Abstract: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * WHEN APPLYING NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS to their companies, CPAs recommend a five-step approach: 1. Assign specific groups or professionals to monitor and translate new pronouncements. 2. Use liaisons and questionnaires to analyze how and where the company could be affected. 3. Summarize the technical detail for nonfinancial colleagues. 4. Use the information garnered from throughout the company to assess a standard's impact and create a realistic implementation plan. 5. Work with management and outside auditors to enhance understanding and acceptance of the standard. How CPAs turn accounting pronouncements into corporate reality. CPAs working in the corporate sector often charged with the tricky task of absorbing complicated new accounting standards and then sorting out how the literature applies to their organizations' operations. At Prudential, USX Corp. and Chase Manhattan Bank, CPAs part of a critical effort to understand new standards and how to make them work. No matter what industry segment they work in, those on the front lines in this arena recommend a step-by-Step approach that helps them analyze and anticipate the impact of new guidance. STEP 1: ASSIGN MONITORS Many companies designate departments of professionals to monitor and translate new financial reporting guidelines and other pronouncements. For example, at USX Corp., a holding company for its steel and oil and gas businesses, a three-person accounting research group spends considerable time studying new accounting releases and developments. The group follows all publications from the FASB, the SEC, the AICPA accounting standards executive committee, the FASB emerging issues task force and any other relevant bodies, according to assistant controller Albert G. Adkins, who is an AcSEC member. At Prudential, a five-person accounting policy group monitors new standards and decides how to implement them. Members usually have become familiar with the standards through the exposure drafts, and may even have studied the ED closely enough to comment, says Vice-President and Assistant Comptroller Neal Stern. Among the other responsibilities of the accounting policy group recommendation of accounting treatment for products and transactions, consultation on financial reporting matters and participation in projects with financial statement implications. For accounting professionals, staying informed about the standards is actually the simplest job, given all the resources available. According to Adkins, the tough job is translating--and sometimes justifying--a pronouncement's impact on others within the company. That effort involves determining the potential effect of the standard and creating an implementation plan. STEP 2: ANALYZE RELEVANCE After company accounting policy staff study a standard, they evaluate whether it will have a significant impact on the business. If a standard is expected to affect operations at Prudential, it is assigned to a project manager within Stern's accounting policy group. That manager circulates a summary memorandum to the accounting policy working a body made up of liaisons in each of the company's business groups and core areas. The liaisons are financial professionals who involved in areas such as financial reporting or planning but who may not be involved in accounting theory to the same extent as the accounting policy group, Stern says. The working group reports to Stern's project manager on how a standard may affect a particular area or operation. The amount of internal information that is necessary to gather depends on the standard. For example, at Prudential, in anticipation of FASB Statement no. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, Stern's group circulated a detailed questionnaire asking, among other things, whether the recipient's division had a product that might have an embedded derivative. …
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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