With today's focus on big data and data analytics, it is perhaps surprising to know that it is possible to fight against the monopolization of data.. As this article (Why the Web 3.0 matters and you should know about it) relates, 
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The article then highlights the new apps that are poised to take over the existing ones :

• Instead of Google Drive or Dropbox, we have services like Storj, Siacoin, Filecoin or IPFS technology to distribute and store files.
• Instead of Skype we have platforms like Experty.io.
• Instead of WhatsApp and Wechat we have Status
• Instead of operating systems such as iOS and Android, frameworks such as Essentia.one and EOS provide a gateway to the new web.
• Akasha or Steemit will play the role of Facebook, the Brave browser will serve as Chrome and Ethlance can take over from Upwork.​

With the brouhaha surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, China's social credit score system, such developments are heartening news indeed. As much as all things internet are now very much a part of the fabric in society, to know that we can avoid being slaves to the system is a very big deal.

How is this done? The answers seems to be this :

But at present the decentralized apps, wallets, platforms, and other digital assets that make up Web 3.0 are scattered. ​And accessing these interfaces calls for separate seeds, logins, and identities — much like the existing Web 2.0. So the author, the founder of Essentia.one, offers to be the provider of the single seed.

The irony is, while having a single key to access all things internet is great for the user, we are back to the original issue of monopoly. If there is only one provider providing these seeds, then all power will be concentrated on the one providing the seeds.
Wouldn't we be just replacing the current behemoths with just another version?

Came across this interesting article today and am guilty of quite a few of them. The first 7 relate to office productivity and the rest is  more on the personal level. In summary, here's the 12 poor decisions you could be making on a day to day basis :

1. Tackling Your Easiest Tasks First
2. Constantly Checking Your Email (guilty as charged)
3. Keeping Your Phone On Desk At Work (guilty as charged)
4. Staying Seated All Day 
   
5. Staring At A Screen For Hours At A Time
6. Waiting Until Late Afternoon To Take A Break From Work
7. Listening To Music While You Work (they're right, it only works for repetitive and monotonous tasks)
8. Choosing Foods That Seem Nutritious But Aren't Really (Thank God, I love eggs)
9. Passively Browsing Social Media
10. Escalating A Fight With Your Partner
11. Matching Dozens of People On Dating Apps But Not Messaging Any Of Them
12. Staying Up Too Late (guilty as charged)

​Even as some companies are still reeling from the adoption of FRS 115, the next big standard to affect the accounting landscape is FRS 116. This will be a major accounting standard to adopt for lessees.
 
In a nutshell with this new standard, there is no more distinction between operating and finance lease accounting for lessees. What this means is that leased assets and liabilities that were off balance sheet under FRS 17 (the previous standard) will now have to be recognised.
 
Needless to say, the impact on the financial statements as a result of this change could be potentially huge, especially if the company has lots of operating leases.
 
Impact on Statement of Financial Position
The company’s assets and liabilities will increase and this would affect ratios like current ratio and gearing ratio negatively.
In all likelihood, the current ratio will decrease as the lease liability recognise would affect both current and non-current liabilities but the lease asset recognised will only affect the non-current asset section.
Gearing ratio would also increase as financial liabilities is increased and equity is decreased due to increased expenses recognised (depreciation and lease interest).
Companies relying on these ratios to determine or maintain debt covenants would do well to pre-empt these changes and negotiate with their bankers now to avoid breaching their debt covenants.
 
Impact on Income Statement
As mentioned above, ceteris paribus, a company’s overall profits would decrease upon adoption of FRS 116. This is due to increase in depreciation and interest expense, which would likely outweigh the effect of the absence of the now disallowed rental expense.
An interesting consequence, however, is that EBIT and EBITDA would increase as the additional depreciation expense should be lesser than the disallowed rental expense.
Companies that use these ratios for staff incentive programs would need to take note of these impact and revise their KPIs accordingly. Similarly, companies who report these ratios to their investors should also inform them of these impacts and decide if their current benchmark needs to be revised.
  
Impact on Cash Flow Statement
The impact on operating cash flow would be positive as the rental expense amount is no longer in this section and the newly included interest payment would be much smaller in comparison. This is because the bulk of the cash outflow is now the principal payment and that would belongs to the financing section.
Companies may wish to educate their investors that the increase in operating cash flows does not really indicate any vast improvement in the business as the net cash flow is unaffected.

Conclusion
Even though the effective date for this Standard is 1 January 2019, companies that have heavy operating lease commitments should start assessing the impact now rather than in 2019., In particular, companies in the co-working and service office industry like WeWork and Regus could be very much affected by this standard, especially if they don't own the properties they operate in.

For companies with debt covenants tied to gearing ratios, they should start negotiating with their financial institutions to avoid situations where those covenants would be breached. 
Companies who are using the affected ratios for benchmarking should also assess the impact of these changes and make their own revisions accordingly.


If you need assistance in assessing the impact of adopting this Standard on your Company, we can help!
Contact us today!