XBRL Update: FAF Publishes 2011 U.S. GAAP Taxonomy, Pending SEC Acceptance; IFRS Foundation Releases 2011 IFRS Taxonomy for Comment

Earlier today (January 18), the Financial Accounting Foundation announced that the 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, applicable to filings in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), was available.

The FAF's press release provides a link to the 2011 taxonomy, notes that the taxonomy is pending final acceptance by the SEC, and provides SEC contact information regarding the Commission's XBRL reporting requirements.

Additionally, the FAF notes:

The FAF is responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of the taxonomy applicable to public issuers registered with the SEC.

The 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy contains updates for accounting standards and other improvements to the 2009 taxonomy currently used by SEC issuers.

FAF issued proposed improvements to the taxonomy in the fall, allowing users of the taxonomy to provide feedback on the updates and to provide SEC filers, service providers, software vendors, and other interested parties the opportunity to become familiar with and incorporate new element names for their filings.

Separately, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation released for public comment an Exposure Draft of its proposed 2011 IFRS Taxonomy.

As noted in the IFRS Foundation's press release, an interactive webcast on the proposed 2011 taxonomy will be held on January 27, and the comment deadline on the proposal is March 18.

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PCAOB Publishes Final Standards 8-15 on Risk, Materiality; Staff Practice Alert 7 on Litigation, Contingencies

Earlier today (January 18), the PCAOB published final Auditing Standards No. 8-15 on the auditor's assessment of, and response to risk, and related amendments to existing standards.

These final standards were approved by the SEC on Dec. 23, 2010, following the SEC's Notice and Comment period, and approval thereafter by the Commission. This procedure, in effect a secondary level approval process after approval of auditing standards by the PCAOB board, was set forth in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The final standards published by the PCAOB on January 18 include:

AS 8 Audit Risk

AS 9 Audit Planning

AS 10 Supervision of the Audit Engagement

AS 11 Consideration of Materiality in Planning and Performing an Audit

AS 12 Identifying and Assessing Risks of Material Misstatement

AS 13 The Auditor's Responses to the Risks of Material Misstatement

AS 14 Evaluating Audit Results

AS 15 Audit Evidence

PCAOB Staff Audit Practice Alert 7 on Litigation

Separately, as highlighted by Broc Romanek in TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog today (Jan. 18), the PCAOB published on Dec. 20 PCAOB Staff Audit Practice Alert No. 7, "Auditor Considerations of Litigation and Other Contingencies Arising from Mortgage and Other Loan Activities." See also PCAOB's press release.

Romanek notes that the PCAOB release is in addition to a related SEC 'Dear CFO' letter released in the fall; see our previous posts on the SEC's Dear CFO Letter, and on the status of FASB's related project on contingency disclosures, including litigation.

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SEC Updates Disclosure Guidance (C&DI's) for Changes, Disagreements With Accountants

On Jan. 14, 2011 the SEC posted updated Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DI's) relating to disclosure of changes in, and disagreements with, the issuer's accountants.

Props to TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog's Broc Romanek for flagging this earlier today (January 18), with links to the updated C&DI Q&A's on this subject.

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FASB ASU 2011-01 Defers Eff. Date of Troubled Debt Restructuring Disclosures Required in 2010-20; All Other 2010-20 Disclosures Keep Orig. Eff. Date

Earlier today, the Financial Accounting Standards Board released Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-01 (ASU 2011-01). The ASU is entitled, Receivables (Topic 310): Deferral of the Effective Date of Disclosures about Troubled Debt Restructurings in Update No. 2010-20.

ASU 2010-20, issued in July, 2010 is entitled: Receivables (Topic 310):Disclosures about the Credit Quality of Financing Receivables and the Allowance for Credit Losses.

ASUs are released to communicate changes made to accounting standards under FASB's Codification.

My two (three) cents (note: refer directly to the ASUs for the official requirements, the following is my own take on key points from the ASU; please refer to the disclaimer posted on the right side of this blog):

