Everything you've covered this week is identical under US GAAP, IFRS, and Ind AS. That covers the equation and double entry. It covers debits and credits with their T-accounts, and the whole cycle with its accruals and contras. The three frameworks are rulebooks about measurement and disclosure. They settle when revenue counts as "earned", what life you depreciate over, and what the notes must reveal. Bookkeeping mechanics aren't their subject. Differences begin where this week's story went vague, in "estimate 2%," "60-month life" and "earned on delivery," and they fill the next several modules. To get your bearings:
- US GAAP (FASB's Accounting Standards Codification) governs US-listed companies' filings on SEC EDGAR.
- IFRS (IASB) covers ~140+ jurisdictions including Europe, and it's the base text for India's standards.
- Ind AS is India's IFRS-converged set of standards. Each Ind AS number mirrors its IFRS twin, with a handful of "carve-outs" you'll meet in the equity module ahead. It's mandatory for listed and large Indian companies under the Companies Act, 2013. Its statements follow Schedule III formats. One presentation habit is worth noting now. Indian balance sheets label the equity block "Equity" or "Shareholders' funds" and often present Equity + Liabilities = Assets vertically. That's only cosmetic. It's the same equation.
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Where do the three rulebooks differ?
So there are three names and one machine underneath them, and we'll stop there on purpose. You can't learn yet what really separates the rulebooks, because each difference is a statement about statements you haven't built. There are five of them. First comes the conceptual framework, along with the reason a standard-setter has authority at all. Second, the qualitative characteristics that make a reported number useful as well as available, with the trade-off between relevance and faithful representation underneath them. Third, the measurement bases, meaning historical cost, current cost, fair value and value in use, and why the choice among them differs by asset class. Fourth, the standard-setting architecture. That's the FASB and the SEC in the United States, the IASB and each jurisdiction's own endorsement machinery elsewhere, and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the ICAI in India. And fifth, the India carve-outs. They aren't arbitrary, and their reasons are worth knowing.
All of that is taught once, at the end of the phase, when you've met the four statements and can see what a measurement basis does to each of them. Leave it until then. Until you get there, a working rule holds. The mechanics you learned this week are identical in all three rulebooks, and where a real difference exists, it's flagged at the point where you run into it.