Rizvana Zameeruddin considers new guidance on accounting and financial reporting for intangible assets from the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in the USA. Zameeruddin considers that when Statement 51 is appropriately used in conjunction with existing guidance, a more faithful representation of the services capacity of intangible assets, particularly in the areas of recognition, initial measurement, and amortization results. This should improve financial reporting by clarifying the classification of intangibles as capital assets and establishing guidance for internally generated intangibles.
Abstract
Before the issuance of Statement 51, the question of where public sector accountants in the US should look for guidance about reporting and accounting for intangible assets was unclear. An intangible asset was most likely accounted for under Statement 34, which defines an intangible asset as a capital asset; together with Accounting Principles Board Opinion (APB) No. 17, Intangible Assets, and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Statement No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets. Some of the questions existing guidance raised were: should easement rights be reported, should assets donated to the government be reported differently from assets purchased, how should water rights be reported, how should internally created intangibles be valued, which intangibles, if any, should be amortized? After conferring with FASB, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Boards GASB issued Statement 51 to
clarify existing guidance. When Statement 51 is appropriately used in conjunction with existing guidance, a more faithful representation of the services capacity of intangible assets, particularly in the areas of recognition, initial measurement, and amortization results can be made. This ultimately improves financial reporting by clarifying the classification of intangibles as capital assets and establishing guidance for internally generated intangibles.
Zameeruddin GASB 51 New Guidance on Accounting and Financial Reporting for Intangible Assets
Showing posts with label GASB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GASB. Show all posts
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
XBRL—A Language of the Government 2.0 World
Liv Apneseth Watson, Senior Executive, IRIS Business Services described XBRL. She explained how XBRL is changing financial reporting in the public sector. XBRL is not about technology, according to Ms. Watson, it is about solving major data problems. XBRL is, fundamentally, an electronic language that helps both the private and public sector effectively and efficiently bridge the current gap between business systems by crossing artificial boundaries. She challenged the audience to consider the amount of re-keying of financial data done today and the difficulty in finding business information on the Internet.
Ms. Watson said that XBRL is like universal bar codes but for financial reporting. Compelling reasons for XBRL:
- Making financial and business information exchange better, faster, and cheaper
- Making financial reporting more transparent and discoverable
- Explicitly articulating business meaning and thus enabling the exchange of that meaning between humans or between business systems
- Improving data integrity
- Integrating business systems
- Saving government agencies money and making them more efficient
XBRL is tagged data that is machine readable. It is a standard way to communicate business and financial information. XBRL is an open source international standard operated by a non-profit consortium. It is more than financial reporting. It provides a global business reporting supply chain. Machine readable makes data re-usable.
Ms. Watson described how XBRL provides more functionality than previous methods. XBRL uses" hyperlinks on steroids," according to Ms. Watson. She described the taxonomy of an XBRL item. The presentation element of XBRL enables translating labels to multiple languages. This reduces the cost to report in multiple languages.
The methods for calculating business and statistical information can be linked to the XBRL item. This means that the information will be presented based on national or international standards. XBRL can also help identify mathematical errors in financial reports. She also described XBRL in context to spreadsheet applications. XBRL has the intelligence to label, identify context and show formulas eliminating "Excel hell". Anyone with data locked with proprietary systems will be at a disadvantage compared to those with open discoverable data, according to Ms. Watson.
Many governments have adopted XBRL. Her presentation described:
- Macedonia reporting portal
- International Accounting Standards Board
- Securities and Exchange Commission - USA
- Federal Deposit Insurance Organization - USA
- Committee for European Securities Regulators
- State of Nevada
XBRL will enable the semantic web and linked data, according to Ms. Watson.
Liv A. Watson heads Global Business Development for IRIS Business Services Private Limited. She is one of the founders of the XBRL Intentional Consortium. She is the co‐author and contributor author to several of books including “XBRL for Dummies” and Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook published by Wiley.
Liv watson icgfm xbrl a language of the government world english
View more presentations from icgfmconference.
Liv watson icgfm xbrl a language of the government world espanol
View more presentations from icgfmconference.
Liv watson icgfm xbrl a language of the government world francais
Ms. Watson suggested the following links for more information:View more presentations from icgfmconference.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
