We knew it was coming. Now we know it's official.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has formally approved its Accounting Standards Codification as the “single source of authoritative, non-governmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.”
The Codification — the FASB's effort to reorganize thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements under about 90 accounting headings — will be launched on July 1.
FASB Chair Robert Herz said he believes “preparers, auditors and users of financial statements — who for years have had to wade through hundreds of pieces of disparate GAAP literature to resolve an accounting issue — will find the Codification provides a much more efficient, user-friendly method of researching up-to-date solutions.”
“The Codification will be effective for interim and annual periods ending after Sept. 15, 2009, which means that preparers must begin to use the Codification for periods that begin on or about July 1, 2009,” the FASB reports. “All existing accounting standard documents are superseded. All other accounting literature not included in the Codification will be considered non-authoritative.”
There are plenty of resources available that will guide you through the Codification maze. Among them:
- An online tutorial and a “Notice to Constituents” that includes a bunch of background information, both of which are available on the Codification Web site
- 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
- Further details and resources from the AICPA
- A Codification update from ACPEN