Bakgrund: Företag är beroende av en mängd olika intressenter som alla har ett behov av att de tillgångar som redovisas är korrekt värderade Detta gäller inte minst fastighetsbolag vars tillgångsmassa till största del består av fastigheter vilka ligger till grund för värderingen av bolaget. RR 17 innebär att företagen inför varje rapporttillfälle måste göra en bedömning av sina tillgångar och när det redovisade värdet överstiger återvinningsvärdet ska det skrivas ned. Rekommendationen är mycket omfattande och innehåller bland annat riktlinjer för hur beräkning av återvinningsvärdet ska ske. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att utifrån ett redovisningsperspektiv genomföra en kritisk granskning av RR 17. Tillvägagångssätt: Här redogör vi för varför vi valt fastigheter. Vi beskriver hur vi har sökt information, gjort urval bland bolag och personer samt hur vi har lagt upp och genomfört våra intervjuer. Vi avslutar kapitlet med kritik mot det sätt vi valt att utföra granskningen på. Resultat: Vi anser att det är bra när ett värde har hög relevans men att det inte får ökas på bekostnad av lägre objektivitet. Vår egen åsikt som externa bedömare är att tillförlitligheten inte har ökat. Införandet av RR 17 har inte medfört att bolagen har fått ökade kostnader. Vi tycker att det råder brist på precision i underlaget för nedskrivning.

År 2004 inledde Bokföringsnämnden K-projektet, som innebär förändringar inom normgivning gällande redovisning för svenska företag och syftet med projektet är att åstadkomma förenklingar vid upprättande av årsredovisning. BFNAR 2008:1 Årsredovisning i mindre aktiebolag, även benämnt K2-reglerna, är andra steget i K–projektet. I samband med införandet av ett nytt regelverk kan det uppstå både positiva och negativa konsekvenser för redovisningen och dens tolkning, vilka kan vara av stor vikt att granska.Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka om de nya K2-reglerna avviker från allmänna redovisningsprinciper samt om personer som är insatta inom redovisning tror att de regler som eventuellt avviker kan komma att påverka tolkningen av ett företags årsredovisning.Vi valde att göra en kvalitativ studie där vi utgick från ett urval av de punkter där K2 eventuellt avviker från allmänna redovisningsprinciper. För att uppnå vårt syfte genomförde vi sedan djupintervjuer med kreditgivare samt en företagskonsult.Resultatet av vår studie visar att det nya regelverket faktiskt kan anses avvika från allmänna redovisningsprinciper på ett flertal punkter. Vissa av de regler vi granskat ansågs överensstämma med de allmänna redovisningsprinciperna, medan andra sågs avvika eller svåra att med säkerhet bedöma.Vad gäller effekterna på tolkning av en årsredovisning skiljde sig resultatet även här mellan de olika punkter som diskuterats. Vissa regler ansågs kunna påverka tolkningen negativt och andra i en positiv bemärkelse. Flertalet av de nya reglerna konstaterades dock troligtvis inte påverka till så stor grad.

The Swedish membership in the European Union has led to a closer connection to all other member nations. Big opportunities have arisen for Swedish organizations since the boarders have opened up and one large internal market has emerged.   However, this dynamic environment is more demanding and put higher pressure on the organizations flexibility and ability to adapt to common laws and requirements.   The winning organizations in this globalizations are the once which organizational structure are built in a way to handle the constant changes in the market and are capable to adapt to the ongoing changing needs and requirements.   From the problem formulation of the study, How has the work been carried out at swedish listed organizations in order to adopt to the EU requirements for the members to set up their accounting according to the international accounting principles?, the purpose is to from a organizational perspective and with Swedish empirical studies, try and contribute to increased insights in the subject of forced changes and generate theories focusing on Swedish organizations. A sub purpose is to discuss and reflect on the differences between forced and voluntary changes.   A qualitative method has been used, and representatives from eight different listed companies, active in different line of businesses have participated. The results show that the implementation process has been smoother than first expected. Furthermore, the research shows that companies do not make a distinction between forced or voluntary changes.   In addition to this we present a model that identifies areas that organizations ought to focus on in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their change process and the reason we argue that organizations should set up the change process differently depending on the type of change they are facing.

