Accounting standards

The Private Company Council that will help set accounting standards for privately held businesses has decided to tackle three main projects for its agenda.

A couple of real accounting changes occurred, but world accounting convergence got derailed.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued an updated financial instruments standard clarifying how some fair value requirements do not apply to private companies and not-for-profit organizations.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the International Integrated Reporting Council have signed an agreement to develop an integrated corporate reporting framework that includes financial, governance, management commentary and sustainability reporting.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released an updated accounting standard for reporting amounts reclassified out of accumulated other comprehensive income.

The Financial Accounting Foundation plans to conduct a post-implementation review of the standard governing accounting for income taxes to gauge how well it has performed.

The IFRS Foundation, which oversees the International Accounting Standards Board, invited nominations for membership in its Accounting Standards Advisory Forum on Friday as it moves toward a more multilateral way of setting accounting standards with involvement from more parts of the world than the U.S. and Europe.

Highlights from the world of audit and attest in the previous month

The proposed Accounting Standards Update, Transfers and Servicing (Topic 860)-Effective Control for Transfers with Forward Agreements to Repurchase Assets and Accounting for Repurchase Financings, would clarify the guidance for distinguishing repo agreements, and other transfers with forward agreements to repurchase transferred assets, as either sales or secured borrowings, and improve disclosures about them.

A Q&A with the new chairman of the new Private Company Council on its process and purpose

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a new accounting standards update that aims to clarify the kinds of transactions that are subject to disclosures about offsetting.

The American Institute of CPAs is facing opposition from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy and PricewaterhouseCoopers on its proposal to create a non-GAAP financial reporting framework for small and midsize businesses.

The International Accounting Standards Board has released some of the findings from a survey it recently conducted on financial disclosures in which it asked accountants and financial statement users what factors are contributing to disclosure overload.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released for public comment a new consultation paper aimed at improving the quality of audits.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released new standards aimed at improving the accounting and reporting of combinations and disposals of government operations for U.S. state and local governments.

Red Wing Software has created a report tool within its CenterPoint Payroll Software designed to track employee status for the upcoming Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requirement that employers with 50 or more full time employers must offer health coverage.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has completed a post-implementation review of an accounting standard dating back to 1996 that aimed to improve the way public companies report financial information about their business segments, and found that it generally achieved that purpose, although some companies are being less than forthcoming about all of their business segments.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment a proposal to improve financial reporting about repurchase agreements such as the type used by Lehman Brothers.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has issued the first four chapters of its Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities.

Cloud financial and accounting software company FinancialForce.com has formed trust.financialforce.com, a new site that helps describe the company’s control processes, security, application quality and platform monitoring environment.