ACCT 431: Auditing

• Free access: All members of the public may access the Codification through the FASB Accounting Standards Codification Basic View.
• Users must establish individual free accounts. Search features available in the Professional View are not available in the Basic View.

• Basic View — Free Access

  • Search functions, advanced navigation, and other features are not available with this view.  Includes:

    • Browsing by Topic

    • Basic print functionality

    • Utility to identify the location of legacy standards.

How to Search in Basic View: 

• Drill down the categories/areas, expand topics and subtopics to find what you need
• Cross Reference enables you to cross reference between the superceded standards and the Codification. Either: Enter the information about the earlier standard to learn where in the Codification the language is now located, or enter information about the Codification to identify the standards that contain the language referenced in the Codification.  See Cross Reference help and tutorial

Additional ways to search in Professional View or Academic Access:

• Enter keyword or keywords in search box (available in the Professional View-Academic Access and CCH Accounting Research Manager)
  • Be certain to  understand the definition of terms--consult the Master Glossary
  • Use quotation marks to search for phrases of more than one word, such as "capitalized interest"
• Select advanced search, which allows the most options (available in the Professional View-Academic Access)
• Search by a known citation in the Codification search box (not available in the Basic View)
• Join Sections enables you to select Codification content that spans multiple topics and subtopic. A topic and section must be selected. See Join Sections help and tutorial

from About the Codification

• Areas: General categories 
  • Topics: Broadly describe subject (3 digit number)
    • Subtopics: Narrower look at topic (2 digit number)
      • Sections: Uniform headings (2 digit number)
        • Subsections: Organizes paragraphs (if necessary)
          • Paragraphs: Contains the actual guidance on standard 

A "SEC Section" is included for topics that are affected by SEC regulations.

The FASB offers tutorials and help on the Codification.

CPA Jeff Sailor has two free tutorials on Youtube.com

Part 1 includes Codification structure and how to use it

Part 2 describes Codification research options

The FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) reorganizes accounting literature.

In addition to General Principles (Topic 105), offering an explanation of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the eight financial accounting and reporting areas are:

• Presentation (Topics 205 through 280)
• Assets (Topics 305 through 360)
• Liabilities  (Topics 405 through 480)
• Equity (Topic 505)
• Revenue (Topic 605)
• Expenses (Topics 705 through 740)
• Broad transactions (Topics 805 through 860)
• Industry (Topics 905 through 944) contains specific industry guidance.

• The Codification contains only accounting guidance, not auditing, tax preparation, or other kinds of guidance. 
• The Codification contains only authoritative guidance. Nonauthoritiative guidance is not included in the Codification content itself. 
• The Codification is applicable only to U.S. entities. It does not contain GAAP for other countries or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). 
• The Codification is the source of authoritivative U.S. GAAP recognized by the FASB to be applied to nongovernmental entities. It does not contain guidance for governmental entities. 
• The Codification is not a textbook or tutorial on accounting. It is assumed that users posses basic knowledge of double-entry accounting techniques and the principal financial statements.