Welcome to a codified world.
The Accounting Standards Codification — the FASB's effort to reorganize thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements under about 90 accounting headings — is now, in the words of the AICPA, “the authoritative source of non-governmental accounting literature.”
We all knew this was coming, of course, but just to bring the whole thing full circle, a new AICPA article reviews some of the resources that explain the Codification in detail. They include:
- The official Codification Web site, including an online tutorial
- FASB resources, including FAQs, webcasts and other alerts
- An AICPA Codification resource center
- A video interview with the AICPA's Arleen Thomas
- Codification overview and recent developments
- An overview from the Journal of Accountancy
- GAAP Codification resources from the JofA
- An AICPA PowerPoint presentation, which CPAs can use to share information about the Codification
- Codification: Lots of optimism, a few 'gray areas'
- Standards Codification gets official FASB nod
- Codification countdown: GAAP gets one source in July
- A PowerPoint tour of the Codification Web site
- A Codification Q&A
- An archived FASB webcast entitled “The Move to Codification of U.S. GAAP”
- “Countdown to Codification Alerts,” a series of weekly FASB e-mails featuring tips to help ease the transition to the new research system
- A Codification update from ACPEN
It's worth noting that not everyone is thrilled with the Codification. Trinity University's Bob Jensen wonders what will happen to the project if or when international financial reporting standards take effect. He is also curious about the way XBRL is aligned with pre-codified information — and about the effort and expense in bringing XBRL in line with the new codified world.
Interesting questions. It will be equally interesting to see how this all shakes out. For now, though Codification is king.
Are you ready?