The AASB Research Report on financial reporting by non-corporate and small entities highlights the difficulties faced by accountants in navigating the extensive requirements set forth by numerous accounting standards, which can be overwhelming due to their complexity and volume. The AASB issues 57 documents on the latest standards, most of them 50 - 100 pages of very technical accounting-speak. Additionally, it is widely recognized in the accounting community that the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has added layers of complexity to compliance for small businesses, making it challenging for accountants to stay informed about all relevant details.

How is the average accountant to keep up and meet all the immovable deadlines and mandatory reports. Can an AI chat bot trained on all the AASB documents help accountants pose questions and scenarios and receive helpful and meaningful responses? These chat bots cannot replace accountants of course, you should treat them like you would a junior assistant by getting them to do some of the grunt work, but always verify any answers they come up with.

You be the judge. Here is such a chatbot (below), trained on all 57 AASB standards documents. Pose your AASB-related question and see what you think. This is free to use and is currently experimental.

Here are some suggestions for sample questions, but feel free to ask anything you like:

• A client's employee took a leadership course that cost $3,500. The company paid for it. The training will benefit the business for several years. Should this be capitalized or expensed?

• My client is building a small storage shed that will take 4 months to complete. They've borrowed $50,000 for the project but construction has paused for 3 weeks due to rain. Should they stop capitalizing the interest during this weather delay?

• Same as above put the delay is for 6 months due to a contract dispute.