NEWS RELEASE 11/03/06
GASB Publishes Comprehensive Implementation Guide
New Standard Provides Guidance and Consistency on Environmental Clean-up
Norwalk, CT, November 3, 2006—As a part of its mission to develop literature that guides and educates the public about its standards, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has published the 2006–2007 edition of its Comprehensive Implementation Guide. The Comprehensive Implementation Guide consolidates and updates previously issued guides to individual standards and provides current guidance on standards for which no stand-alone guides have been published. The 2006–2007 edition includes for the first time the freestanding Implementation Guide to Statement 44 on the Statistical Section and the Implementation Guide to Statements 43 and 45 on Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB).
This year, the guide has been reorganized to better accommodate the addition of new questions and employs a new numbering system designed to make it easier to follow changes from year to year.
The 2006–2007 guide provides the answers to new questions about OPEB and a variety of other topics, including:
- Compensated absences
- The modified approach for reporting infrastructure assets
- Asset impairment
- Reporting net assets
- Termination benefits.
In addition, the guide revises existing questions and deletes obsolete questions (for example, transition guidance for standards that are now effective). It also features a new chapter that brings together questions on pronouncements not covered in other chapters and that are devoted to a particular pronouncement or subject.
The Comprehensive Implementation Guide (product code GSIG07) can be ordered through the GASB’s order department at 800-748-0659 or via its website at www.gasb.org.
About the Governmental Accounting Standards Board
The GASB is the independent, not-for-profit organization formed in 1984 that establishes and improves financial accounting and reporting standards for state and local governments. Its seven members are drawn from the Board's diverse constituency, including preparers and auditors of government financial statements, users of those statements and members of the academic community. More information about the GASB can be found at its website www.gasb.org.