What is balloting?
Balloting is a drafting, review and approval process to ensure a project document is well written and accurately reflects board decisions.
When the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) or International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) completes the technical decision-making stage in a project, they sometimes decide to publish a document. This can be a consultation document (like an Exposure Draft or Discussion Paper); a new IFRS Accounting Standard or IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standard; or an amendment to a Standard.
A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to get the document ready for publication as balloting takes place largely outside of public board meetings.
Ballot drafts
Board members review an early draft of the document, called a pre-ballot draft, to ensure the technical decisions taken by the board are captured correctly and that the document is clearly written. There may be more than one pre-ballot draft.
Once feedback from the board members on the pre-ballot draft has been considered, a ballot draft is circulated for the board members to approve, confirming that they are satisfied the document is consistent with the decisions taken during public board meetings and that they are happy to put their name to it.
If a board member dissents from the publication of the document, the reasons will be explained within the document when published.
Additional reviews
Editorial, translations and digital reporting teams also review the draft to make sure the document is understandable, can be translated into other languages and incorporated into the IFRS Foundation’s taxonomies to enable digital reporting. The process may also include reviews by external stakeholders.
Sweep issues
Sometimes the balloting process may reveal new issues or inconsistencies between sections of a document or Standard. If that happens, the questions―called ‘sweep issues’―will be brought back for the board to discuss and resolve at a public board meeting prior to finalising the document for publication.
Due process
Balloting is an important part of the IFRS Foundation’s due process and is described in the Due Process Handbook―the standard-setting ‘rulebook’.
The due process ensures that stakeholders all over the world can scrutinise and contribute to our standard-setting, which is critical for ensuring our Standards are of the highest possible quality.
