Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

Okay, so this is a stupid question .. but i don’t know the answer to it. When citing the new codification, one includes the applicable section number. But what do you do for FASB ?? What year? Do we go to the year the underlying standard was issued or current year? [...] Read more > >

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is pleased to announce that Lynn Rees, Andersen Professor of Accounting in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, has accepted the FASB 2011-2012 Research Fellowship, which will begin in July. Background Each year, the FASB selects a member of the academic community to serve as a research fellow.  The Research [...] Read more > >

UPDATE:  Here is the direct link to the video of the testimony. –RJB Tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM, The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing entitled: “The Role of the Accounting Profession in Preventing Another Financial Crisis” FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman and other prominent individuals in the accounting field will testify. [...] Read more > >

See forthcoming Fortune, where accountants are in HUGE demand in this down economy. Great news for us! Go to this link to read more…. Read more > >

I just read a fascinating article on CFO.com titled Missing: Public Companies. I encourage you to take a look. Summarized very briefly, the article discusses trends in the number of companies listed on US stock exchanges. It’s been going down, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries. In the US, companies are delisting [...] Read more > >

Please click on "more" below and then click here for the slides that Akwasi Ampofo (project manager) will use to introduce us to the FASB's Disclosure Framework project, the topic of this week's Round Table discussion.  The Round Table will begin at 4pm Eastern on Wednesday, February 23rd.  Please click here for up-to-date information regarding Board and staff deliberations regarding this [...] Read more > >

In my MAcc program I took a course on accounting standards and research. Our textbook: the FASB Codification. I thought the approach was great! We had free student access to the codification and learned how to use it to find answers to technical questions. It seems like that idea is becoming quite common in accounting programs [...] Read more > >

Last December Paul Beswick spoke to the AICPA. Among other things he addressed IFRS convergence. In our October update we highlighted that the majority of jurisdictions are following either a convergence or an endorsement approach. In my opinion, if the U.S. were to move to IFRS, somewhere in between could be the right [...] Read more > >

A couple of days ago the FASB issued a proposal to limit netting/offsetting. The proposal is similar to the IASB’s current approach. Therefore, if it is finalized, companies in the United States would not be allowed to offset as many assets and liabilities (especially derivatives) as they do now, meaning larger balance sheets. David Zion and [...] Read more > >

The State of Maryland has recently passed a law that allows the creation of for-profit “benefit” corporations that include in their charter a commitment to pursue goals other than profit maximization.  As the Washington Post reports: These hybrid entities pay taxes and can have shareholders, without the risk of being sued for not maximizing profits. Companies [...] Read more > >