WHO SETS GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES FOR GOVERNMENTS? (3)
Level A
- GASB Statements (currently numbered 1 through 45)
- GASB Interpretations (issued by the GASB to provide an interpretation of accounting guidance for an accounting standard that already exists)
- Any AICPA or FASB pronouncements that a GASB Statement or Interpretation specifically makes applicable to governments
Level B
- GASB Technical Bulletins (These are prepared by the GASB staff to provide guidance on applying an existing accounting principle. Technical Bulletins are reviewed by the GASB board and a majority of the board members must not object to their issuance.)
- AICPA Audit Guides and Statements of Position that are made specifically applicable to governmental entities by the AICPA and that have been cleared for issuance by the GASB (The AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide “Audits of Statement and Local Governments (GASB 34 Edition)” is an example of this type of document.)
Level C
- AICPA Practice Bulletins if specifically made applicable to governmental entities and that have been cleared by the GASB
Level D
- Implementation Guides that have been published by the GASB staff (These are typically in a question-and-answer format and seem to be issued more frequently in recent years.)
- Practices that are widely recognized and prevalent in state and local governments (This category includes those accounting practices that are generally used by governments, but are not the result of a specific accounting standard issued by the GASB or its predecessors.)
In the absence of a pronouncement or another source of accounting literature, the financial statement preparer may consider what is termed other accounting literature. Other accounting literature includes a variety of different sources ranging from GASB Concepts Statements (which are GASB documents that describe the conceptual framework from which GASB Statements arise) on the more authoritative side to accounting textbooks and articles on the less authoritative side. In between these extremes, other accounting literature includes such items as FASB pronouncements not made applicable to governments
and various AICPA Issue Papers and Practice Aids.
The message that the nonaccountant should take away from the above discussion about the sources of generally accepted accounting principles for governments is that in many cases, analysis of an accounting issue is not an exact science and the selection of the most appropriate accounting treatment for a particular transaction is often based on a broad range of accounting principles that do not precisely fit the transaction at hand.
Taken From : Governmental Accounting Made Easy