Not-for-profit accounting is a specialized field of accounting that is
receiving a growing level of attention. Over one million not-for-profit
organizations currently operating in the United States have unique
accounting and financial reporting issues that must be understood by
a growing number of not-for-profit organization financial statement
preparers and users.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a
series of statements and accounting standards updates that have
significantly affected how not-for-profit organizations account for
and report their activities and financial position. In 2016 the FASB
issued an Accounting Standards Update that brought some
important changes to certain aspects of the financial reporting model
used by not-for-profit organizations. The FASB has also been active
in many areas that affect a broad range of business and other
organizations, including not-for-profit organizations. For example,
financial instruments, intangible assets, pension obligations, fair
value measurements, revenue recognition, and lease accounting have
all been areas that have been impacted by recent FASB
pronouncements. All of these topics are examined in detail in this
book.
This book incorporates the codification of accounting standards into
the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (the “Codification” or
“FASB ASC”). The FASB essentially eliminated the statements on
standards and other accounting literature and replaced them with
the FASB ASC, which is updated by Accounting Standards Updates
as the mechanism of promulgating changes in generally accepted
accounting principles.