Wiley GAAP 2019

7ASC 235 NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

PERSPECTIVE AND ISSUES

Subtopic

ASC 235, Notes to Financial Statements, contains one subtopic:

• ASC 235-10, Overall, which addresses “the content and usefulness of the accounting policies judged by management to be most appropriate to fairly present the entity’s financial statement.”

The topic does not address specific disclosures. Those are addressed in the related topics. The topic does, however, list accounting policy disclosures commonly required:

• Basis of consolidation
• Depreciation methods
• Amortization of intangibles
• Inventory pricing
• Recognition of revenue from contracts with customers
• Recognition of revenue from leasing operations

• (ASC 235-10-50-4)

Scope

ASC 235 applies to all entities and has no scope exceptions.

Technical Alert

Disclosures have drawn the attention of both the FASB and the SEC. As the disclosure requirements have accumulated over the years, there has been a growing concern about information overload and whether more is necessarily better. Both the FASB and the SEC have initiatives to improve disclosures.

FASB Initiatives.

The FASB currently has:

• Two companion projects deliberating the concept of materiality
• A project to develop a framework to increase the effectiveness of disclosures

The framework project will address the process for establishing disclosure and for determining which disclosures to make. As part of its Framework project, the FASB issued an Exposure Draft in September 2015, Proposed ...