An evaluation of the impacts of the adoption of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers

This paper evaluates the impact of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers on the value relevance of financial reports for Australian listed firms. We find that for most firms the impacts of transition were immaterial, however some firms experienced a significant reduction in earnings and/or retained earnings and for these firms the value relevance of earnings was generally lower in the pre-adoption period compared to firms in which there was no material impact. Post adoption, there is little evidence that the standard improved the relevance of earnings generally.