Differences Between The Governmental Accounting Standard Board

A major comparison is that both the FASB and the GASB both report to the Financial Accounting Foundation’s Board of Trustees ”(gasb.com).

As the responsibilities of the global harmonization of accounting standards IFRS and GAAP transfer to IASB, FASB’s influence is waning. Advantages of the convergence include high quality financial reporting, which lowers cost of capital for investors and the cost of borrowing for companies. However, there are disadvantages to be noted, such as the costs of introducing IFRS to current and potential accountants and the risk of reducing the uniformity of financial reports due to the lax rulings of IFRS, which promotes earnings management amongst companies. Although arguments regarding the convergence remain prevalent, the completion of IFRS and GAAP is inevitable. Come year 2015, accountants, investors, and companies alike will discover whether or not the pros outweighed the cons; or vice versa.

In 1973 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was established to set the financial accounting standards in the United States of America for nongovernmental entities. These standards are collectively called U.S. Generally accepted Accounting Principles, or U.S. GAAP. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants acknowledge the authority of these standards (FASB, n.d). A “proven, independent due process” is used to collect the viewpoints of the financial statements prepares and users for the constant improvement of these standards. An Accounting Status Update(ASU) is not an authoritative source however documents the amendments to communicate the changes in the FASB Codification for a user to understand the reason and future of those changes (FASB, n.d).

SFAC No. 8 addresses the cost constraint on useful financial reporting, “Cost is a pervasive constraint that standard setters, as well as providers and users of financial information, should keep in mind when considering the benefits of a financial reporting requirement.” (SFAC No. 8 BC 3.47) However, the ability to place a dollar value and fully enumerate a cost or benefit is almost an impossible task for standard-setters. Additionally, there is no way to successfully identify and measure all of the economic consequences associated with a new standard. The FASB should be applauded though for advancing uniformity in accounting standards, however; uniform financial reporting suggests a one size fits all approach. “Smaller, non-publicly listed firms (and their auditors) argue that accounting standards are formulated mainly for larger, publicly traded firms” and that “compliance costs are disproportionately higher and the

Other accounting literature, including GASB Concepts Statements; pronouncements in categories (a) through (d) of the hierarchy for nongovernmental entities when not specifically made applicable to state and local governments; FASB Concepts Statements; FASAB Statements, Interpretations, and Technical Bulletins, AICPA Issues Papers; International Accounting Standards Committee Statements, pronouncements of other professional associations or regulatory agencies; AICPA Technical Practice Aids; and accounting textbooks, handbooks, or articles.

The FASB accounting codification is an advanced system that allows certified public accountants and other users to quickly access non-SEC authoritative content, perform relevant research, and submit timely and appropriate feedback. The FASB codification research system is a real-time, online database that allows users to access codification whose primary aim is to simplify the accessibility and structure of all authoritative generally accepted accounting principles, reduce the time and effort invested when researching accounting-related issues, decrease the risk of non-compliance with the generally accepted accounting principles, provide access to all authoritative information from a single place, facilitate the updating of accounting standards, and foster research and convergence efforts for the FASB (Wiley, 2017).

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) sets the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States. The FASB Accounting Standards codification implements a system for organizing non-governmental generally accepted

The field of accounting is constantly evolving. This is true not only for the theory of accounting itself but also the entities that govern its theory and practice. Presently, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are faced with some of the biggest challenges to date. To understand the significance of these two boards, it is necessary to understand their histories, relations between the boards, and the standards that they set. Also how the knowledge of these boards and the field they lead, gained through the masters of science in accountancy

This research project will inform the reader of the difference between the United States accounting standards and International accounting standards. The United States uses the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to issue financial reporting procedures. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). There are proposals for the United States to adopt the International standards. Financial reporting procedures are debated about the United States using the Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) or following the global procedures. This

Since 2002, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) have been working toward “convergence” of US General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). They have made significant progress in efforts to converge critical accounting standards such as those dealing with revenue recognition, financial instruments and leases. Once these projects are complete, the "era" of convergence will be at an end. Nevertheless, the benefits for investors of eventually getting to consistently applied, high-quality, globally accepted accounting

This thesis will discuss the proposed changes of pensions and the new updated leases issued by FASB, which are important issues for entities such as corporations. FASB is the Financial Accounting Standards Board. It is a seven-member independent board consisting of accounting professionals who establish and communicate standards of financial accounting and reporting in the United States. FASB was created to provide users accurate information in one location. Recently, FASB developed the FASB Codification Research System: a web-based system allowing registered users to electronically research accounting issues.

‘There has been a worldwide demand from regulators, investors, businesses, and auditing firms for a single set of high-quality, globally-accepted accounting standards. The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) believes U.S. adoption of a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards will benefit U.S. financial markets and public companies by enabling preparation of transparent and comparable financial reports throughout the world” (aicpa.org).

Fast forward to 1970, where the APB’s main contribution “Basic Concepts and Accounting Principles Underlying Financial Statement of Business Enterprises was highly critized for achieving too little too late. Ultimately, resulting in the AICPA suggesting that the standard setting role be turned over to an autonomous body known as the Financial Accounting Standards Board

Being unfamiliar with accounting and accounting standards when I started my degree there were times when I was told, ‘this is just how it is’. Now, after taking several courses and knowing what I know, I have realized just how important it really is that we understand the concepts. This has been my same approach to Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement Number 34. I first learned what it is that Statement Number 34 required us to do and must now try to understand why it is that those requirements were included in the first place.

The objective of the GASB is to set and improve standards of local and state government financial accounting. GASB objectives are also to improve the government’s ability to show its performance to the public, to improve the information available to the public so that they can hold the government responsible, to guide all users of government financial reports and provide useful information to the users of the financial reports of government entities. The objective of the FASB is to set accounting standards for public companies in the US. Its objectives include improving the relevance and reliability, comparability and consistency, and convergence and quality of financial reporting. It also strives to keep standards current, rectify areas of deficiency in financial reporting and improving the understanding of the information in financial reports.