The Accounting Standards Board will announce next week new standards on financial instruments that it says will impact virtually every business entity in Canada.

“These standards are a culmination of many years of consultation, with the standard setters having explored several approaches to recognition and measurement, closely monitoring related international developments, and putting out several exposure drafts for comment to produce standards that will enhance the understandability of financial statements, are practical and are harmonized with those of international partners,” the board said in a release Friday.

The new standards will be announced on Jan. 27.

Currently, the AcSB has in place standards for disclosures about an entity’s use and presentation of financial instruments and how financial instruments. But it has not had standards that comprehensively address when an entity should recognize and measure a financial instrument on its balance sheet. The new standards will fill that gap in GAAP.

The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board the International Accounting Standards Board have issued similar standards covering recognition and measurement of financial instruments, which were initially met with resistance and in some areas, despite subsequent modifications, still continue to do so.