Tidigare forskning kring implementeringen av IFRS fokuserar främst på varför företag väljer att övergå till IFRS samt vilka effekter det medför. Det finns väldigt lite forskning som studerar implementeringsprocessen på företagsnivå och den forskning som studerar processen fokuserar på länder och inte företag. Utifrån att det finns lite tidigare forskning kring ämnet finns det intresse av att utforska det närmare. Syftet med studien är att förstå implementeringsprocessen av IFRS på företagsnivå i Sverige samt påvisa utmaningar i processen som företag stöter på.  Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och data till studien samlades genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och analys av dokument. Analysen av data har gjorts genom den institutionella teorin och tre delar ur isomorfismen: Tvingande isomorfism, imiterande isomorfism och normativ isomorfism. Genom dessa delar ur isomorfismen har därmed slutsatser kunnat göras.  Resultaten visar att en viktig del i implementeringsprocessen är företagens samverkan med konsulter. Konsulterna är delaktiga i hela processen och det är viktigt för företagen att sätta en tydlig plan kring hur implementeringsprocessen ska gå till.  Vidare visar det att mallar och riktlinjer används för att underlätta processen. Ett antal utmaningar som nämns i processen är framför allt hanteringen kring leasingavtal samt problematik kring revisorns oberoende. / Previous research regarding IFRS implementation focuses mostly on why companies choose to implement IFRS and what the effects are. There is very little research that studies the implementation process on company level and the research that studies the process focuses on countries and not companies. Since there is little research regarding this topic it is of interest to do further research. The purpose of this study is to understand the implementation process of IFRS on a company level and to show what challenges companies face in the process.  The study has a qualitative approach and the gathering of data was done through semi structured interviews and document analysis. The analysis of data has been made through institutional theory andits three parts of isomorphism: Coercive isomorphism, mimetic isomorphism and normative isomorphism. Through these parts of isomorphism, it has thus been possible to draw conclusions. The results show that an important part of the implementation process is the companies' collaboration with consultants. The consultants are involved in the entire process and it´s important for the company to set a clear plan for how the implementation process should go. Furthermore, it shows that templates and guidelines are used to facilitate the process. A number of challenges that are mentioned in the process are above all the handling of leasing agreements and problems regarding the auditor's independence.

<p><em>Background:</em> The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders’ impression of the group’s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained.</p><p><em>Purpose:</em> The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group’s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits. Watts and Zimmerman’s debt/equity hypothesis serve as the starting point for our study. This hypothesis expresses, ceteris paribus, that the larger debt/equity ratio, the more likely it is to select accounting procedures that shift reported earnings from future periods to the current period. According to the hypothesis there should be a positive relationship between a group’s equity/asset ratio and their percentage share of goodwill impairment loss. A high equity/asset ratio would motivate a higher impairment loss for goodwill, as a lower equity/asset ratio would induce a lower impairment loss.</p><p><em>Method:</em> We decided to investigate all groups with the parent company listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm within the sectors financials and industrials. In financials, banks were excluded. The data was collected from annual reports of 2008 and was analyzed with the statistical analyzing methods correlation and regression.</p><p><em>Result/conclusion:</em> For those industrial groups which have had impairment loss for goodwill, the result is in accordance with Watts and Zimmerman’s hypothesis. A strong positive linear relationship could be found for those groups, but not for the sector as a whole. The equity/asset ratio therefore seems to not affect the decision of whether to lose impairment or not, but when the decision is made, the ratio of equity/asset seems to affect the size of the impairment loss. Within the financial sector, no relationship could be found – neither for the groups which have had impairment loss nor the sector as a whole.</p>

Background: The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders’ impression of the group’s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group’s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits. Watts and Zimmerman’s debt/equity hypothesis serve as the starting point for our study. This hypothesis expresses, ceteris paribus, that the larger debt/equity ratio, the more likely it is to select accounting procedures that shift reported earnings from future periods to the current period. According to the hypothesis there should be a positive relationship between a group’s equity/asset ratio and their percentage share of goodwill impairment loss. A high equity/asset ratio would motivate a higher impairment loss for goodwill, as a lower equity/asset ratio would induce a lower impairment loss. Method: We decided to investigate all groups with the parent company listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm within the sectors financials and industrials. In financials, banks were excluded. The data was collected from annual reports of 2008 and was analyzed with the statistical analyzing methods correlation and regression. Result/conclusion: For those industrial groups which have had impairment loss for goodwill, the result is in accordance with Watts and Zimmerman’s hypothesis. A strong positive linear relationship could be found for those groups, but not for the sector as a whole. The equity/asset ratio therefore seems to not affect the decision of whether to lose impairment or not, but when the decision is made, the ratio of equity/asset seems to affect the size of the impairment loss. Within the financial sector, no relationship could be found – neither for the groups which have had impairment loss nor the sector as a whole.