Happy Codification Day!

At a meeting of the NYSSCPA Not-for-Profit Organizations Committee this morning, member Allen L. Fetterman (with his hand raised at left) held up a copy of the latest FASB Statement, No. 168.

"This is the last FASB accounting statement that will ever be issued," he said. "Frame it; hang it on the wall."

He's right: The FASB today launched its Accounting Standards Codification in Statement No. 168 as "the single source of authoritative nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)," the agency said in a statement. It supercedes all exisiting accounting standards documents, rendering its own format obsolete.

The codification reorganizes the thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 accounting topics and displays all topics using a consistent structure. It also includes relevant Securities and Exchange Commission guidance that follows the same topical structure in separate sections and is effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009.

To prepare constituents for the July 1 change, the FASB has provided a number of tools and training resources including:

• An online tutorial available on the codification website.
• A "Notice to Constituents" that includes a significant amount of background information.
• A codification Q&A document.
• Various webcasts.
• “Countdown to Codification Alerts,” a series of weekly e-mails featuring tips to help ease the transition to the new research system.

The FASB stated that it expects that the new system will reduce the amount of time and effort required to research an accounting issue, mitigate the risk of noncompliance with standards through improved usability of the literature, provide accurate information with real-time updates as new standards are released, and assist the FASB with the research efforts required during the standard-setting process.