Acc/541 Accounting Theory and Research

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Prior to convergence, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had declared that all foreign companies that issue securities in the United States must also present its financial statements in accordance to GAAP (Schroeder, et al., 2011). The SEC revoked this ruling in 2007 and began accepting statements that were prepared according to IFRS’s. In 2008, the SEC also decided to allow American companies to use IFRS’s to prepare statements beginning in 2014, as part of the roadmap to convergence (Schroeder, et al., 2011).

Standards

GAAP is considered “rules-based” (Deliotte, 2007). The first pronouncements set by the FASB were known as Statements of Financial Accounting Standards or SFAS’s. The SFAS’s are what created GAAP. These statements were developed to answer specific accounting issues and give the methodology to handle them. Other pronouncements of the FASB included Technical Bulletins and Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts, or SFAC’s. All of the pronouncements were combined in 2009 to form the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC), which is now the only authentic source of GAAP (Schroeder, et al., 2011).

On the other hand, IFRS’s are considered “principle-based” (Deliotte, 2007). The IFRS’s also include the IAS’s, as they were retained by the IASB. These are the equivalents of the SFAS’s but do not contain much guidance for implementation, unlike the SFAS’s (Schroeder, et al., 2011).

Masters in Science and Accounting (MSA)

The MSA program at the University of Phoenix gives its students an excellent foundation for an accounting career in several ways. The curriculum meets the requirements and expectations of the majority of State Boards of Accountancy and also gives the students the knowledge to pass the examinations. The program is taught by facilitators with real-life accounting experience that they can share with the students and unsurpassed guidance on expectations and requirements. Furthermore, the program also contains CPA preparation and software to give the students the best preparation for the exam.

The textbooks also contain historical and current information to provide a thorough approach to accounting and enhance the knowledge of the students. Students are given access to and taught to use the tools they will need throughout their careers, such as access to the FASB ASC’s, Excel, and many research websites.

Conclusion

Industries change as rapidly as technology does. Knowledge is power to keep up with the changing environment and keep an accountant on a successful career track. As new students prepare to enter the field, they must be prepared to evolve with the industry and meet the challenges that entails. The FASB and IASB are the governing bodies that each accountant needs to be familiar with. Knowledge of their histories and their current standards can only help each accountant be the best he or she can be.

References

Deloitte. (2007). IFRSs and US GAAP: A pocket comparison. Retrieved from http://www.iasplus.com/dttpubs/0703ifrsusgaap.pdf

Schroeder, R. G., Clark, M. W., & Cathey, J. M. (2011). Financial accounting theory and analysis (10th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.