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The Current Requirements Of Us Gaap

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The Current Requirements of US GAAP Segment Reporting In order to help users of financial statements better understand the public entity 's operations and make more informed decisions about the public entity 's operating matters, publicly-held companies are required to disclose the segments and related information about the different types of activities in which the company engages and the different economic environments in which the company operates. According to FASB Accounting Standards Codification, public entity is a business entity or a not-for-profit entity that issues securities in public market or is required to files financial statements with SEC. FASB provides guidance regarding the disclosure in the notes to financial …show more content…

However, components with intercompany revenues would be operating segments. These departments with revenues and expenses would be operating segments even if they don 't have assets. The second requirement is that the operating results are regularly reviewed by the public entity 's chief operating decision makers (ASC 280-10-50-1). ASC defines the term "chief operating decision maker" (CODM), who allocates resources to and assess the operating results of the segment of an entity. CODM could be chief executive officer or a group of top executives. The third requirement is that its discrete financial information is available (ASC 280-10-50-1). To make resource allocation decision and assess performance, the CODM must have the detailed financial information about the component. When an equity method investee has met these three requirements, it could be an operating segment, even the investor doesn 't control over the investee. Besides equity method investees, corporate divisions which meet the three requirements could be considered as operating segments (ASC 280-10-55-3). When determining operating segments, discontinued operations should be also considered. Since discontinued operation is a component of an entity as defined under ASC 205 205-20-45-1, it may be an operating segment. After determining operating segments, FASB requires to determine reportable segments among them. To be considered as

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