The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), together with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), has embarked on a project to rebuild the foundations of financial reporting by revising the Conceptual Framework. The Conceptual Framework is like a constitution for financial reporting, providing the foundation for standards. The Conceptual Framework provides structure to the process of creating financial reporting standards and ensures that standards are based on fundamental principles. This helps prevent standards from becoming ad hoc and transitory. Without a framework, accounting standards might be based on the most expedient solution to a particular issue, rather than a solution that is consistent with a unified theory of accounting. The Conceptual Framework is an essential element in the development of principles-based accounting standards.
The Conceptual Framework makes standards setting more efficient by providing a common set of terms and premises for analyzing accounting issues. Each time a debate on an accounting issue arises, it isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel. FASB and the IASB expect a common Conceptual Framework to promote the convergence of U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), ultimately leading to a single set of high-quality global accounting standards. Additional information regarding the joint conceptual framework project can be found at www.fasb.org and www.iasb.org.
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