IASB US GAAP RESEARCH TRACKER AND IASB US GAAP REPORT FOR ACCT.311

IASB US GAAP Report:  ACCT 311
“The mission of the International Accounting Standards Board is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) based upon clearly articulated principles.”
(http://www.ifrs.org)
“The mission of the Financial Accounting Standards Board is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.”  The FASB, as the standard setter for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), considers international comparability when developing standards. (http://www.fasb.org)
Project Objective
Describe the history, current status, and adoption implications of an International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) ongoing project or implementation. Include comments on activities at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
Requirements
The IASB has several ongoing projects that involve the review of standards and which may result in updates and/or revisions of financial accounting standards. You should select an ongoing IASB project after visiting the IASB web site. https://www.ifrs.org/projects/
In a five- to seven-page report, you should describe the project, its history (briefly), and the project’s status. The final section of your report should describe the implications of the project’s adoption. For example, a report might discuss a project that would result in accelerating the recognition of certain expenses and require additional disclosures.  Submit research tracker to date in the assignment folder week 4, and again with the final report. The final report will include an annotated bibliography.
Specifically:

• Familiarize yourself with the IASB project, including information on the history and background of the project and its status.
• Using resources at www.ifrs.org and www.fasb.org (including free access to U.S. GAAP codification if you register at the Web site as explained), identify the relevant international, GAAP and current standards involved. Discuss the proposed change (i.e., what will be different?) and the reasons for the change if related to IASB.
• Using at least three different databases in the UMUC library, find at least five sources of information on this IASB US GAAP report. As you conduct research, identify an actual case that may have provided the impetus for this proposed change, or that would have been influenced by the proposed change. At least two sources should be from scholarly or professional journals. Document your research progress in the research log. You will find a research log template (sample research tracker) posted in Course Content. You should explore UMUC Library resources as well as the resources of major accounting firms and organizations.

• Consider SEC comments in place on changes to use of IFRS. How prevalent is IFRS in SEC reporting? How will this affect reporting requirements? Provide examples in context.
• Frequently the large Accounting Firms have extensive analyses of IFRS and FASB topics. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with these websites. Occasionally they will also offer free webinars on IFRS and FASB topics.

• Prepare an annotated bibliography. See Course Content for more information and a sample annotated bibliography.
• Identify stakeholders and the impact of the proposed change on each of the stakeholders (comment letters may provide good insight).

Deliverables
Write a five- to seven-page report (APA format, single spaced, standard paper size, one-inch margins, and 12-pointfont) presenting the results of your work. Submit your report, research log, and annotated bibliography by the due date, or as otherwise instructed.  Cover pages, abstract/ executive summary, table of content if you chose to include or bibliography / reference lists do not count toward page count.
Your topic and research plan must be approved in advance by your professor in the discussion for IASB FASB report.  The topic should not be a repeat of your prior work and passages of quoted material will not be in included in page count.  Small charts that you create will be included in page count.
Format 
Submit your report and annotated bibliography as a Word document. The research tracker, submitted in week 4, and with final report. May be in either Word or Excel.
 
Grading
The written communication aspect of this assignment is weighted at 50 percent of the total assignment. The grading will consider the following areas:

• assignment management
• organization and structure
• evidence and arguments
• readability, style, and mechanics
• presentation

The annotated bibliography is graded separately from the research tracker.
Sample Research Tracker
The research tracker should be a columnar document. Omit the word “sample” in your actual submission. Examples are provided below.
(1)

No.	Date	Question Pursuing, Information Sought, Rationale for Search	Tool or Source Used	Concepts or Keywords, Terms, Phrases	Search Strategy	Results	Decision, Action, Next Step
1

(2) Another example of a sample research tracker:

Topic/Key Concepts	Sources Consulted	Search Terms Used	Results/Comments/Notes
Example: Distance learning and adults Distance education, distance learning, adult students	Library catalog	Distance AND (education OR learning) AND adults	E-World: virtual learning, collaborative environments, and future technologies; edited by Doris Christopher, National Business Education Association, 2004 Checked out; requested via catalog 7/25

(3) Finally, a “filled-in” sample research tracker:

#	Date	Question, Information Sought, Search Rationale	Tool or Source Used	Concepts or Keywords, Terms, Phrases	Search Strategy	Results	Decision, Action, Next Step
1	10/23	Background information	General encyclopedias (library reference section)	television, violence		Found mostly general information on “television.” Found one small article in Encyclopedia Americana on “Violence in Television.”	Need more background info? Will check other reference books.
2	10/23	More background information	Looked in Encyclopedia of Television (REF PN 1992.18)	violence		Found a small article on “Violence in Television” (page 1769 – volume 3). Described correlation between television violence and later behavior.	Have decided to focus on relationship between two topics. Check for books in online catalog.
3	10/23	Description of human behavior	Looked in Delhi Online Catalog	human behavior	Keyword search	Found a lot of good general books on human behavior, including The Winning Edge by Andrew J. DuBrin.	Will focus more. Will try “television” and “violence.”
4	10/27	Need to narrow focus with magazine or journal articles.	Used InfoTrac	Tried “television and human behavior.”	Keyword search	Didn’t find much.	Will try other, broader keywords.
5	10/27		Used InfoTrac	Tried “show and ad.”	Keyword search	Found way too many irrelevant articles!	Will try another keyword: “violence.”
6	10/27		Used InfoTrac	Tried “ads and behavior.”	Keyword search	Found several very good recent articles, including “Aggressive response to TV violence tracks to adulthood.” Sally Kubetin. Pediatric News, May 2003, v37 i5 p23.	Will print out and review articles, and take notes.