1. TDR disclosures are the only 2010-20 disclosures deferred: ASU 2011-01 defers the effective date of only a portion of the new disclosures under ASU 2010-20, specifically, those pertaining to Troubled Debt Restructurings (TDRs). Other than the deferral of the TDR disclosures announced today, all other disclosures required in ASU 2010-20 relating to the credit quality of financing receivables, and the allowance for credit losses, are still required as of the original effective date of ASU 2010-20 - essentially, for calendar year companies, the original effective date of ASU 2010-20 was 2010 for public co's, and 2011 for private co's.
2. TDR accounting/definition guidance and TDR disclosures will have coordinated effective date: The reason why FASB decided to defer the effective date for the new TDR disclosures relates mainly to the fact that FASB is separately working on guidance relating to the definition of a TDR, and in response to constitutent comments received on the earlier ASU, FASB decided to require the new disclosures of TDRs concurrent with the new definition of TDRs and related guidance. FASB states in ASU 2011-01: "Currently, that guidance is anticipated to be effective for interim and annual periods ending after June 15, 2011."
3. Private co's already subject to deferral of all disclosures in 2010-20: The deferral in ASU 2011-01 is specified as applicable to public companies only, because ASU 2010-20 already deferred the effective date for private companies (for all of the disclosures in ASU 2010-20) until annual periods ending on or after Dec. 15, 2011. That is, only public companies were required, under ASU 2010-20, to provide all of the new disclosures set forth in ASU 2010-20 for interim and annual periods ending after Dec. 15, 2010. Therefore, the immediate need (e.g. for calendar year-end companies) for a deferral of effective date of the TDR disclosures in ASU 2010-20 pertained to public companies only.

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FASB, IASB Release Revenue Recognition ED

Yesterday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board released for public comment their Exposure Draft (ED) of a proposed joint standard on Revenue Recognition. The ED, which carries a comment deadline of Oct. 22, 2010, has is entitled: Revenue Recognition (Topic 605): Revenue from Contracts with Customers (as posted on FASB version) and Revenue From Contracts With Customers (as posted on IASB website).

Major Changes In Proposed Standard
According to FASB-IASB's joint press release:

If adopted, the proposal would create a single revenue recognition standard for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that would be applied across various industries and capital markets. The publication of this joint proposal represents a significant step forward toward global convergence in one of the most important and pervasive areas in financial reporting. The proposed standard would replace IAS 18 Revenue, IAS 11 Construction Contracts and related interpretations. In US GAAP, it would supersede most of the guidance on revenue recognition in Topic 605 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification.

The core principle of the draft standard is that an entity should recognise revenue from contracts with customers when it transfers goods or services to the customer in the amount of consideration the entity receives, or expects to receive, from the customer.

The proposed standard would improve both IFRSs and US GAAP by:
- removing inconsistencies in existing requirements;
- providing a more robust framework for addressing revenue recognition issues;
- improving comparability across companies, industries and capital markets;
- requiring enhanced disclosure; and
- clarifying the accounting for contract costs.

Public Comments Due in October; Roundtables Coming In November
According to FASB's homepage, public roundtables on the ED will be held on Nov. 5 and 8, 2010.

Links To Additional information
Additional information on what is informally referred to as the "Rev Rec" ED can be found in:

• FASB/IASB Joint press release
• FASB in Focus
• Podcast featuring FASB Board Member Leslie Seidman speaking on the Rev Rec ED
• Investor outreach for comments
• FASB's Rev Rec Project Page

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FASB-IASB Update G20 Leaders With Progress Report On Convergence

Yesterday, FASB and the IASB sent a letter to the G20 Leaders, updating them with details of the modification to their plan for convergence of accounting standards, first noted in a brief letter to the G20 Finance Ministers on June 2nd.

The letter includes a 15-page detailed progress report, which shows some projects moving beyond the original June, 2011 deadline (generally, to no later than "4Q2011") although there are a few references to 2012 and beyond, such as for derecognition and emissions trading schemes.

The FASB-IASB letter emphasizes:

We understand the importance that the G20 Leaders attach to the issue of accounting standards. At the Pittsburgh Summit, held in September 2009, the G20 leaders stated ?We call on our international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of high quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard setting process, and complete their convergence project by June 2011. The International Accounting Standards Board?s (IASB) institutional framework should further enhance the involvement of various stakeholders...

We also noted that many stakeholders have voiced concerns about their ability to provide high quality input on the large number of major exposure drafts that were planned for publication in the second quarter of this year...

The Pittsburgh Leaders Statement [G20 Leaders Summit, 2009]highlighted the importance of stakeholder engagement. We believe the modified work programme, which phases the publication of exposured drafts and related consultations, enables the broad-based and effective stakeholder participation in due process that is critical to the quality of our standards.

The nature of the comments received on our exposure drafts will determine the extent of the redeliberations necessary and other steps and efforts that will be required to reach this goal.

