Tentative Board Decisions

Tentative Board decisions are provided for those interested in following the Board's deliberations. All of the reported decisions are tentative and may be changed at future Board meetings.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017 FASB Board Meeting

Disclosure framework. The Board discussed issues related to the proposed FASB Concepts Statement, Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting—Chapter 8, Notes to Financial Statements.

The Board decided the following:
  1. To retain not-for-profit entities and private companies in the scope of the Concepts Statement on notes to financial statements
  2. To include a discussion about the potential negative consequences of disclosures in the Concepts Statement
  3. To reaffirm that the Concepts Statement would have the Board consider disclosure of changes in line items that are not easily understood because the causes of changes in those line items are numerous or because the line items are subject to nonroutine changes
  4. To reaffirm that the Concepts Statement would have the Board consider disclosure of alternative measures that are clearly useful in assessing prospects for future cash flows.
The Board decided not to establish disclosure objectives without providing specific requirements or guidance on how to meet those objectives.

Next Steps

The Board directed the staff to perform research on:
  1. How the Concepts Statement would change if employee benefit plans were included within its scope
  2. Other examples of disclosures that provide information about how a line item is affected by general economic conditions, market factors, or entity-specific or sector-specific factors.
The staff plans to discuss the following topics at future Board meetings:
  1. The three types of future-oriented information that could be appropriate for the notes to financial statements
  2. The cost-constraint discussion in the proposed Concepts Statement
  3. Whether other concepts should be included in the Concepts Statement
  4. Information about past events and current conditions and circumstances that are not recognized
  5. Information about the reporting entity
  6. Interim reporting concepts.