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Importance of international accounting standards
Importance of international accounting standards
Need of accounting standards
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Guidelines are necessary in today’s society as well as in today’s business. There are currently two sets of guidelines by which the accounting world is governed. The first, used primarily by the United States, is the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. The second, the International Financial Reports Standards, or IFRS, is used primarily in other countries. In terms of their basic foundation, the key difference is that GAAP is more focused on rules, while IFRS is more oriented around principle. Dictionary.com defines “rules” as codes, regulations, or principles governing the conduct, action, procedure or arrangement of an entity or organization. Rules are set to provide participating parties with information on what is and is not allowed. Business have the option of adopting one of the two accounting methods. Though some of the methods may be comparable, there are many significant differences. Because of these differences in reporting procedures and accounting …show more content…
GAAP regulations are intended to make accounting more understandable, reliable, and relevant (Kemp & Waybright, p. 257). These standards are presently handed out by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) with the approval given by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One challenge faced by the FASB is the constant change in the business world. Because of this, GAAP has to be continually reviewed and updated. In an effort to minimize the overstatement of asset values and the understatement of liability values, the GAAP uses historical costs as the primary method of valuation. This is contrary to the fair market valuation used by IFRS. In May 2011, IFRS 13 was issued by IASB, and FASB issued ASU 2011-04. As a result, the requirement for disclosure of fair value and the framework for measuring fair value were significantly converged. As of January 1, 2013, IFRS 13 became effective (Strouhal etal., p.
According to the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, goodwill is “An asset representing the future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination or an acquisition by a not for profit entity...” (glossary). Goodwill is measured by the premium price we pay for a company; we calculate premium price by subtracting the amount we paid by the estimated price (Fair value) of the company and if we paid more goodwill is created. Goodwill is an intangible asset so it has an indefinite life because it cannot lose value over a specific amount of time. We test for impairment to find out if goodwill has kept its value or if it has declined and we test for impairment on an annual basis. However, goodwill in FASB Accounting Standards
Include as discussion of the topic, subtopics, sections and subsections in your answer. The new Codification does not change GAAP, but all existing ...
To help accounting professionals easily navigate through 50-plus years of unorganized US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and standards the Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation approved the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification (Codification.) By codifying authoritative US GAAP, FASB will provide users with real-time and accurate information in one location. Concurrently, FASB developed the FASB Codification Research System; a web-based system allowing registered users to electronically research accounting issues. Since 2009, the codification became the single source of nongovernmental authoritative GAAP.
GAAP and IFRS have their similarities as well as differences. “GAAP is the accounting standard used in the US, while IFRS is the accounting standard used in over 110 countries around the world. GAAP is considered a more rules based system of accounting, while IFRS is more principles based” (Diffen). The Diffen site compared GAAP and IFRS elements using a chart. The chart is broken down into sections such as performance elements, required documents, inventory estimates and reversal, purpose of framework, etc. GAAP and IFRS both use revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities as performance elements; but with GAAP gains, losses, and comprehensive income are added. GAAP and IFRS also use some of the same financial statements such as the balance
Accounting policies are essential for adequately understanding the information provided in financial statements. An entity as required by GAAP, should present as an integral part of the financial statement a statement identifying the accounting policies adopted and followed by the reporting entity (Kieso, Weygandt & Warfiled, 2015, p.1391). Accounting policies are the specific accounting methods an organization presently uses and considers most appropriate to present its financial statements fairly. The disclosing of accounting policies must incorporate important conclusions as to the relevance of principles concerning the recognition of revenue and allocation of asset costs to current and future periods (FASB). Identifying accounting policies
In the world of international finance there are two major accounting systems; GAAP, which stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and IFRS, which stands for International Financial Reporting Standards. The United States prefers GAAP while the European market, as well as many other countries, prefers IFRS. By 2015 the Securities Exchange Commission is anticipating a total transfer to IFRS in the United States. Though the differences between GAAP and IFRS are few, they could affect accuracy of financial reporting throughout the world. It is important to understand the differences and similarities between both GAAP and IFRS if one is to globalize ones market (Logue).
