CIPC mandated GRAP filings - Know It All

As the Software Service Provider (SSP) for XBRL under the CIPC mandate, we have already processed voluntary filings using the GRAP taxonomy.

Let’s understand all about GRAP.

What is the GRAP mandate?

The Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) are the accounting standards issued by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) under section 89 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Following are the “entities” in the standards of GRAP –

  1. departments (including national and provincial, and government components)
  2. public entities
  3. trading entities (as defined in the PFMA)
  4. constitutional institutions
  5. municipalities and boards, commissions, companies, corporations, funds, or other entities under the ownership control of a municipality, and
  6. Parliament and the provincial legislatures

Note: If, as a company, you fall under any of the categories mentioned above, you need to file your AFS in XBRL format using GRAP taxonomy starting from 1st Oct 2021.

History

Initially, the GRAP standard centered on IPSAS, which was dependent on IFRS. As a result, in the lack of an IPSAS standard, the GRAP was the same as IFRS. However, additional GRAP standards are set to address the needs of the public sector. The original GRAP standards were altered, and as a result, the gap between GRAP and IFRS has widened.

Why do we need GRAP?

GRAP ensures that accountants across South Africa consistently record financial transactions. It guarantees that public entities handle finances transparently and consistently. As a result, all state-owned entities in South Africa must adhere to the GRAP.

What are State-owned companies? How does GRAP affect them?

The categories of companies required to file/submit their AFS in iXBRL to CIPC with effect from 01 July 2018 included State-owned companies. These companies were unable to file in iXBRL using CIPC taxonomy as their AFS was based on GRAP.

State-owned companies are: –

  1. Listed as a public entity under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 1999; or
  2. Owned by a municipality under the Local Government Municipal Systems Act, 2000, and is otherwise similar to an enterprise as mentioned above.

To standardize the reporting obligation for all entity types, CIPC has come up with the GRAP taxonomy.

GRAP Impact

As the CIPC has launched a mandate for all these companies (GRAP) to submit their annual AFS in XBRL format, the companies are leveraging the adoption of a new format to also evaluate existing processes, mitigate risk, and drive efficiencies and control within their filing processes.

Initially, the efforts and investment for this XBRL conversion may seem quite high, but this is supposed to reduce as filings progress over the years, which happened with private companies also (like CIPC IFRS and CIPC SMES filers).

From October 2021, the companies must comply and submit their GRAP-based financial statements online to the commission.

Adherence and Process –

The transitioning process involves detailing when it comes to compliance. Ez-XBRL can smoothen this transition.

Benefits of partnering with Ez XBRL

  1. Partnering with XBRL compliant company will make your journey stress-free.
  2. Equipped with XBRL expertise along with industry-specific experience can help the timely filing of your AFS to CIPC online.
  3. In any mandated compliance, meeting the deadline is as important as providing correct information that has been captured and submitted during the XBRL filings. Ez takes care of that.

Ez-XBRL is a global provider of XBRL solutions and services. We are one of the acknowledged leaders in XBRL known to provide solutions and services for analytics, regulatory compliance, and business reporting to customers across the globe.

We have converted upward of 800 AFS for private companies since the CIPC XBRL mandate came into effect from 2018 till date and the number keeps growing. We have also processed AFS for GRAP for Public sector companies recently who filed voluntarily with CIPC.

Contact us now to avail of our CIPC XBRL services and comply at your end.