Some alarming stats coming out of a recent Grant Thornton survey.

According to the survey, nearly 75 per cent of accountants have no experience dealing with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). That's despite the push to have companies right around the world, including those in the US, adopting IFRS and working to a single set of standards worldwide.

The survey also found that more than half (55 per cent) are unfamiliar with the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), the format that's supposed to a format that make it easier for investors to analyze financial data, and only 2.25 per cent said their companies reported results using XBRL.

That might create significant issues for the Securities and Exchange Commission which has come out with rules requiring large public companies to adopt XBRL by December 15 which means they will be using it to report their numbers next year.

If nothing else, the Grant Thornton survey suggests the accounting profession has a lot of catching up to do.