Research revealed that strong enforcement of accounting standards would improve the quality of
financial reporting. As a result, information communicated by management to existing and potential
shareholders should also improve. Proper financial reporting is however not necessarily an SME
objective. Traditionally SME owners also fulfil a management function in the business. Moreover, little
evidence exist that disclosure practices of SMEs are monitored. Notwithstanding these circumstances
the IFRS for SMEs was developed for the SME sector worldwide. The relevance and adequacy of this
accounting framework to the SME sector is therefore doubtful. This study compares current disclosure
practices by South African SMEs against the IFRS for SMEs’ illustrative financial statements. Based on
a sample of financial statements from the SME sector in South Africa our results suggest to what extent
the illustrative financial statements is suitable for South African SMEs