PRIVATE SECTOR VS PUBLIC SECTOR
ACCOUNTING STANDARD
1. INTRODUCTION
The global financial crisis has demonstrated that the public sector as well as the private sector needs the highest quality accounting standards. Around the world, accounting in the public sector is practiced in diverse ways and struggles to achieve comparable standard in accountability and transparency.
The Securities Act of 1933 gave the commission the authority to prescribe accounting standards to be followed by the companies for the purpose of complying with federal securities laws. The Commission has historical looked to the privates sector to help establish those standard, creating an important joint responsibility. This joint responsibility has recently being
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Private standard setting in the United States has included the Committee on Accounting Procedures and the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Given the FASB is the ongoing standard setting body in the private sector, it will be used to illustrate the advantages and the limitations of private sector regulation of accounting standards.
Private sector approach cite the following arguments in support of their positions:
• The FASB seems to be responsive to various constituents. First, it is composed of members of various interested groups in addition to the public accounting profession. Second, its financial support is derived from contributions of a diverse group of individuals, companies, and associations. Third, it has adopted a complex due process procedure that relies heavily on the responses of all interested constituents. Fourth, due to the process procedure generates an active concern about the consequences of its actions on the constituents.
• The FASB seems to be able to be attract, as member or as staff, people who possess the necessary technical knowledge to develop and implement alternative measurement and disclosure systems. As a unit, the standards are more likely to be acceptable to CPA firms, business firms and external users.
• The FASB seems to be successful in generating responses from its constituency
The FASB mission statement states, “that it is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting that foster financial reporting by nongovernmental entities and provides decision-useful information to investors and other users of financial reports. That mission is accomplished through a comprehensive
The information in this report regarding the accounting standards for private companies is as stated in the proposal stage. The three options discussed are options being considered and the Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) has issued an
There are two types of accounting practices are public and private these two types are very distinct. I’m going to explain how these both practices work, the different jobs that both practices offer and finally the differences between the two. First I’m going to give the definition of both practices. Public Accounting is viewed as firms that serve clients such as businesses manufacturers, service companies, etc.), individuals, nonprofits and governments. Private Accounting refers to one person of a firm serves only one exclusive person, typically a corporation.
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
The FASB is an agency of the federal government that has the broad powers to prescribe accounting standards to be employed by companies that fall within its jurisdiction.
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).
In 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was created and their mission is “to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.” (FASB.org, 2009a). The FASB is a private, not-for-profit organization whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. Therefore, the FASB plays a vital and important role in protecting the financial well being and the overall stability of our
The purpose of creating FASB is to establish standards of financial accounting that control the establishment of financial reports by nongovernmental organizations. This instance is identified as the number one authority by the SEC and the American Institute of Certified Public.FASB Accounting Standards Codification serves as a reference guide of authoritative standards for accounting and reporting, to be applied by nongovernmental organizations. Some examples are; ASC 830-230-55-1 that can identify as Statement of Cash Flows for Manufacturing Organization with Foreign Operations, ASC 926-330-35-1 can be justified as Products Held for Sale, ASC 954-440-25-2 identified as Continuing Care Retirement Community, ASC 505-20-50–1 means Equity, Stock Dividends and Stock Split and Disclosure, ASC 710-10-05-6 describe as Employees Compensations..
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
The FASB mission is to establish and improve financial accounting standards and reporting. This sets the guidance for nongovernmental entities that provide decision-useful information to users. Users include issuers, auditors, and other users of financial information.
The purpose of this report is to research the accounting and reporting standards of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and report the impact FASB may have on our company. The following research explains the history and purpose of FASB, the accountability requirements on public corporations, the effectiveness of FASB in setting standards in order to improve financial reporting in the public
The FASB process includes five steps to develop generally accepted accounting principles. The first step involves meeting and issuing a discussion memorandum. “A discussion memorandum is a document intended to encourage discussion and debate amongst accounting and financial professionals in regards to a current issue relating to the accounting industry” (“Discussion Memorandum”, n.d.). These are the ideas that will harm or benefit accountants. Next, they will obtain responses to this memorandum. After this is done FASB will create an exposure draft. Exposure drafts are basically an open blog about the new changes FASB is trying to implement. “The FASB issues a variety of different types of exposure documents to solicit input on its standards-setting
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.
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) was created after the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to establish a single set of accounting procedures and standards for both boards. The process has not always been an easy one, but the goal of merging the accounting standards globally overrides the disagreements. Overcoming impediments, such as language, culture, economic and political environments has made the process problematical. The IASB and FASB continue to labor on the short term goals agreed upon at the Norwalk Summit, held in Norwalk, Connecticut,