Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

It isn’t too surprising that the FASRI blog has been quiet, and it surely will be for another week or so.  There will be some interesting changes and improvements to the site when you return from vacation (I’ll keep you in suspense for now). But if you need your fix of accounting information and commentary, it [...] Read more > >

In one of our discussion groups at the FASB’s Financial Reporting Issues Conference, we had a lengthy discussion about whether a lease represented the promise to transfer a bundle of rights (which could be satisfied at contract signing) or the promise to allow someone to use an asset for a fixed period of time (which [...] Read more > >

We had a great Round Table with Paul Zarowin yesterday, where we talked about the large and ever-growing literature on earnings management.  While much has been done in this area, it was clear from yesterday’s discussion that there remain many fruitful areas for future research.  If you didn’t get the chance to join us, I [...] Read more > >

My colleague John McInnis at Texas alerted me to this article. Very good stuff.   I wonder how much will come back on the balance sheet with the new rules that go into effect in Q1 of 2010.  I have read that Citibank expects (don’t have figure handy) a relatively small portion to come back on [...] Read more > >

I’ve been thinking about something Jeff Wilks said during this week’s FASRI Roundtable and something that occurred to me during the conference.  In short, it is the notion that it might be useful to consider perspectives other than the customer consideration model for revenue recognition.  (Forgive me, Jeff, if I misunderstood your comments Wednesday, and of [...] Read more > >

On Tuesday, Dec 15th, 4 pm ET, we will be joined by Paul Zarowin. Paul Zarowin is a professor at New York University and an Editor at The Accounting Review. The topic of this session is earnings management, and Paul is going to provide us with a high level review of this literature and the [...] Read more > >

How often do we get to use big esoteric words from philosophy when we are talking about accounting standards?  Not often enough! Usually, the only philosophical terms we use are ‘normative’ and ‘positive,’ and I think many of us are pretty comfortable with the notion that standard setters are trying to answer normative questions (what should [...] Read more > >

Having recently attended the FASB/IASB issues conference on revenue recognition, leasing (lessor), and insurance, I was struck by how terminology gets in the way.  For example, figuring out what “unit of account” might mean seems to be something many debates were centered around … yet there’s not a definition of this notion.  So much of [...] Read more > >

We have already had a couple great posts on the FASB/IASB Financial Reporting Issues Conference by Ray and Rob.  I’d like to add a comment on something that struck me over the weekend. One of the important issues in revenue recognition is the question of whether a company is providing a good or service in return [...] Read more > >

Are you comfortable with allowing management to choose whether to recognize unrealized gains or losses based on management’s intent to hold securities to maturity?  How about basing the timing of revenue recognition on the firm’s business model?  Differences in intent and business models might very well alter what information users find relevant.  However, intent and [...] Read more > >

One issue that came up repeatedly for me at this weekend’s FASB-IASB reporting issues conference was that of the apparent clash between the objective to provide relevant information through financial reports and the objective to maintain consistency with the conceptual framework’s definitions of assets and liabilities. An example illustrates the nature of the problem: consider a [...] Read more > >

The Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative (FASRI) is issuing an open call for academic researchers to serve as Research Consultants for a Revenue Recognition Research Project.  Research consultants will work with members of FASRI to develop rigorous research studies likely to be helpful with the FASB and IASB deliberations on revenue recognition and related topics.  [...] Read more > >

Sorry for the light blogging, but I have been preparing for the upcoming Financial Reporting Issues Conference.  As always, the cases are a real challenge.  Here are a few questions to ponder: If I write an option, can it possibly be an asset?  Before you instinctively answer “of course not” (after all, you have given someone [...] Read more > >

On Dec. 15, 2009 we had a great Round Table on Earnings Management Research with Paul Zarowin. Here's the video if you missed it. Also, a follow-up post had some ideas of "must-reads" for Earnings Management Research. The show starts approximately 9 minutes into the video. Read more > >

As posted here, FASRI is issuing a call for research consultants to conduct revenue recognition studies.  This call is a little different from the usual 'call for proposals' because applicants must be willing to work closely with FASRI and FASB staff to identify research topics that will be most helpful in staff and Board deliberations.   [...] Read more > >