International Accounting Standards

International Accounting Standards

ACC: 407 Advanced Accounting

Accounting has been around for thousands of years. However, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century, and the beginning of the industrial revolution that the development of accounting really started to take shape. During the twentieth century the development of joint ventures made its way into companies. During this time several organizations have merged with other organizations. In 1937, the American Institute of Accountants merged with American Society of Certified Public Accountants, and later changed their name to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

Several different committees have been established by the AICPA to focus deeper on accounting principles. The first committee was known as Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP), which was followed by the Accounting Principles Board (APB) and replaced by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Every board has issued pronouncements on issues in accounting. These pronouncements have become a primary source of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) due to the fact that it is a guideline to accounting practices (Cathy, Clark, & Schroeder, 2005).

In 1973 the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was formed in order to create international regulations and accounting standards. The standards set by the IASC are designed to improve procedures in the preparation of financial statements. The IASC issued a series of accounting pronouncements called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which is the framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements.

In spite of this release, it is similar to FASB’s Conceptual Framework Project. Specifically, “the objective of financial statements is to provide useful information to a wide range of users for decision-making purposes. The...