Financial Accounting Foundation
and American Accounting Association
to Provide FASB Codification to Accounting Faculty and Students

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Frequently Asked Questions

Academic Accounting Access to the FASB Accounting Standards Codification™ Professional View Benefits Professors and Students Alike

In August 2009 as part of its educational mission, the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), in a joint initiative with the American Accounting Association (AAA), began providing the online FASB Accounting Standards Codification™ Professional View (the Codification) to faculty and students in accounting programs at post-secondary academic institutions. The program, Academic Accounting Access, has achieved great success since then and includes over 875 U.S. and 50 foreign academic institutions with 50,000 average monthly logins.

Becoming the official source of authoritative, nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) in 2009, the Codification is the result of a major 5-year project involving the FASB; the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the oversight and administrative body of the FASB; and their consultants, along with hundreds of stakeholders that contributed to its completion. The Codification does not change U.S. GAAP; rather, it reorganizes thousands of pronouncements issued by the FASB, the AICPA, and other standards-setting bodies into roughly 90 accounting topics, displaying all topics using a consistent structure. It also includes relevant Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidance that follows the same topical structure in separate sections in the Codification.

The FASB and the FAF believe that understanding the Codification and how to use it is of critical importance to accounting professionals. It is also critical that accounting students learn how to use the Codification for more efficient and better understanding of authoritative accounting literature.

After having the opportunity to use the Codification through Academic Accounting Access over the last year, both students and faculty are enthusiastic. Dr. Terry Warfield, professor of accounting at the University of Wisconsin, notes, "The free access to the Codification is enabling students to get involved with serious accounting study on both a "real time," real-life basis, and the CPA exam now tests Codification and other research skills." Professor Warfield continued, "Students need to learn the Codification—it is also helping to give students an increased understanding of accounting standards."

Professor Warfield also points out valuable tools provided in the Codification for teaching: "The platform has a more intuitive organization and from a teaching standpoint, the Codification is very sound as well. It's a significant advantage that the SEC literature (related to U.S. GAAP) is housed within—also very helpful to teaching."

Both AAA and FAF are delighted with the results of the first full year of the joint project, acknowledging the importance and value of working together to provide students and faculty the best possible resources for understanding and experiencing standard-setting in accounting. FAF President and CEO, Terri Polley stated, "Today's students represent the future of accounting and financial reporting, and it is part of the FAF's mission to expand and encourage education about standard setting and U.S. GAAP. We are honored to contribute to the robust educational experience of accounting students."

Kevin D. Stocks, AAA President and Director of the School of Accounting at Brigham Young University, observes, "The Codification is being used throughout our curriculum in our professional research course. It is a valuable resource for our students in accessing and using professional standards. The impact of having the Codification on the quality and relevance of our curriculum is very significant. All programs using the Codification are indebted to the contribution of the FAF in making this unique and critical resource available for student and faculty use."

AAA Academic Accounting Access
The AAA will provide direct services to accounting departments through its Academic Accounting Access program; issuing authentication credentials for faculty and students through Registered Accounting Programs, at a low annual institutional fee of $150.

This Academic Access program is available to accounting programs worldwide. FASB Academic Access will expire each year at the end of August. This program is NOT available for academic library subscriptions.

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