Norwalk, CT, October 5, 2009—Users of the FASB Accounting
Standards CodificationTM will now find it
easier to access certain information about eXtensible Business Reporting
Language (XBRL) elements of the U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy that link to
the Codification. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today
introduced the new XBRL functionality at the FASB Accounting Standards
CodificationTM website (http://asc.fasb.org/). The new functionality is
designed to help preparers of XBRL financial statements identify XBRL elements
that might need to be considered within those statements.
“The new XBRL
functionality provided by the Codification website will help entities as they
prepare or plan to prepare XBRL financial statements using the U.S. Financial
Reporting Taxonomy,” states FASB Chairman Robert Herz. “Users will be able to
very easily identify the XBRL elements associated with specific Codification
paragraphs.”
On July 1, 2009, the FASB Accounting Standards
CodificationTM became the single source of
authoritative nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles
(GAAP) effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009.
The Codification provides a list of all XBRL elements that contain an electronic
link to a Codification paragraph. It provides the complete XBRL element names
together with all Codification paragraphs referenced by a particular XBRL
element.
To ensure that the taxonomy references the authoritative
literature in the Codification rather than the superseded legacy literature,
XBRL-US announced in August that it had published a taxonomy extension including
the Codification references. The Codification references include both the
text-based Codification reference (in the form of topic, subtopic, section,
paragraph, and subparagraph) and an electronic link to the related Codification
paragraphs.
The Notice to Constituents (available at the Codification
website) provides additional background regarding Codification references and
electronic links embedded in the U.S. Financial Reporting
Taxonomy.
About the Financial Accounting Standards Board
Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the designated
organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial
accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial
reports and are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Such standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because
investors, creditors, auditors, and others rely on credible, transparent, and
comparable financial information. For more information about the FASB, visit our
website at http://www.fasb.org/.