Overview of US GAAP/Conceptual framework of Financial Reporting Flashcards
CPA Exam
What does GAAP address?
Recognition, Measurement, Disclosure
What are seven key components of the general Purpose external financial report?
- Income statement
- Balance sheet
- Statement of cash flows
- Statement of retained earnings
- Statement of comprehensive income
- Footnote disclosures
- Auditor’s opinion
What topics does the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Codification not include?
Other comprehensive basis of accounting Cash basis Income tax basis Regulatory accounting principles Governmental accounting standards
When an economic event occurs first you create which type of account?
Accrual Account
When a cash event occurs first you create which type of account?
Deferral Account
Accounting guidance within the Codification has the following structure:
Areas—Topics—Subtopics—Sections—Subsections—Paragraphs
Codification Areas are?
- General principles (100)
- Presentation (200) (does not address recognition or measurement)
- Assets (300)
- Liabilities (400)
- Equity (500)
- Revenue (600)
- Expenses (700)
- Broad transactions (800) (transactions involving more than one area such as interest, and subsequent events)
- Industry (900) (special industry accounting)
Goals of the Codification?
- Simplify the structure and accessibility of authoritative GAAP.
- Provide all authoritative literature in a single location.
- Reduce the time and effort required to research an accounting issue.
- Reduce the risk of noncompliance with GAAP.
- Facilitate updating of accounting standards.
- Assist the FASB with research and convergence (IFRS) efforts.
Primary Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information are?
- Relevance
2. Faithful representation
Relevance has what Fundamental Qualities?
a. Predictive value—relevant information is used by investors to form their own expectations about the future
b. Confirmatory value—relevant information also helps users confirm or correct prior expectations
c. Materiality—information is material if omitting it or misstating it could influence decisions that users make on the basis of the reported financial information
Faithful representation has what Fundamental Qualities?
a. Completeness—all the information that is necessary for faithful representation is provided
b. Neutrality—a company cannot select information to favor one set of interested parties over another
c. Free from error—more accurate (faithful) representation of a financial item
What are the enhancing qualities of Qualitative Characteristics?
- Comparability (Consistency): information that is measured and reported in a similar manner for different companies is considered comparable
- Verifiability: occurs when independent measurers, using the same methods, obtain similar results
- Timeliness: having information available to decision-makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions
- Understandability: the quality of information that lets reasonably informed users see its significance
What are the Accounting Assumptions?
E-GUT
- Economic Entity
- Going Concern
- Unit of Measure (Monetary Unit)
- Time Period (Periodicity)
Economic Entity:
company keeps its activity separate from its owners and other businesses
Going Concern:
company to last long enough to fulfill objectives and commitments
Unit of Measure (Monetary Unit)
money is the common denominator
Time Period (periodicity)
company can divide its economic activities into time periods
Accounting Principles
REM’D (sleep)
- Revenue Recognition Principle
- Expense Recognition Principle
- Measurement Principle
- Full Disclosure Principle