In conclusion, appropriate principles could lead to clearer interaction and more comparable financial reporting standards without the need of the current rules. The NZ Framework has provided parts of clear and appropriate underlying principles to lead the application of NZ GAAP and other financial reporting standards. However the standards setting movement from ‘rule-driven’ approach to ‘principle-based’ approach is still half-way in New Zealand. How could principles be sufficiently clearly portrayed and put into practice require the profession to think and support. Just as Tweedie (2007, p.7) states, a principle based system will only work if preparers, auditors, users and regulators wish to make it work.
Private and public accounting has long been discussed and disputed in regards to financial reporting. Since the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was created in 1973, accountants have called for different accounting regulations for private and public accounting sectors, as private companies do not have the resources to meet the complex requirements of public companies. Private companies currently are not required by law to issue annual or quarterly financial statements (James, 2012). Private companies do, however, have the option to apply the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), cash basis, or accrual accounting to their financial statements (James, 2012).
Accounting principles are main consideration , certain standards like rules of operations are pillar characteristicis to built accounting statements. Accounting principles can be presented in many ways, sometimes its create confusion for readers mainly for beginners, but still acoounting principles are main tool to obtained financial statements. Its hold the whole acoounting process together.
The globalization of business has resulted in the need for compatible accounting standards that can be used internationally for financial reporting. As a result, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to unify the various financial reporting methods and create a single accounting standard which can be applied to any financial statement worldwide (Byatt). The global standardization of financial reporting will increase the readability and enhance comparability of globally traded companies’ financial statements, without the need of conversion or translation. There are a few main differences between the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S GAAP). The increasing recognition and acceptance of the International Financial Reporting Standards by accounting professionals in the United States, will affect the way in which the U.S will record financial statements in the future.
The International Accounting Standards Board, (IASB), began life as the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) in the 1973. The IASC was created in June 1973 as a result of an agreement by the accountancy bodies of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland and the United States. These countries constituted the Board of IASC at that time.
According to business, or any organization, Accounting plays a major role in developing and growth of the business. Financial standards of the organization expected as the complexities of business growth and expansion. Hence determining the implementation of the standards can vary according to the type of industry, business or organization.
Judgement is a notion of relevance and reliability in developing and applying accounting policies. It is a requirement of management that they exercise a high degree of professional judgement when selecting appropriate accounting policies in the preparation of financial statements that is relevant to decision-making and assessment needs of users. Management should also consider the applicability of IFRS and AASB in dealing with similar and related issues and then the definitions, recognition criteria in the Conceptual Framework when there is no IFRS standard or interpretation in certain circumstances that are specifically applicable. Management may also consider the most current pronouncements of other standard-setting bodies to the extent that do not conflict with IFRS and AASB in developing accounting standards and accepted industry practices by using a similar conceptual framework.
The Financial Accounting Standards Boards (FASB) defined conceptual framework as a consistent of underlying concepts and the ideas that describe the nature and general purpose of financial reporting which may lead to consistent standard in accounting (Deegan 2010). The role of the conceptual framework is to ensure that financial statements in accounting are free from bias and to provide useful information that is useful for user’s decision making. The standard-setting board also formulated a range of perceptions and theories related to accounting to trigger the objectives of financial reporting. The standard-setting board keeps issuing the conceptual framework over time to ensure that the conceptual framework’s objectives are improving to provide useful financial information. The innovative work on conceptual framework was embraced in the United States by the FASB in the early 1970s. The FASB accomplished disappointment in attempting to generate a standard that at the outset might not appear to present, especially testing theoretical issues. Regardless, while attempting to achieve concession on Statement of Financial Accounting Standard, tending to the theoretical issues produced critical matter for the board members. In this manner, throughout the outset the FASB understood the requirement for an obvious conceptual framework. Based on Hines’s argument, the conceptual framework is mean to provide the ability to increase self-regulate of a profession in order to neutralizing government interference from arising. Whether this argument has been accepted or not will be discussed in more detail with supported evidence to clarify the main point about Hines’s argument. Further details about this argument will discuss below.
GAAP is exceptionally useful because it attempts to regulate and normalize accounting definitions, assumptions, and methods. Because of generally accepted accounting principles one is able to presuppose that there is uniformity from year to year in the methods that are used to prepare a company's financial statements. And even though variations might exist, one can make realistically confident conclusions when comparing one company to another, or when comparing one company's financial statistics to the statistics for the industry as a whole. Over the years the generally accepted accounting principles have become more multifaceted because financial transactions have become more intricate (Accounting Principles, 2011).