Accounting Standards Board
This paper provides a brief overview and analysis of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) joint venture referred to as the convergence project. After discussing the history of the relationship between the two boards and the IASB equivalents of the FASB original pronouncements, the paper will briefly explain how the MSA program prepares a student for a professional life within the accounting vocation.
Accounting standards are essential to the functioning of the entire global economy, which depends heavily on a successful operation. Globally several boards exist to oversee the smooth operation of the accounting standards. The two boards discussed in this paper are the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The FASB’s mission is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information. The FASB develops broad accounting concepts and standards for financial report. (Schroeder, Clark, Cathey, 2005) The IASB mission is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high quality, understandable and international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) for general purpose financial statements. www.iasb.org
Convergence between IFRSs and US GAAP
Since a joint meeting in September 2002, the IASB and FASB issued an agreement to commit to the development of high quality, compatible accounting standards that could be used for both cross-boarder and domestic financial reporting. The goals is to use existing financial reporting standards completely compatible and to es ...