The International FinancialReporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs) iscurrently considered for adoption by national regulators in many emergingeconomies and a few developed countries. The cost-benefit approach is advancedas useful to investigate how the scope of the IFRS for SMEs should be set. Sizeis used in many jurisdictions as criterion to set financial reportingobligations, but it is questioned if it represents an appropriate criterion forthe scope of the IFRS for SMEs. The aim of this paper is therefore toempirically investigate the applicability and consequences of using variouscriteria to set the scope of IFRS for SMEs, and to discuss the implications ofusing size instead of other criteria. Data consists of a sample of 194 questionnairescompleted by accountants employed by Romanian SMEs. I find that the choice between size and other criteriais related to placing greater emphasis on preparers or users, or on costsversus benefits. Also, findings suggest that whilesize is correlated with users-based criteria, the level of agreement betweenvarious criteria for setting the scope of the standard is medium. Therefore, inorder to capture the cost-benefit tension two criteria might be used indeciding the scope of the standard.