MEDIA ADVISORY 08/24/12

Registration Opens for September 14 Webcast, IN FOCUS: The FASB Private Company Decision-Making Framework Project

Norwalk, CT, August 24, 2012—Registration is now open for the upcoming Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) webcast, IN FOCUS: The FASB Private Company Decision-Making Framework Project. This live webcast, offered free of charge, will take place on Friday, September 14, 2012, from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. EDT. Participants in the live broadcast will be eligible for up to 1.5 hours of CPE credit. (Please note that CPE credit is not available for group viewing of the live broadcast.)

The webcast will feature FASB Technical Director Susan Cosper, FASB Assistant Director―Nonpublic Entities Jeff Mechanick, and FASB Project Manager Michael Cheng, who will provide an overview of the FASB´s recent Invitation to Comment on a staff paper that outlines an approach for deciding whether and when to modify U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for private companies. The document―Private Company Decision-Making Framework: A Framework for Evaluating Financial Accounting and Reporting Guidance for Private Companies―contains initial FASB staff recommendations for criteria to determine whether and in what circumstances it is appropriate to adjust financial reporting requirements for private companies following U.S. GAAP.

The areas covered in the webcast will include:

Six significant factors identified by the staff that differentiate the financial reporting considerations of private companies
Five areas where financial accounting and reporting guidance might differ for private and public companies
Next steps, including plans for the FASB and the newly formed Private Company Council (PCC) to jointly deliberate the feedback received before finalizing the framework.

At the end of this program, participants will understand the paper´s initial recommendations that reflect what stakeholders told the FASB staff about their experiences using, preparing, auditing, reviewing, and compiling private company financial statements. They will also obtain a general understanding of what feedback is needed from stakeholders, and how the FASB and the PCC will deliberate the input received prior to finalizing the framework.

An archive of the webcast will be available on the FASB website through Thursday, December 13, 2012. (CPE credit will not be available to those who view only the archived webcast.) More information about the webcast is available at www.fasb.org.