U.S. businesses and households now have free online access to accounting rules developed by the FASB and the GASB, including advanced features for navigating, searching, printing, copying and pasting material, the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) said on Feb. 27, 2023.
The FAF eliminated fees for the “Professional View” paid subscription service and has enhanced the Accounting Standards Codification (the Codification) and the Governmental Accounting Research System (GARS) for the public’s use.
Current “Professional View” subscribers have been transitioned off the system “and pro-rated refunds will be issued for those subscribers whose paid terms extend beyond today’s cutover date,” according to the announcement.
The change is to facilitate more access and better understanding of implementing U.S. accounting standards. Cash-deficient college students, for example, that are accounting majors will especially benefit from the change.
The FAF is a trustee organization in Norwalk, Connecticut that overseas the FASB and the GASB.
Last month, the FAF announced that the access launch would be this spring. (See Financial Accounting Foundation to Eliminate Subscription Fees for GAAP Codification in the Jan. 31, 2023, edition of Accounting & Compliance Alert.)
The Codification is the complete and official version of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP) published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for public companies, private companies, nonprofit organizations, and employee benefit plans in the United States. Similarly, GARS is the complete and official version of GAAP published by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and used by states, cities, and other governmental entities in the U.S.
The URLs to the websites are:
- Accounting Standards Codification®: https://asc.fasb.org
- Governmental Accounting Research System™: https://gars.gasb.org
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 28, 2023 edition of Accounting & Compliance Alert, available on Checkpoint.
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