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Accounting Research Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of Developments
December 31, 2007 - January 4, 2008
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Accounting Research Manager subscriber,

The Accounting Research Manager database now contains this week's weekly summary of developments. Click the link below to access and print the fully-formatted Weekly Summary:

For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

If you do not have immediate Internet access to the Accounting Research Manager database, below is the text of this week's Weekly Summary.

Accounting and SEC Headlines

Disclosure Checklists -- GAAP and SEC Disclosure Checklists Updated through December 31, 2007
Financial Guarantee Insurance -- FASB to Discuss Financial Guarantee Insurance Project and Other Matters at its January 9, 2008 Meeting
Conceptual Framework -- FASB Discusses its Conceptual Framework Project and Other Matters at December 19-20, 2007 Meeting

Auditing and Internal Controls Headlines

Government Auditing Standards -- GAO Issues Implementation Tool

Government Headlines

Government Auditing Standards -- GAO Issues Implementation Tool

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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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Disclosure Checklists -- GAAP and SEC Disclosure Checklists Updated through December 31, 2007

As described in our Literature Update, we have updated our General U.S. GAAP Financial Statement Disclosures Checklist and General U.S. GAAP Interim Financial Statement Disclosures Checklist through December 31, 2007:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

Significant changes to these checklists include updates for new disclosure requirements from recently issued accounting pronouncements. We also have identified pending disclosure deferrals, for example, the deferral for nonpublic companies of FASB Interpretation (FIN) No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes.

We have also updated the following four SEC related checklists through December 31, 2007:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

-Financial Statement Disclosures - This checklist outlines the required SEC disclosures for financial statements included in 1934 and 1933 Act domestic filings that are incremental to U.S. GAAP. The checklist is organized by topic.

-Management's Discussion and Analysis - This checklist outlines the required SEC disclosures for MD&A included in 1934 and 1933 Act domestic filings, including Forms 10-K and S-1.

-Incremental Certifications, Disclosures, and Reporting Mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley - This checklist outlines the certification, disclosure and reporting requirements resulting from the SEC rules mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The checklist provides a by-topic "tickler" and effective dates. It also provides a column for users to note implementation date.

-SEC Form 10-Q - This checklist is for financial and nonfinancial information included in Form 10-Q and is organized by form item number.

Significant updates to the SEC related checklists include references to certain views of the SEC staff expressed at recent SEC Regulations Committee meetings and the AICPA National Conference on Current SEC & PCAOB Developments in Washington, D.C. We have also updated the checklists for recent SEC staff views expressed relating to companies that have investments in or are otherwise involved in nonconsolidated conduits (sometimes known as structured investment vehicles) and collateralized debt obligations (off-balance sheet entities).

See our Literature Updates highlighting changes to the GAAP checklists and SEC related checklists for complete details.

Financial Guarantee Insurance -- FASB to Discuss Financial Guarantee Insurance Project and Other Matters at its January 9, 2008 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

As reported in its "Action Alert" publication, at its January 9, 2008 meeting, the FASB will discuss the following:

-Financial guarantee insurance;
-Accounting for trading inventory; and
-Not-for-profit endowments.

The FASB will continue redeliberations of its Exposure Draft (ED), Accounting for Financial Guarantee Insurance Contracts. Specifically, the FASB will discuss the recognition and measurement of the premium receivable (asset) and unearned premium revenue (liability) for installment premium contracts. In addition, the FASB is expected to discuss issues related to the accounting for trading inventory, as defined, and decide whether to issue a proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) that would amend Accounting Research Bulletin (ARB) No. 43, Restatement and Revision of Accounting Research Bulletins, to require fair value accounting for such inventory.

Conceptual Framework -- FASB Discusses its Conceptual Framework Project and Other Matters at December 19-20, 2007 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

As reported in its "Action Alert" publication, the FASB met on December 19-20, 2007, and addressed the following projects or topics:

-Agenda decision: intangible assets;
-Conceptual framework: elements and recognition;
-Accounting for depreciable assets classified as held-for-sale when an equity method investment is obtained;
-Statement 133 hedging; and
-Statement 133 Implementation Issue - clarification of the application of the shortcut method.

