FASB Ongoing Project
“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.” (http://www.fasb.org)
You MUST base your FASB research on CPA and companies codification standard. You must use only current information in your paper. For example, do not use any resources that is older than 2 years from now; meaning, all research resources must be between 2012 and 2014. You MUST not use any other older resource that will be considered out dated. No plagiarism must be found in your writing, this paper will be examined whether there is a plagiarism. If any plagiarism is found, you will receive ZERO!
Project Objective
Describe the history, current status, and adoption implications of a Financial Accounting Standards Board on CPA and companies codification standard.
Requirements
The FASB 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 FASB project after visiting the Technical Plan and Project Updates sections of the FASB Web site.
In a five- to seven-page paper, you should describe the project, its history (briefly), and the project’s status. The final section of your paper should describe the implications of the project’s adoption. For example, a paper might discuss a project that would result in accelerating the recognition of certain expenses and require additional disclosures.
Specifically:
· Familiarize yourself with the project, including information on the history and background of the project and its status.
· Using resources at www.fasb.org (including free access to U.S. GAAP codification if you register at the Web site as explained), identify the relevant GAAP and current standards involved. Discuss the proposed change (i.e., what will be different?) and the reasons for the change.
· Using at least three different databases in the UMUC library, find at least five sources of information on this FASB project. 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. Maintain a research log to document your research process. You will find a research log template (sample research tracker) posted in Course Content.
· 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 paper (APA format, single spaced, standard paper size, one-inch margins, and 12-pointfont) presenting the results of your work. Submit your
1.) Paper. 2.) Research log. 3.) Annotated bibliography by the due date. 4.) You MUST site your work with APA style, in-text citations, and bibliographies.
Grading
This assignment provides important information with regard to student performance in one of the SUS-wide core learning areas, written communication, as well as your application of knowledge and skills learned as a student in the accounting program.
The written communication aspect of this assignment is weighted at 50 percent of the total assignment. The grading will be allocated equally in the following areas:
· assignment management
· organization and structure
· evidence and arguments
· readability, style, and mechanics
· presentation
· INFO-CLA
Sample Research Trackers
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:
| 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 | 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 .E53 1997) | 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 television violence and human behavior. Will 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 | 10/23 | Delhi Online Catalog | Looked under “television” and “violence.” | Found a very good book titled “Violence in the Media” by James D. Torr (CIRC P96.V5 V563 2001). | Will take notes from books. | ||
| 5 | 10/27 | Need to narrow focus even more with magazine or journal articles. | Used InfoTrac | Tried “television and human behavior.” | Keyword search | Didn’t find much. | Will try other, broader keywords. |
| 6 | 10/27 | Used InfoTrac | Tried “television and behavior.” | Keyword search | Found way too many irrelevant articles! | Will try another keyword: “violence.” | |
| 7 | 10/27 | Used InfoTrac | Tried “television violence and behavior.” | Keyword search | Found several very good recent articles, including “Aggressive response to TV violence tracks to adulthood.” Sally Koch Kubetin. Pediatric News, May 2003, v37 i5 p23. | Will print out and review articles, and take notes. | |
| 8 | 11/03 | Try to find good Web sites to supplement other information. | Used Google | Tried “television violence and behavior.” | Basic search | Found several Web sites that looked good. The first one was titled “Violence on television,” www.apa.org/pubinfo/violence.html. This Web site is published by the American Psychological Association. | Will examine other Web sites and list findings. |
Grading Rubric: COMM Assessment Tool for ACCT 495
| Project Components Being Assessed | Meets Expectations | Minimally Meets Expectations | Does Not Meet Expectations | Assessment and Comments |
| Assignment Management | The paper addresses the assignment in a creative/ innovative way. There is a clear purpose and sense of audience, and the paper successfully accommodates the audience. | The paper fulfills the assignment. There is an attempt at audience accommodation (in at least three places in the text). | The paper does not fulfill the assignment. There is no sense of audience. | |
| Organization and Structure | The paper develops a clear, strong thesis and presents clear topic sentences. There is clear organization at both the macro (overall paper—thesis, body, conclusion) and micro (within paragraphs—topic sentences, evidence, analysis) levels. The writer shows obvious control of the argument and has planned the order and method of providing information to the reader. | The paper does a sufficient job of developing and following the thesis. There are at least two topic sentences. There is a slight problem in organization at either the macro or micro level; however, the reader can still follow the argument, and paragraphs are unified around a central idea. At times, the argument does not appear to have a clear path. | The paper lacks organizational structure. There are few topic sentences, and paragraphs do not always center on one controlling idea. The order of evidence appears random, and evidence is not presented to the reader in a logical fashion. It is difficult to follow the argument. | |
| Evidence/ Arguments | The paper contains a clear, specific, and arguable thesis. The evidence presented is logically sound, contextualized, and appropriately researched and supported, and is synthesized with the writer’s own argument. The analysis is sophisticated and considers other perspectives. All outside information is correctly attributed; documentation styles are applied accurately and consistently for in-text and bibliographic references. | The paper contains a controlling idea, although not a clearly articulated thesis. Evidence is presented, but may be predictable. There is indication of research, but that research may not be fully synthesized within the argument, or the paper may lack full analysis of evidence and full consideration of alternative perspectives. In-text and bibliographic references are provided, and documentation styles are applied, but not accurately or consistently. | The paper does not contain a thesis. The paper contains several (at least three) logical fallacies. The paper contains irrelevant support, and there is insufficient analysis and/or depth of analysis. The paper does not contain research and/or does not adequately cite that research. | |
| Readability, Style, Mechanics | The tone and style are appropriate for the audience. There are no proofreading or grammatical errors. Sentence structure and diction are effective and diverse. | For the most part, tone and style are appropriate for the audience. There are proofreading and/or grammatical errors; however, the errors do not detract from the readability of the paper. Sentence structure may be rigid and unvarying. | Tone and/or style are not appropriate for the audience. Proofreading and/or grammatical errors detract from the readability of the paper. There are major problems in sentence structure (run-ons, fragments). | |
| Presentation | Your presentation should be neat and professional in appearance, doing justice to your concepts and content. | At least one of the requirements is not addressed in the presentation. | More than one of the requirements is not addressed in the presentation. | |
|
Total Assessment |
Program Outcomes CLA Definition—Information Literacy
Your deliverables should be informed by our class discussion. This requires you to research and share ideas and comments before completing the written deliverable. The conference topics will be established to foster this discussion.
Helpful Reference and Research:
· http://www.auditchannel.tv/ sponsored by the IIA
· Foreign Corrupt Practices Act http://www.sec.gov/spotlight.shtml
· Is Good Governance Good for Business http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/investing-in-good-governance/
· The Worst Board in the Country
· http://www.economist.com/node/21529101?zid=294&ah=71830d634a0d9558fe97d778d723011d
· How much Executives should be Compensated and who should decide Executive Compensation
