Dive Brief:

• The Financial Accounting Standards Board is asking for feedback on new projects it should pursue as it looks to refresh its agenda and prioritize which standards — rules that underpin generally accepting accounting principles — are in need of updating, according to a Friday release. The comments are due by June 30.
• The board has received initial input from about 200 stakeholders including investors, report preparers and academics that there was “not a case to make major changes to [GAAP] at this time,” and therefore many of the topics that were suggested for standard-setting efforts within the initiative were narrow or “targeted improvements,” the release states.
• Still, the 36-page Invitation to Comment-Agenda Consultation report that the FASB is seeking feedback on also reveals that some stakeholders still want sharpened guidance on such hot-button matters as accounting for crypto, goodwill, employee stock ownership plans, and revenue recognition. 

Dive Insight:

The latest agenda prioritization undertaking marks the first time that the FASB has remarshalled its focus since the FASB Chair Richard Jones spearheaded the previous agenda consultation shortly after taking his leadership post in 2020. 

The previous slate of priorities led the FASB to, among other updates to guidance, issue new income statement expense rules in November which will require public companies to break out more details related to certain expenses — such as purchases of inventory, employee compensation, depreciation and intangible asset amortization — in tabular-style notes to financial statements, CFO Dive previously reported.  

In addition, in 2023 the FASB issued a narrowly-focused new crypto standard which brought specific guidance for digital assets into GAAP for the first time, requiring companies to account for Bitcoin and other crypto assets at fair value rather than treating them as an intangible asset. The FASB also issued new income tax accounting rules requiring companies to break out more information in their reports and report the jurisdictions — such as a country or state — that receive more than 5% of its total tax payments.

Depending on the feedback that the FASB gets from stakeholders, the FASB could revisit some of the previous guidance it has provided, including on accounting pertaining to crypto, a FASB spokesperson said in an email. 

According to the report now out for comment, the FASB has already gotten feedback from some stakeholders that the latest crypto guidance, formally known as Update 2023-08, “does not address the initial measurement, recognition, or de-recognition of crypto assets, the FASB should prioritize a project to address those areas."