As part of its Conceptual Framework project, the FASB considered whether to modify its approach to developing a definition of a liability to more closely align that definition with alternatives being considered in the Board's recently released Preliminary Views, Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity. The FASB considered an approach that would initially focus on defining the broader class of items that would be candidates for inclusion in a statement of financial position as either liabilities or equity, and subsequently subdividing that broader class into those items that constitute liabilities and those that constitute equity. The FASB is expected to test this approach further and tentatively decided that its definition of a liability should be converged with the IASB's definition by focusing on defining a liability as an economic obligation, rather than as probable future sacrifices.

Citing current resource constraints, the FASB decided against adding a project to its agenda to address the accounting for intangible assets.

The FASB continued deliberations of its hedging project to amend FASB Statement No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. Specifically, the FASB made the following decisions regarding this project:

-To retain the ability that currently exists for an entity to designate the risk of changes in fair value attributable to changes in foreign currency exchange rates in a fair value hedge;

-To retain the ability that currently exists for an entity to designate the risk of changes in functional-currency-equivalent cash flows attributable to changes in foreign exchange rates in a cash flow hedge;

-Entities should not be permitted to discontinue fair value hedge accounting or cash flow hedge accounting by simply removing the designation of the hedging relationship;

-Entities would not be permitted to elect the fair value option for a debt instrument upon its issuance if the entity designated a cash flow hedge for the forecasted issuance of that debt;

-The proposed Statement should be effective for fiscal years beginning after November 15, 2008, and that earlier application would not be permitted; and

-Permit a one-time fair value option election at the initial adoption of the proposed Statement for eligible assets and liabilities currently hedged under Statement 133.

In addition, the FASB deliberated its ongoing project to provide implementation guidance on the application of the shortcut method for calculating hedge effectiveness under Statement 133. Specifically, the FASB decided to address the following items in the final guidance:

-Swaps that have a non-zero fair value at inception, provided that the difference between the transaction price (zero) and the fair value (exit price), as defined by FASB Statement No. 157, Fair Value Measurements, is solely attributable to a bid-ask spread (paragraph 68(b) of Statement 133); and

-Hedged items that have a settlement date subsequent to the swap trade date (paragraph 68(b)).

The implementation guidance in this Issue should be effective for hedging relationships designated on or after January 1, 2008. A final implementation issue will be issued in January 2008.

Some of the documents listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

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AUDITING AND INTERNAL CONTROLS HEADLINES:
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Government Auditing Standards -- GAO Issues Implementation Tool
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an implementation tool entitled, "Professional Requirements Tool for Use in Implementing Requirements Identified by 'Must' and 'Should' in the July 2007 Revision of Government Auditing Standards." This tool is intended to assist auditors with documenting compliance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), or what are commonly known as the "Yellow Book." Specifically, the tool describes applicable GAGAS requirements and provides a column for auditors to make notations referencing the location of audit documentation that supports compliance with the applicable requirement. The tool is organized in the following parts:

-General requirements for audit organizations;
-Specific requirements for financial audits;
-Specific requirements for attestation engagements; and
-Specific requirements for performance audits.

Some of the documents listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

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GOVERNMENT HEADLINES:
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Government Auditing Standards -- GAO Issues Implementation Tool
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com

As discussed above in our Auditing and Internal Controls Summaries, The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an implementation tool entitled, "Professional Requirements Tool for Use in Implementing Requirements Identified by 'Must' and 'Should' in the July 2007 Revision of Government Auditing Standards." This tool is intended to assist auditors with documenting compliance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), or what are commonly known as the "Yellow Book." Specifically, the tool describes applicable GAGAS requirements and provides a column for auditors to make notations referencing the location of audit documentation that supports compliance with the applicable requirement. The tool is organized in the following parts:

-General requirements for audit organizations;
-Specific requirements for financial audits;
-Specific requirements for attestation engagements; and
-Specific requirements for performance audits.

Some of the documents listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com