Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

The overall conventions, rules, and procedures that define accepted accounting practice at a particular time in the U.S.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Rules to which accountants adhere when preparing financial statements. The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles exist to ensure that American accountants are using the same or almost the same standards so that comparison of financial statements between or within a company is easy and accurate. They also promote transparency in accounting. The GAAP are set by the FASB. See also: International Financial Reporting Standards.

generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

Guidelines and rules for use by accountants in preparing financial statements. These principles, which evolved over a period of years, are designed to help ensure that financial data are presented fairly and are comparable from firm to firm and from industry to industry. In expressing an opinion on financial statements, certified public accountants are required to stipulate whether their statements have been prepared according to generally accepted accounting principles.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which are the basis for financial reporting by the private sector in the United States, have been codified by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) into a single authoritative source.

The codification is designed to strengthen the economic system by organizing standards from various sources into approximately 90 accounting topics and providing uniform criteria for communicating data. The code is scheduled for final adoption at the end of 2008 following a one-year verification period.

generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

(pronounced “gap”) Established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), these are the guidelines for proper accounting practices.

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References in periodicals archive

(1) For self-sustaining operations, generally accepted accounting principles treat unrealized foreign exchange gains and losses alike as deferred items, reflected as a separate component of shareholders' equity.

Revenue Canada liaison meeting on income tax issues

generally accepted accounting principles as a method for evaluating new business opportunities.

Uncovering value: by using embedded value reporting, insurers can get a clearer picture of where they are making--and losing--profits

generally accepted accounting principles. It also offers summary results based on the GAAP of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Wake of the flood: the accounting scandals weren't all bad. Yes, they shook investor confidence. But they're also driving overdue changes in financial reporting. (Finance)

generally accepted accounting principles by offshore captives, which Jones described as "a small victory."

Captives Face Uncertainty Over Future Tax Treatment

The Department of Labor (DOL) has informally stated that any inventory valuation method consistent with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), consistently applied, can be used to calculate realized and unrealized gains or losses on plan assets for current value reporting purposes.

Realized and unrealized gains or losses on plan assets for form 5500 reporting purposes

generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in computing the earnings and profits (E&P) of foreign corporations.

Supplemental comments on the use of GAAP to calculate the earnings and profits of foreign corporations

GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards);

XBRL

Even more difficult for internal CPAs and auditors are those situations when executive management is frustrated by the revision of generally accepted accounting principles or when management, during business negotiations, unknowingly applies the accounting rules of a different industry.

Talk it over: open discourse between internal CPAs and external auditors is critical

A significant number of state and local governments maintain their internal accounting records and prepare their annual financial statements using a basis of accounting other than generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Closing the gap with non-GAAP state and locals

The amendments relate to international lending by simplifying the discussion concerning the accounting for fees on international loans to make the regulation consistent with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Final rule--amendment to Regulation K. (Legal Developments)

Under the Emerging Issues Task Force announcement (EITF D-54), generally accepted accounting principles will allow the purchaser of an insurance enterprise to account for an adverse-development cover as prospective reinsurance under certain conditions.

Safety Nets For the Future

generally accepted accounting principles and the tax accounting requirements imposed under section 902 or 964 of the Code.

Comments on IRS Form 5471