On Monday, February 10, 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) – “Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958).” The update aims to improve transparency of contributed nonfinancial assets — or more commonly referred to as in-kind donations — for not-for-profits by enhancing presentation and disclosure.
According to the draft of
Jen: This is PKF Texas the Entrepreneurs Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I am back again with Danielle Supkis Cheek, a director and one of the faces of our PKF Texas Consulting team. Danielle, welcome back the Playbook.
Danielle: Always happy to be here.
Jen: So, we’ve had a few other directors in here talking about lease accounting, and I know the standards have changed a little bit since the last time we had—I think it was Chris Hatten was here. Can you give us a little bit of an overview about what’s happened with the delayed lease accounting standards?
Danielle: Yeah sure. The AICPA’s Technical Issues Committee actually wrote an unsolicited letter to the FASB requesting an extension related to… it was really mainly tied to… that we have a lot going on with the Revenue Recognition implementation, I think we talked about the past. And then adding it to the leases, the leases can change your balance sheet a lot, and I think we’ve had a lot of people talking about the implications to your balance sheet of the actual standard, that it can impact your covenants or various ratio analysis.
Jen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I’m back again with Danielle Supkis Cheek, a director on our Entrepreneurial Advisory Services team. Danielle, welcome back to the Playbook.
Danielle: Thanks for having me again.
Jen: So a few episodes back we talked about revenue recognition. Another one of
Accounting for contributions and grants has often proven complicated for not-for-profits, especially when they come with donor-imposed conditions.
But 2018 guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) provided some much-needed clarification of earlier instructions.
In response to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Private Companies Practice Section’s Technical Issues Committee (TIC) request letter from May 13, 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to delay effective dates for three major standards for private companies and certain other entities. These standards include accounting for leases, credit losses (known as CECL) and hedging activities.
Currently, an Accounting Standards Update (ASU) is being drafted, which will change the effective dates. This will be issued after a formal written ballot by the board, expected to occur in November. FASB members shared that one of the advantages of the delay is to “allow preparers with limited resources to learn from the implementation performed by large public companies that possess more staffing and resources.”
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new guidance that will allow not-for-profit organizations to elect two of the private company alternatives. This new guidance will allow not-for-profit organizations to elect to amortize goodwill and provide an option to subsume certain customer-related intangible assets and all non-compete agreements into goodwill.
These alternatives are expected to reduce the cost of accounting for goodwill and measuring identifiable intangible assets for not-for-profits as goodwill would only be tested for impairment upon a triggering event, instead of annually, and additional time and costs would not be incurred to determine the fair value of customer-related intangible assets and non-compete agreements.
Breaking news this week – on Monday, May 13, 2019, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Private Companies Practice Section’s Technical Issues Committee (TIC) has sent a letter requesting the Financial Accounting Standards Board to delay the implementation of a new lease accounting standard for private companies.
The standard was made effective for public companies at the beginning of 2019, with an effective date for private companies slated for the start of 2020. TIC’s letter asks for a delay of one year for private company implementation.
According to a May 13, 2019 Journal of Accountancy article:
The Houston Business Journal recently published an article written by PKF Texas Audit Senior Manager and the face of the not-for-profit team, Nicole Riley, CPA, CFE, about the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) guidance.
Titled “Under new FASB guidelines do nonprofits receive contributions from governments?,” Nicole discusses how the new guidance affects governmental
Jen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I’m here today with Ryan Istre, an audit director and a member of the PKF Texas SEC team. Ryan, welcome back to the Playbook.
Ryan: Thanks, Jen. Appreciate it.
Jen: So, I’ve heard FASB is making some changes to share-based payment
As part of its Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative of the Division of Corporation Finance, the SEC, in Final Rulemaking Release No. 33-10532, Disclosure Update and Simplification, has adopted amendments to certain of its disclosure requirements that are redundant or outdated or that overlap with, or have been superseded by, other SEC disclosure requirements — disclosures required by United States generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) or those required by International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). The objective of the amendments is to facilitate disclosure of information to investors and to simplify compliance without significantly altering the total mix of information provided.
The amendments are also in response to a provision of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which mandates the SEC to eliminate provisions of Regulation S-K that are no longer deemed necessary.
“It is important to review our regulations to ensure that they evolve along with our capital markets and remain effective and efficient,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “Today’s amendments are an example of how thoughtful reviews can prompt changes for the benefit of investors, public companies, and our capital markets.”
Additionally, the SEC is referring to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) for potential incorporation into U.S. GAAP certain disclosure requirements that overlap with U.S. GAAP but that call for incremental information. For the time being, pending subsequent action by the FASB, such incremental disclosures are being retained. The SEC has requested, however, that, within the ensuing 18 months, the FASB determine whether (and which of) the referred disclosure items will be added to its standard-setting agenda. The SEC notes that the incorporation of any of its incremental disclosure requirements into U.S. GAAP could potentially affect all entities that prepare financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, including Regulation A issuers, smaller reporting companies, and non-public entities.