GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The common set of accounting principles, standards and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements. GAAP are a combination of authoritative standards (set by policy boards) and simply the commonly accepted ways of recording and reporting accounting information. GAAP are imposed on companies so that investors have a minimum level of consistency in the financial statements they use when analyzing companies for investment purposes. GAAP cover such things as revenue recognition, balance sheet item classification and outstanding share measurements.
The expected result of this project is to have one set of international standards that domestic and worldwide companies can use to prepare their financial statements. The combined effort of the FASB and IASB will be a conceptual framework that will provide a universal structure for creating financial reporting standards. The FASB framework and the IASB framework are quite similar, which makes the convergence project possible. The major difference between the two is that the FASB has more detailed guidance, which allows future development of standards. The IASB’s framework leaves the interpretations up to the user of the information.
Companies and their independent accountants or auditors should report the effectiveness of the companies internal controls based on these six principles. Publicly traded companies or those planning to go public are required to maintain internal controls and ensure compliance of government regulations. Company Evaluation As it relates to internal controls, the LJB Company is meeting and or adhering to some of the regulation requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act within the daily operations of the business. I have provided a list below of the current processes being used within LJB Company that are being done exceptionally well. Establishing Responsibility: It is important to designate only one individual to handle specific tasks.
The inefficiency of investment managers, bankers, and financial analysts as they seek to compare financial reporting drawn up in accordance with different sets of accounting standards. Instructions (a) What is the International Accounting Standards Board? The International Accounting Standard Board is an independent organization who issues the International Financial Reporting Standards. The IASB is responsible to maintain the financial reporting compatible for most of the foreign exchanges and markets. (b) What stakeholders might benefit from the use of International Accounting Standards?
The objectives of GAAP and the scope of use are also discussed in articles under this heading. Presentation A primary objective of GAAP was the establishing of a standard format to present financial documents to outside investors (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield, 2012). Under the presentation header are articles relating to how various accounting documents should be formatted and presented. Timing guidelines are also presented for each of the accounting documents.
The AICPA have several publication that helps with guiding the accounting profession and to enhance the member’s technical and professional abilities. One thing that the AICPA requires of their Accountants and CPAs is to continue with professional education, so that they will stay abreast of all current accounting and business issues. The AICPA is considered the foundation of ethical reasoning in accounting because each individual in the accounting profession whether they are certified or not has the obligation to be ethical with the public in business dealings and having access to financial information. All
The Board is completing an update to the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting in order to give it a more complete, concise and updated set of concepts to use when the Board develops or revises IFRS Standards. The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting describes the basic concepts and objectives of general purpose financial reporting. It underlies the preparation and presentation of financial statements for external parties. It is an empirical tool that helps the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) develop requirements in IFRS Standards which is based on clear and regular principles (ifrs, 2018). These principles, on the other hand, must bring about the Board developing IFRS Standards that makes it necessary for entities to present more important, comparable and clear information in financial statements.
Finally, a benchmarking analysis with a comparison to the same two companies mentioned above will be presented. Financial Statements Each statement gives the reader important information about the company, but the reader must also look at how the information flows from one statement to another through a ratio analysis. The Inernational Financial Reporting Standards and International Accounting Standards Board (2008) have proposed the use of the same section names and categories in each of the statements. Figure A shows details of their proposal, which is currently under consideration by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB). This section will look at each statement and then an analysis between them using ratios.
The existence assertion is to make sure that the client and accounts exist, the completeness is to make sure that all of the balances are recorded, and the valuation is to make sure that the balances are recorded at the correct amount. It is important that the auditor obtains a confirmation from a third party for the information in accounts receivables. After communicating and obtaining the information, the auditor is to evaluate the information (SAS No. 67, AU Section 330.11). The audit objectives auditors use to perform year-end sales cutoff tests are to determine if the information they obtained by the confirmation reduces the audit risk level.
Consider the following: • What kinds of accounting, audit, and tax services does the firm provide? • Who is their target market(s) by industry and company? • Why would prospective clients give serious consideration to have KSM handle their accounting, audit and tax services? 3. Working in an ever changing accounting, audit and tax environment that is driven by change and strict regulatory adherence, how does the managing partner (David Resnick): • Ensure strict employee compliance to federal and state regulation and the company’s high ethical standards?