Accountants in the U.S. are increasingly starting to prepare for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

A 55 percent majority of CPAs at firms and companies nationwide now say they are preparing in a variety of ways for adoption of IFRS, an increase of 14 percentage points from the 41 percent who told the AICPA they were preparing for the change in April. The latest results are based on 1,495 AICPA members who responded to an online survey between Sept. 22 and Oct. 2, 2008.

At the same time, the number of respondents who aren't yet preparing for IFRS dropped by an equal amount. Forty-five percent now say they are not yet preparing for IFRS, a drop of 14 percentage points from the 59 percent in April who had said they weren't preparing for IFRS. According to the new survey, a 65.2 percent majority of CPAs say they have some knowledge of IFRS but need to learn more. In May, the AICPA set up a new Web site, www.ifrs.com, to help CPAs become better informed about IFRS.

The SEC formally issued a proposed roadmap on Nov. 14 that would allow approximately 110 of the largest U.S. multinational companies to adopt IFRS beginning in 2010. Most other U.S. publicly traded companies would phase in the use of IFRS between 2014 and 2016.