Accounting standards

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released a new online pension implementation toolkit to help preparers, auditors, and users of state and local government financial reports understand and apply the revised pension accounting and financial reporting standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has responded to a post-implementation review of its accounting standard for fair value measurement, saying it doesn’t plan to make any comprehensive changes.

The IFRS Foundation and the International Valuation Standards Council have signed a joint statement of protocols for cooperating on International Financial Reporting Standards and International Valuation Standards in the area of fair value measurement.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a draft version of its long-awaited Disclosure Framework, aimed at improving its process for evaluating existing and future disclosure requirements in the notes to financial statements.

For the first time, private companies will be able to make two accounting elections that will simplify their reporting requirements and still be in compliance with U.S. GAAP.

A post-implementation review of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s fair value measurement standard by FASB’s parent organization found the standard generally met its objectives, even though some investors have difficulty understanding fair value information provided in the financial statements, and their level of satisfaction with the information varies.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has issued provisional standards for seven industries in the financial services sector.

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted at a meeting Wednesday to scale back FASB’s convergence efforts on insurance accounting standards with the International Accounting Standards Board.

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy has written a letter to the Financial Accounting Foundation, the parent organization of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, questioning the FAF’s recent decision to contribute up to $3 million to the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, the parent of the International Accounting Standards Board.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has launched GASB Outlook, a quarterly electronic newsletter designed to keep stakeholders informed about key GASB projects and activities.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has excluded credit unions from the definition of “public business entities,” exempting them from certain reporting provisions under GAAP and giving credit unions more latitude to determine what their reporting requirements should be.

During 2013, the scene was set for significant changes in financial reporting for private companies and evolved into a battle between standard-setting bodies. All the changes centered on the desire to simplify, and therefore reduce the cost of accounting for private companies. The question is, however, is simpler good enough?

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst said in a speech Wednesday the IASB is aware of concerns about the potential costs of the converged lease accounting standards that the IASB has been developing with the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, and he assured the audience that those costs would be kept to a minimum.

A roundup of audit and attest news from the previous month.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Private Company Council have issued the final version of their Private Company Decision-Making Framework: A Guide for Evaluating Financial Accounting and Reporting for Private Companies

The Financial Accounting Foundation has announced that the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s FASB Accounting Standards Codification has been enabled for use on tablet devices.

The International Accounting Standards Board has released an interim standard for businesses that engage in rate-regulated activities, such as gas, electric and water utility companies, even as a new report from two prominent accounting profession organizations outlines some of the challenges the IASB is facing.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released an implementation guide for the new GASB standards for accounting and financial reporting for pensions.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has appointed Steven E. Buller, the managing director and former CFO of the investment management firm BlackRock, as the new chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, a key advisory group for the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which the FAF oversees.

The American Institute of CPAs’ Auditing Standards Board is proposing changes in subject-matter specific attestation standards.