bookkeeping Services for further information on the services offered.