For the record, I respect all the hard work done by FASB members and staffers. But a recent "FASB Update," a monthly roundup of rulemaking activity, scolds the press for daring to suggest that U.S. GAAP has a weight problem.
Contrary to press accounts, says the update, GAAP is not "an ever-growing, massive body of work encompassing tens of thousands of pages." Rather, the FASB Codification -- which is a major reorganization and categorization of generally accepted accounting principles -- contains a mere "2,900 pages of content."
That's a far cry indeed from pre-Codification GAAP, which by some counts hit 12,000 pages, thanks to a surfeit of FASB, AICPA and SEC information. But it's still heftier than international financial reporting standards, which weigh in at 2,500 pages. Moreover, international standards were recently slimmed down to a supermodel-thin 230 pages when the IASB released IFRS for small and midsize businesses.
(By the way, the new codification is organized by subject rather than rule numbers. That makes more sense in the long run, but the immediate effect is that I have to deprogram my brain to remember to forget the old numbering system. For example, FAS 5 is now Topics 30 through 114, and then a whole bunch of other topic numbers between 116 and 203, right?)
FASB can be proud of its weight-loss program for accounting standards. Indeed, having shed as many as 9,000 pages from U.S. GAAP, it deserves to be praised as the Biggest Loser. But there is still more slimming to do. |
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