Print Editions of GAAP Codification End This Year

Denise Lugo Editor, Accounting and Compliance Alert

June 7, 2023 · 5 minute read

Denise Lugo Editor, Accounting and Compliance Alert

June 7, 2023 · 5 minute read

A final print edition of the Accounting Standards Codification will be issued this year and "it does say on it ‘final print edition,’" FASB Chair Richard Jones said at a June 6, 2023, board advisory meeting.

The board and the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) "thought this was the right time to transition from print to our fully electronic version," Jones told the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), the board's main advisory body.

"We’ve released an improved free fully electronic version and it seems like the right time to make that change," he said. "So those [who are] collectors, don't be shy – there's not that many of them."

The Codification is the single source of authoritative nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

The Codification was launched online in 2009 but bound print editions were also available in volumes and both versions sold. Prior to 2009, the FASB issued Statements of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS)—about 168 of them.

In February, the FAF made the Codification available to the public for free online, including advanced features for navigating, searching, printing, copying and pasting materials.

The change eliminated fees for the "Professional View" paid subscription service as well as enhanced the Codification and the Governmental Accounting Research System (GARS). GARS is the complete and official version of GAAP published by the GASB and used by states, cities, and other governmental entities in the U.S. (See Free Advanced Online Version of U.S. Accounting Rules Now Available to the General Public in the Feb. 28, 2023, edition of Accounting & Compliance Alert.)

The FAF is a not-for-profit trustee organization that holds oversight responsibility for the boards.

The URLs to the codification portals are:

This article originally appeared in the June 7, 2023 edition of Accounting & Compliance Alert, available on Checkpoint.

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