Accounting Boards Research

Accounting Standards Boards Paper

Sally Peanut

ACC541 – Accounting Theory and Research

Monday, January 9, 2012

Professor Charlease Brown

Accounting has changed many times over the years from its inception several thousand years ago (Schroeder, 2011). There have been many various organizations and boards set up from the inception up until the current period. Currently, two of the best-known accounting boards are the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The following paper will cover these two particular boards along with their plans for the future. Additionally, the following paper will include a discussion about the potential opportunities allotted to graduate students of the MSA program.

The Accounting Boards

From a historical standpoint, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have both been around for a few years. The FASB was formed in 1973 because of replacing the Accounting Principles Board (ABP) as well as the Committee of Accounting Procedure (CAP) organization (Schroeder, 2011). The FASB works to create standards used to guide and educate the public regarding financial information in the United States. Additionally, the FASB is the entity responsible for developing Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). In the 1990’s, it was realized that the United States was slowly changing to a more global economy as business began to expand into other countries. Upon this realization, the need for a new type of board that could fully address the needs of international organizations was sought.

Consequently, the IASB emerged in 2001 because of the need to develop some set of standards in an ever-changing global economy (Schroeder, 2011). The IASB works similarly to the FASB except the rules and...