Accounting standards

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.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board voted Wednesday to reorganize its future agenda to focus more closely on the issues most important to FASB stakeholders, as it anticipates completion of its remaining four convergence projects for harmonizing U.S. GAAP with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Nearly 80 percent of business executives surveyed last year by Deloitte anticipate that complying with the lease accounting standards that the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have been collaborating on will be difficult, with concerns especially high about data quality and information technology systems.

The Financial Accounting Foundation said Tuesday that it will contribute up to $3 million to the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation to help complete some of their joint accounting standards convergence projects.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has launched the FASB Outlook, a new quarterly e-newsletter designed to keep people informed about FASB’s current projects and activities.

The European Commission has appointed the French accounting firm Mazars and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to team up on a report assessing the effects of using International Financial Reporting Standards in the European Union.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has released an updated print edition of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s FASB Accounting Standards Codification, the authoritative source of U.S. GAAP for public and private companies and not-for-profit organizations.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board has published three new International Education Standards, adjusting the suggested content of educational programs for initial professional development of aspiring accountants.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a pair of updates Thursday to U.S. GAAP to provide alternatives for private companies on the subsequent accounting for goodwill and for interest rate swaps.