The Going Concern Gap in U.S. GAAP
Recent events, such as the fiscal crisis of 2007–2008 and the economic recession that followed, have prompted concerns about whether investors have received sufficient notice of impending corporate...
View ArticleSustainability—Not GAAP Measurement
Ed Weinstein and Stanley Goldstein have been close friends for four decades and have agreed on almost everything. They were quite surprised a year ago to find that they differed widely on the subject...
View ArticleWhy Accountants Should Care about Non-GAAP Financial Metrics
“We’re actually confusing people more than we were helping people understand what’s going on in the business.” — Gregory Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, explaining the motive for shifting focus...
View ArticleSEC | The Audit Committee Financial Expert
In 2003, the SEC adopted rules implementing section 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), requiring a public company to disclose whether at least one audit committee financial expert (ACFE)...
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Accounting for Leases
The second panel of the 15th Annual Financial Reporting Conference covered FASB’s new standard on accounting for leases. The standard, which is 500 pages long, will require a great deal of adjustment...
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The State of FASB’s Simplification Initiative
In Brief In recent years, FASB has made a priority of removing unnecessary complexity from FASB’s accounting standards. The author gives a detailed accounting of completed and ongoing projects in...
View ArticleFASB Small Business Advisory Committee Seeks U.S. GAAP Exemptions
FASB News Small Business Advisory Committee Seeks U.S. GAAP Exemptions Some members of FASB’s Small Business Advisory Committee (SBAC) have told the accounting board that, because of their resource...
View ArticleUse of ‘Composite’ (or ‘Group’) versus ‘Component’ and ‘Unit’ Depreciation
Editor’s note: The following is a supplement to the author’s “Depreciable Asset Lives: The Forgotten Estimate in GAAP,” published in the September 2016 CPA Journal. Composite depreciation is a method...
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Recent Trends in Reporting Non-GAAP Income
In May 2016, the SEC issued new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (CDI) and modified others to revise its guidance on the reporting of non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures...
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ICYMI | A Refresher on Accounting for Leases
In Brief FASB’s long-debated exposure draft of a new standard on accounting for leases has raised the possibility that almost all leases will need to be capitalized in the near future. Although some of...
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Our Greatest Hits | A look at the modified cash basis
“Our Greatest Hits” is an effort to show our readers the most popular – and still avidly read – articles from our archives. This article originally appeared in our February 1992 Issue. Abstract –...
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ICYMI | The State of FASB’s Simplification Initiative
In Brief In recent years, FASB has made a priority of removing unnecessary complexity from FASB’s accounting standards. The author gives a detailed accounting of completed and ongoing projects in...
View ArticleFASB to Drop Obsolete Guidance for Steamship Companies
FASB News FASB to Drop Obsolete Guidance for Steamship Companies FASB has agreed to delete an outdated piece of guidance from U.S. GAAP governing a soon-to-expire income tax deferral related to funds...
View ArticlePrivate Company Accounting Standards
The CPA profession has been debating the concept of separate accounting standards for closely held businesses for over 40 years. In the December 1972 Journal of Accountancy, two CPAs expressed...
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Tax & Accounting Update
Tax & Accounting Update is provided by Thomson Reuters and based on material published on Checkpoint, its online news and research platform. The Update is a quick-reference guide to the most...
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Accounting for Sustainable Value
The notion of sustainability is not an accounting concept, or even a business concept. Indeed, common English usage defines a sustainable entity merely as one that will endure over the long term....
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FASB News Minor Technical Corrections Published for Lease Standard FASB has published an update to U.S. GAAP with 16 technical corrections for its much-watched lease accounting standard. The changes...
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Disclosure of Pending Accounting Changes
This article contains practical guidance and support as to the appropriate disclosure of the expected effects of significant future accounting changes from new GAAP standards that have been enacted...
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FASB News No New Guidance Planned for Financial Reporting Effects of Tax Reform Between guidance from the Big Four accounting firms, technical inquiries to FASB’s accounting staff, and sorting through...
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FASB News SEC Disclosure Rules to Be Pulled Into GAAP As part of a broader effort to simplify compliance without significantly altering the total mix of information, FASB is moving a variety of SEC...
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