Marco Comun De Contabilidad

A Common Framework for Accounting Standards
As the FASB and the IASB
In September 2010, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) completed the first phase of a project that will influence global standards setting for many years to come.
Specifically, the Boards converged key portions of their conceptual frameworks. Thismonth’s column will explain what the Boards have done and the significance of their accomplishment.

What’s a Conceptual Framework?
A conceptual framework for a set of accounting standards is an explicit declaration of the fundamental concepts on which the set of standards is based. The concepts addressed by conceptual frameworks tend to be general in nature, broad in scope, and stable over time. Forexample, a conceptual framework typically will identify the kinds of financial statements that reporting entities should prepare (balance sheet, income statement, etc.) and define the basic elements of those financial statements (assets, liabilities, income, expenses, etc.). Having a conceptual framework eliminates the need for a standards setter, such as the
FASB or the IASB, to reestablishcore concepts each time it develops or updates a standard. Additionally,
by consistently referring to a stable conceptual framework, a standards setter is more likely to promulgate standards that are consistent with each other as well as with significant assumptions and constraints.
The conceptual framework of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is documented
in a series ofStatements of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFACs) issued by the FASB. The IASB has documented the conceptual framework of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in its Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements. Though similar in some respects, the two frameworks have always been separate and distinct from each other—until recently. As part of their efforts toconverge the specific standards that comprise U.S.
GAAP and IFRS, the Boards have begun to converge their conceptual frameworks as well.

The FASB-IASB Conceptual
Framework Project

In October 2004, the FASB and the IASB added a joint conceptual framework project to their agendas. The objective of the project is “to develop an improved common conceptual framework that provides a soundfoundation for developing future accounting standards.” In other words, the Boards have been working together to replace their separate frameworks with a single framework on which both future U.S. GAAP and future IFRS will be based. Each Board is committed to making the single framework better than either one’s
existing framework.
The joint conceptual framework project consists of eight phases,designated “A” through “H”:
A. Objective and qualitative characteristics
B. Elements and recognition
C. Measurement
D. Reporting entity
E. Presentation and disclosure, including financial reporting boundaries
F. Framework purpose and status in GAAP hierarchy
G. Applicability to the not-forprofit sector
H. Remaining issues

FINANCIAL REPORTING
A Common Framework for Accounting StandardsFINANCIAL REPORTING
In July 2006, the FASB and the IASB issued a Preliminary Views (PV) document for Phase A that described the Boards’ tentative thoughts on the overall objective of financial reporting and on the necessary and desirable qualitative characteristics of reported financial information. After further deliberations, the Boards issued an Exposure Draft (ED) for Phase A in May 2008 thatproposed the first two chapters of a common
conceptual framework. Final versions of those two chapters were subsequently issued by the Boards on September 28, 2010.

The FASB issued the two chapters together as SFAC No. 8, “Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting—Chapter 1, The Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting, and Chapter 3, Qualitative
Characteristics of Useful...