When the U.S. finally converts its corporate accounting to the more globally utilized International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), companies like United Technologies Corp. (UTC) are likely to take a huge hit because of differences in how such items as inventory are handled. No matter.

Margaret Smith, UTC's controller, is one of the biggest proponents for making the switch–and as soon as possible. "With 62% of our revenues coming from international locations, and with more than 180 offices abroad, we're watching this process carefully," says Smith, a vice president at the $55 billion conglomerate. "While initially it would cost us more, there would be big savings in being able to move all our accounting operations into one service center that could do it all."

This must be music to the ears of Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who has been pushing for a rule to allow U.S. filers to jump voluntarily to IFRS as early as next year. Cox has been insisting since he first took over the SEC about the need for convergence in accounting, financial standards and regulation to accommodate increasingly global markets and economies, and a global switch to IFRS would allow investors to compare financials from around the world. As Cox told a meeting of the American Institute of CPAs in January, "There is a risk that the rapid increase in global trading and investment is getting ahead of the ability of accounting standards and financial analysis to provide investors with comparable information in a form they can readily use and understand. That's why it's important…that we do everything within our power to ensure that financial reporting information from different countries is comparable and reliable."