I had Chinese food last night. My fortune read “The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from.” How true.

As accountants, we see the humor in this as we watch our colleagues discuss IFRS versus GAAP. IFRS versus IFRS for SMEs. IFRS versus IFRS in the entity’s home country and so on. Principles based, rule based…sure.

I am old enough to have taken the CPA exam when one section was called theory. If you understood the fundamental nature of an economic event, you could probably get the accounting correct. The only standards  you needed were logic and truth.