The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

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).

The purpose of this research paper is to summarize research on codification topic 410 based on the information found in different academic databases. The first part of the paper will focus on the FASB Codification database. The second part of the paper will compare and contrast three other databases on the same codification 410 within the RIA Checkpoint databases: AICPA: Auditing and Accounting Guides, SOX Reporter, and GAAP Practice Manual. A summary of benefits and issues with the searches of each database will also be discussed.

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 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

Accounting has been playing a very important role in many places such as Australian accounting standards. Australian accounting standards is also developed by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). This essay will firstly discuss what AASB is, the role and the functions of AASB. And then, following this, the other projects’ role such as Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the relationship between AASB, FRC and IASB.

The FASB has the mission of create and improve the accounting standards and the financial reports by the nongovernmental organizations, offering useful information that allows investors and other users to make decisions. The implementation and improvement of the standards is made taking into consideration the opinion of all the parties interested and it is supervised by the Financial Accounting Foundation’s Board of Trustees. This process open to the public participation warranty the transparency into the standards-setting process. Therefore, the FASB issue a variety of reports requesting feedbacks on its standards setting activities. (FASB, Standard-setting process, n.d.)

On November 18, 2002 the FASB and IASB came together at a meeting in Norwalk, Connecticut to start the wheels in motion for the purpose of establishing a new set of financial standards. The FASB and IASB are committed to create financial standards that will be accepted both domestically and internationally that are of high quality and compatible for financial reporting. At present more than a 100 countries already use the International Financial Reporting Standards. The U.S. at present has not accepted a changed in accounting procedures; therefore, this is going to be a major task for both the FASB and IASB to complete successfully this union. I do believe that the partnership between the FASB and IASB will achieve the goals of creating a common financial reporting set of standards that will be accepted by all.

The amendments in this proposed Update would assist entities in (1) evaluating whether transactions should be accounted for as contributions (nonreciprocal transactions) within the scope of Topic 958, Not-for-Profit Entities, or as exchange (reciprocal) transactions subject to other guidance and (2) distinguishing between conditional contributions and unconditional contributions (FASB Exposure draft, Proposed Accounting Standards Update ,2017).

A formal document issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which details accounting standards and

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was established in 1973 in order to create and develop standards of financial accounting and reporting for the general use of the public and, in particular, users of financial information including auditors, creditors and investors. This financial information is standardized for greater clarity for the guidance and education of users (FASB org, 2009a). The primary purpose of FASB as a private and non-profit organization is to develop Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States. The FASB sets-up accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. under the mandate of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The FASB oversees the financial security; stability and

Almost 10 years ago on July 13, 2006, FASB, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued FIN 48 the Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes. FIN 48 is also known as Interpretation No. 48 that became effective during December 2006 fiscal year. It explains the uncertain tax positions regarding the calculations and disclosures of reserves in the Statement No. 109 of the FASB. The purpose of the FASB Interpretation No. 109, also referred to as, FIN 48, clarifies uncertainty in income taxes recognized by FASB Statement No. 109. The Statement does not recognize a threshold or measures the contribution for the financial statements. Accounting for income taxes (No. 109) is used for business enterprises. Also, it is applicable to

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) exist to make financial reporting consistent while reducing fraud and material errors. Because GAAP guidance is crucial for public and private companies depend heavily upon it to make financial decisions. Through GAAP, the entity understands how to properly carry out the accrual accounting process and most importantly when to recognize revenue. However, what happens when GAAP guidance is not sufficient or non-existent in its interpretations of gray areas? Here lies the question that accountants and the crypto-currency community of bitcoin has requested answers too for the last few years. After the release of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax

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.

According to Delloite (http://www.iasplus.com/en/resources/ifrsf/due-process/background-to-ifrs)”The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent non-profit organization that develops and approves International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)”. In mainly usage, the term 'International Financial Reporting Standards ' (IFRSs) has both a narrow and a broad meaning. Firstly, IFRSs refers to the new numbered series of pronouncements that the IASB is issuing, as distinct from the International Accounting Standards (IASs) series issued by its predecessor. More broadly, IFRSs refers to the entire body of IASB pronouncements, including standards and interpretations approved by the IASB and IASs and SIC at 2001 interpretations approved by the predecessor International Accounting Standards Committee.” The IASB has all responsibilities for the technical matters of the IFRS Foundation. The objective of financial reporting is the foundation of the conceptual framework. Other aspects of the framework - qualitative characteristics, elements of financial statements, recognition and measurement - will build on that foundation with the aim of ensuring that financial reporting achieves its objective. The goal of IFRS as said at (source) is”to develop a set of high quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted financial reporting standards based upon clearly articulated principles”. To surmount these difficulties and still connect accounting to

The IASB (The International Accounting Standards Board ) issued Exposure Draft ED/2015/3 Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting on 28 May 2015, which proposes the changes for the Conceptual Framework . The conceptual framework define the objective and the purpose of the financial reporting. Exposure Draft proposed include the revisions of Conceptual Framework such as , the definitions of the financial statements, recognition and derecognition , measurement , presentation and disclosure and items in Other Comprehensive Income . The reason why IASB is improving the Conceptual Framework is because of lack clarity such as : some important topic are not covered , the guidance are unclear and some aspects are out of topic. The objective of this proposal is to develop financial reporting by providing clear and complete concept, depends in some area which are mention or not mention in details. This report include differences between debt and equity in IFRS, approaches that should be included in the Other Comprehensive Income and criticism of lack of clarity and consistency in the framework.