Talk:Generally accepted accounting principles/Archives/2013

Removed external link to accountingcoach.com
This link was added here by an anonymous contributor in August, 2006. This is a commercial site that is full of ads, and the navigation is quite slow. Typing the word 'accounting' into Google gets 216 million hits, so I'm assuming it's not hard to find information of similar or better quality out on the net. The other external link, to http://www.iasplus.com, though the site is operated by Deloitte, looks very professional and helpful so I left it in place. If you disagree with my change, please discuss. EdJohnston 14:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Needs clarification to avoid contradiction/confusion
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles: " Every country has its own version of GAAP with standards set by a national governing body. ... Due to globalisation, International Financial Reporting Standards are required and established by International Accounting Standards Committee."

International Financial Reporting Standards: "IFRS are used in many parts of the world, including the European Union, Russia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia,Singapore and Pakistan. Nearly 100 countries currently require or permit the use of, or have a policy of convergence with, IFRSs."

-- Do we need to clarify the distinction between "every country" and "nearly 100 countries" here? -- 201.51.222.169 02:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

-- The second half of the first quote is confusing or contradictory. GAAP exists in many nations, although there should be a citation for the use of "every country"; however, the second half of the sentence leads to ambiguity as to the scope of the required adoption of IFRS. Clearly from the IASC website, IFRS is recommended and countries can and some do use it. Recommend replacing the second sentence in the first quote with "Many countries use or are converging on the IFRS (link) standards, put forth by IASC (link)." Ptebault 23:25, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

-- Reworded Internation GAAP section per discussion here. Ptebault 23:29, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Importance for Corporations
What is the importance of GAAP for companies?
 * Try the ref desks for this one. We have to restrict discussion to the article itself on the talk page, but I'm positive someone could help you find the answer to this if you go to this place. the_undertow talk  23:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Depreciating Inventory?
The practical example of LIFO vs. FIFO states that the two methods differ as a result of the depreciation of older items still held in inventory. Since inventory held for sale is not generally depreciated that statement is incorrect. Rather, it is usually inflation that accounts for the higher cost of newer items not depreciation.GothmogLOB 21:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * That seems correct. LIFO would show higher cost of goods sold because of increasing prices due to either demand or inflation. the_undertow talk  23:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Do we really need a discussion re: LIFO anyways, as far as i know, it's been excluded from US GAAP and IFRS as a valid alternative. Fraudy (talk) 23:02, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Non-GAAP
I was trying to add a section about Non-GAAP, since many financial institutions and corporations use that term. But I had trouble distilling it down to a concise entry and, frankly, am having touble unsderstanding it myself. I think this this would be a valuable additional section to add to this article if someone more knowledgeable can clarify it for the rest of us.

Here is the article I was trying to work from. Still (talk) 17:53, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Confusion is not :)
Although there is a warning that this article is "confusing", I found it quite concise and not confusing at all. I assume most of this is written by accounting professionals. Don't forget that those who are reading this are probably _not_ accounting professionals and are just looking for the basic outline of what GAAP is all about. To that end, the list of nine or so items is completely sufficient for my needs. I don't need to know about all the quibbles the accounting professionals might have amongst themselves. The next step might focus instead on how to tell if an entity is following the GAAP principles correctly.

Thank you to all the contributors to this very useful article.

Nola chi May 25, 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 17:08, 25 May 2009 (UTC).