Recent Changes And Amendments Within The Financial Accounting Standards Board

References to Handbook — Accounting Part III apply to NPOs that have adopted accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations (ASNPO).

According to our text, “Not-for-profit organizations lack a residual ownership claim and the organization’s purpose is something other than to provide goods and services at a profit.” “Because significant resources are provided to governments and not-for-profit organizations, financial reporting by these organizations is important.” (Page 2).

Note: General Note The Status Section identifies changes to this Subtopic resulting from Accounting Standards Updates. The Section provides references to the affected Codification content and links to the related Accounting Standards Updates. Nonsubstantive changes for items such as editorial, link and similar corrections are included separately in Maintenance Updates.

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

Entity-wide disclosures are required under Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 280-10-50-40 through 280-10-50-42. The disclosures are required because every corporation does not report information in a similar fashion, and the disclosures would provide comparability of the financial statements among entities. For example, if a corporation uses a geographic approach in its financial statements, disclosing certain information about the products or services sold will make comparability to other companies much easier. The disclosures will also help with comparability within an entity if they decide to choose another method of reporting operating segments in the future. There are three types of entity-wide disclosures; products and services, geographic areas, and/or major customers. Every public company has to comply with the disclosures, even if the company has one reportable segment. The only exception to the entity-wide disclosures is if it is impractical to provide the information, such as it would be extremely costly to the corporation, or if the “internal reporting systems are not capable of gathering financial information by product or service by geographic area.” A disclosure should be made when entity-wide disclosures are impractical.

I think this change in the standard accounting process for nonprofits is very beneficial. Although it is difficult to compare nonprofits, it is beneficial for the purposes

Copley, P. (2015) Essentials of accounting for governmental and not-for-profit organizations (12th Ed) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education

There are millions of not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. Each organization has their own definitive set of rules on handling donor gifts. Every time a donor gift is made to a NFP; determination is needed on whether or not the gift needs to be restricted or unrestricted. There are times that gift donations are made at the end of the year so that the donor is able to file on their taxes. The NFP organization needs to have a certified public accountant (CPA) that can get involved in how the donation is given. The direct pupose of this paper is set up to explain the different acconting processes of NFP organizations.

1. The traditional business model of accounting is inadequate for governments and not-for-profit organizations primarily because businesses differ from governments and not-for-profit organizations in that

outlines the benefits of the non-profit for the for-profit partners. “If a nonprofit is only focused

This paper will examine budgeting procedures for profit and non-profit businesses and compare similarities, and if they exist, differences in accounting practices. This paper will also attempt to review what is Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) for budgeting for any organization to be successful.

Bastian, Bettina. Inaash: Bridging the Chasm between Non-profit Objectives and Long-term Financial Profitability. Ivey ID: 9B14M004. London, Canada: Ivey Publishing.

A not for profit organization is a corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive (Legal, 2013).” There are immense community benefits as a not-for-profit generally accepts everyone regardless of ability to pay. Nonprofit organizations are granted tax-exempt status which helps them to provide services to the public and are expected to be effective managers of their finances as well as being efficient (Financial Management, 2010). In doing so, they can gain exemptions from federal and state incomes taxes and have the ability to solicit tax-deductible contributions (Financial Management, 2010). Organization must follow legal financial

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment two Exposure Drafts related to its disclosure framework project. The first exposure draft proposes amendments to Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts - Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, Chapter 3 – Qualitative Characteristics of Useful Financial Information. The purpose of this proposed amendment is to clarify the concept of “materiality”. FASB defines materiality as, information is material if omitting it or misstating it could influence decisions that users make on the basis of the financial information of a specific reporting entity. In other words, materiality is an entity-specific aspect of relevance based on the nature or magnitude or both of the items to which the information relates in the context of an individual entity’s financial report. Consequently, the Board cannot specify a uniform quantitative threshold for materiality or predetermine what could be material in a particular situation.