IFRS International Accountant and Accounting Services

IFRS training, implementation and continuing monitoring

Dr. Epstein’s forty years’ experience as a practicing public accountant, corporate financial reporting executive, author, lecturer and technical consultant are the foundation for his ability to provide your corporate enterprise with comprehensive training on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).  As Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP) converge with IFRS – and with the increasing likelihood that domestic publicly held companies will be permitted to elect full IFRS compliance – more U.S. registrants, and subsidiaries or affiliates of foreign companies, will need to prepare financial reporting packages or full sets of financial statements under IFRS.  Dr. Epstein, founding co-author of the leading practitioner-oriented IFRS guidance, and his IFRS-savvy team of professionals, can instruct financial reporting executives on the detailed requirements of IFRS (and, as needed, the differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS) in one or two day programs.

In addition to conducting classroom instruction, Dr. Epstein’s team is prepared to assist with step-by-step implementation in your organization, with optional post-implementation monitoring – e.g., for quarterly and annual reporting purposes.  Decades of involvement with SEC filings and financial reporting, including research on evolving financial reporting practices (as incorporated in Dr. Epstein’s annually revised U.S. GAAP and IFRS publications), have prepared him and his team of CPAs to provide these needed services.

Board of Directors and Audit Committee consultation or participation

Publicly held corporations must have audit committees composed of independent directors, all of whom must be financially literate and at least one of whom must be a financial reporting expert.  Many private companies have sought to emulate these “best practices” as well.  Furthermore, Sarbanes-Oxley empowers audit committees, which must oversee the financial reporting decisions of management and the work of the companies’ independent auditors, to engage independent legal and accounting counsel to advise on these matters (e.g., by assisting in the interviews of outside auditors regarding their views of management’s accounting decisions).  Dr. Epstein, supported by his dedicated team of IFRS and U.S. GAAP experts, is available for assignments as financial reporting counsel to audit committees, and as a candidate for board membership/audit committee assignments.

Continuing accounting compliance and financial statement auditing services

As a partner in the full service, twenty-year old public accounting firm Russell Novak & Company LLP, whose partners have an average of over two decades’ experience as accountants and auditors, Dr. Epstein can be engaged to provide the highest quality of traditional financial statement attestation services.  Russell Novak & Company is a registered accounting firm, qualified to service both private and publicly held companies in need of audit or other services.  (Note that, to maintain independence as required under professional standards, these services are available only if Dr. Epstein and his firm have not also consulted on implementation of IFRS or served as a board member or consultant.)  The firm’s full qualifications may be reviewed at www.rnco.com.

Litigation consulting and expert witness services for contractual or other disputes

As a recognized expert on U.S. GAAP and IFRS, auditing, financial analysis and financial reporting practices, with over one hundred litigation consulting and testifying assignments completed to date, Dr. Epstein is also able to assist in the event disputes arise (e.g., over compliance with terms of business acquisitions or spin-offs) that involve the propriety of financial reporting. In addition to IFRS, areas of focus include securities fraud, white collar criminal defense, accountant's liability and accountant's malpractice. (See further details of Dr. Epstein’s litigation-related practice.)

You can email Dr. Barry Jay Epstein, CPA or reach him by phone at 312-464-3520.

See IFRS and GAAP comparisons and differences at our IFRS versus GAAP Resource Center.