SUMMARY OF BOARD DECISIONS
Summary of Board decisions are provided for the information and
convenience of constituents who want to follow the Board’s deliberations. All of
the conclusions reported are tentative and may be changed at future Board
meetings. Decisions are included in an Exposure Draft for formal comment only
after a formal written ballot. Decisions in an Exposure Draft may be (and often
are) changed in redeliberations based on information provided to the Board in
comment letters, at public roundtable discussions, and through other
communication channels. Decisions become final only after a formal written
ballot to issue an Accounting Standards Update.
February 3, 2010 Board Meeting
Revenue
recognition. The Board considered the accounting for costs in
contracts with customers. The Board decided that an entity should recognize as
expenses all costs of obtaining a contract (for example, the costs of selling
and marketing, including direct-response advertising). The Board also decided to
develop guidance on how an entity should account for the costs of setting up and
fulfilling a contract. The Board will consider the nature of that guidance at a
future meeting.
Reporting
discontinued operations. The Board discussed the scope of a
proposed Accounting Standards Update on FASB Accounting Standards
Codification™ Subtopic 205-20, Presentation of Financial
Statements—Discontinued Operations. The Board decided to eliminate the existing
exceptions to the scope of Subtopic 205-20. The Board believes that change will
have little practical effect on most reporting entities, except for requiring an
entity to consider whether the disposal of an equity method investment should be
reported and disclosed as a discontinued operation. The Board noted that
eliminating those scope exceptions will simplify U.S. GAAP requirements while
promoting convergence of those requirements and IFRS 5, Non-current Assets
Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations.
The Board decided on a
60-day comment period for the proposed Accounting Standards Update. The Board
directed the staff to draft the proposed Update for vote by written ballot.