No GASB Update is complete without a brief overview of what is coming down the pike—especially for those that may be setting retirement dates. The GASB is now reexamining three standards that have served as the foundation of governmental accounting and financial reporting for the past 30 years. Those reexamination projects will produce three due process documents in 2020 that likely will set the course of governmental accounting and financial reporting for the next 30 years. The comprehensive project that is closest to the finish line is the financial reporting model. The Board has been
refining its proposals for the measurement focus and basis of accounting for governmental funds that is scheduled to be released as an Exposure Draft for public comment in June 2020. Not to be outshined, the Board also has been making progress on the revenue and expense recognition project. This comprehensive project not only reexamines nonexchange revenue and expense standards, but it also takes on many important transactions that currently are referred to as exchange revenues and expenses. To say that this project and its forthcoming Preliminary Views is worth following could be con-
Governmental Accounting Conference Feb. 5, 2020
Desert Willow Conference Center — 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Available In-Person or via Webcast Recommended CPE Credit: 8 hours Hear the latest on GASB; learn more about change management, fraud detection and cybersecurity; and participate in cyber warfare bootcamp at the 2020 ASCPA Governmental Accounting Conference. Your favorite speakers, including David Cotton, Marianne Jennings and David Bean, are back, along with other local and national experts to assist you in discovering insights and understanding on new developments in governmental accounting and auditing. Special thanks to Platinum Sponsor
Learn more at www.ascpa.com/gac20
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AZ CPA DECEMBER 2019
sidered a monumental understatement. Finally, conference attendees will get a glimpse of the first due process step in reexamining the disclosure framework—an Exposure Draft that is scheduled to be released at the end of February 2020. This project is reexamining the role of note disclosures as a communication method and will better answer what is an essential disclosure. Those concepts will then be used by the GASB to not only reexamine current disclosure requirements but also establish new disclosures in the future. As Arizona governments are now facing the implementation of the new leases standards, devoting a stand-alone session to this topic certainly is timely. As governments continue to delve into their lease agreements, questions continue to be raised on a number of fronts. As a result, the stand-alone session not only will address the recognition and measurement basics but also will take a deeper dive into issues such as the determination of a lease term, how to select a discount rate, and how far a government needs to go in identifying nonlease components. I truly look forward to presenting the GASB Update and the Leases Session at this year’s conference. l David R. Bean is the director of research and technical activities for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). He assigns and provides oversight to the GASB’s research, technical, and administrative activities. Prior to joining the GASB in 1990, David worked in public accounting and government. He also has served as Deputy Chairman of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB). He was the lead author on the 1988 Governmental Accounting, Auditing and Financial Reporting and was the founder of the GAAFR Review. He was the last director of the National Council on Governmental Accounting before the formation of the GASB.