If you prepare or audit financial statements, you’ll undoubtedly want to highlight July 1, 2009 on your calendar.
That’s the day the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification becomes the single source of non-governmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), other than guidance issued by the SEC.
The codification will supersede all other existing FASB, AICPA, Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) and other related literature.
“U.S. GAAP will be completely reconfigured in a way that will vastly improve the ease of researching U.S. GAAP issues, superseding existing authoritative literature, including FASB’s original pronouncements,” FASB Chairman Robert Herz said in December. “Preparers and auditors of financial statements need to familiarize themselves with the changes so that they are ready for the switch.”
There are some resources that can help with the transition, though.
- Free online tutorials are available on the official codification Web site.
- The FASB is offering replays of a March 13, 2008 webcast titled “The Move to Codification of U.S. GAAP.” The webcast is available here.
- The FASB is offering resources and advice via a weekly e-newsletter titled, “Countdown to Codification Alert.” You can subscribe by sending an e-mail to join-actionalert@listserv.lists.fasb.org. Archived editions of the alerts are available here.
- The MACPA offers a four-hour program titled “Navigating the New FASB Codification: Research Real-Life Accounting Issues.” The program will be offered on Sept. 21, Nov. 2, Nov. 3, Nov. 18 and Nov. 23.
- More codification resources are available on the MACPA Web site.
What are you doing to get up to speed on the codification?