Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the accounting standard adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While the SEC previously stated that it intends to move from U.S. GAAP to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the latter differ considerably from GAAP, and progress has been slow and uncertain. More recently, the SEC has acknowledged that there is no longer a push to move more U.S companies to IFRS so the two sets of standards will “continue to coexist” for the foreseeable future.
Useful to present to potential investors and creditors and other users in making rational investment, credit, and other financial decisions.
Integrity & Trust
- Making Financial Decisions
- Improving Performance
- Making Long-Term Decisions
- Maintaining Records
Helpful to present to potential investors and creditors and other users in assessing the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of prospective cash receipts about economic resources, the claims to those resources, and the changes in them.
Circa 2008, the FASB issued the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, which reorganized the thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 accounting topics.