The last sentence noted above could also significantly impact the ultimate timing of final standards; i.e., the extent and nature of comments received on the FASB-IASB Exposure Drafts (proposals), not only the time it takes the boards to issue the proposals, but the time it takes them to 'redeliberate' the proposals by considerig comment letters received, and feedback received in other outreach, such as at conferences, roundtables, meetings with professional associations, (e.g., FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting and Committee on Private Company Standards sent the following comment letters to the boards recently regarding the convergence timetable: FEI CCR letter; FEI CPC-S letter).

The June 25 FASB-IASB correspondance to the G20 leaders was addressed to The Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, host of the G20 Toronto Summit set to take place June 26-27 in Toronto.

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If You're Going To San Francisco...AAA Will Be There

If you're going to San Francisco between July 31 and August 4, you can catch the American Accounting Association's (AAA's) Annual meeting. I attended the Annual Meeting in Chicago in 2007, and I highly recommend it. The AAA is the professional association for academics, but many practitioners (financial executives, auditors, audit committee members, and others) belong to AAA as well. (I am a card-carrying member of AAA.)

Here are just a few highlights of the AAA Annual Meeting, and the CPE sessions that precede it:

• Conference on Teaching and Learning - with two tracks - one for practioners interested in learning about teaching now or in the future, and one for current teachers - I highly, highly recommend this program, which I attended in its earlier form in 2007; and again in NYC last year; various FEI members have attended over the years and found it a valuable and high level intro to what you'll face if you decide to enter teaching as an adjunct, part time, or full time prof; contact Dee Harris at AAA immediately if you are interested in this program at deirdre@aaahq.org or 941-556-4119, since space is limited.
• XBRL Teaching Workshop - preceding CPE Sessions and Annual Meeting - July 29-30.
• Concurrent CPE sessions take place from Friday evening July 30 - Sun. Aug. 1
• The AAA Annual Meeting takes place from Mon. Aug. 2 - Wed. Aug. 4
• FEI leadership and members speaking at the AAA CPE Sessions/Annual Meeting Panels include (a) Marie Hollein, FEI President and CEO, FEI, on Panel 1.7: "Auditors, Management and Boards: What They Need to Deter Fraud," moderated by Cindy Fornelli, Executive Director, Center for Audit Quality, with additional panelists Eric Allegakoen, Vice President and Chief Audit Executive of Adobe Systems Incorporated, Randy Fletchall, Americas Vice Chair, Quality and Risk Management, Ernst & Young; b) Betsy Rafael, (VP Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer at Apple, Inc.), as luncheon speaker Tues. Aug. 3 from 12:00 - 1:45 on: "The Future of Accounting: A Preparer's Perspective of the Uncertain and Challenging Future of Accounting as Convergence, Rregulation, and New Business Models Meet"; (c) Rick Brounstein (EVP and CFO, NewCardio, Inc.) and Bob Laux (Senior Director of Financial Accounting and Reporting, Microsoft Corporation), on Panel 3.2: "User and Preparer Views on the Financial Statement Presentation Project," along with panelists Dane Mott (Senior Equity Analyst, J. P. Morgan) and Sandra Peters (Head, Financial Reporting, CFA Institute). Moderator is former SEC Acting Chief Accounting Scott Taub, now of Financial Reporting Advisors. This panel was organized by 2009-2010 AAA Financial Accounting and Reporting Section (FARS) Chair Teri Yohn (also an FEI member, and a former SEC Academic Fellow). Another panel featuring FEI member and former AAA President Gary Previts is described further below.
• Panel 5.1, Tues. Aug. 3, 2-3:30: The Pathways Commission (Charting a National Higher-Education Strategy for the Next Generation of Accountants)Moderator: Bruce Behn, The University of Tennessee; Panelists: Bill Ezzell, Deloitte LLP, Gary Previts, Case Western Reserve University (also an FEI member), Judy Rayburn, University of Minnesota, and Denny Reigle, American Institute of CPAs. The concept of charting a national higher education strategy was one issue identified in U.S. Treasury Advisory Committee on the Audit Profession's (ACAP's) 2008 report; the subcommitee on education/human resources was led by Gary Previts.
• Panel 7.5: "Operating an Accounting Blog,"Moderated by: Bill McCarthy, Michigan State University, Panelists: Dave Albrecht, The Summa (Concordia College), Joe Hoyle, Teaching Financial Accounting (University of Richmond), Ed Ketz, Accounting Cycle (Penn State), Francine McKenna, re: The Auditors
  Tom Selling, The Accounting Onion.
• Additional speakers at the AAA CPE Sessions and Annual Meeting each year include prominent members of the SEC, PCAOB, FASB and IASB board and staff.

The AAA Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to learn, mix and mingle with academics, practitioners and regulators. Think about it! But hurry and register soon if you haven't already!

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