Accounting Research Bulletins (ARBs)

What Were the Accounting Research Bulletins (ARBs)?

The Accounting Research Bulletins were archives distributed by the Committee on Accounting Procedure between 1938 to 1959 on different issues that emerged in the accounting industry. The ARBs were discontinued with the disintegration of the Committee in 1959.

Understanding the Accounting Research Bulletins (ARBs)

The Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) was the principal private sector organization entrusted with setting accounting standards in the United States. However, its Accounting Research Bulletins never had binding authority. This means the substance of the bulletins needed huge influence and failed to energize compliance by accountants. It was run by the American Institute of Accountants, presently known as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

While the Accounting Research Bulletins were discontinued in 1959, it was supplanted by the Accounting Principles Board (APB), which was active until 1973.

Today, accounting standards in the United States are set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board on the federal level and the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB), a private non-governmental organization that makes accounting reporting standards, or generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for state and nearby governments. They can be found in the Accounting Standards Codification, which became effective after September 2009, and which is the single source of U.S. GAAP and is kept up with by the FASB.

FASB Accounting Standards Codification administers the arrangement of corporate financial reports and is recognized as definitive by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which directs American stock exchanges.

Altogether, the Committee on Accounting Principles distributed 51 bulletins. Points covered by the bulletins remembered proposals for United States Treasury tax notes, corporate accounting for ordinary stock dividends, elusive assets, and that's just the beginning. As per the absolute first bulletin, distributed in September 1939, the committee was made to execute a fair-minded set of principles that would administer corporate accounting. The presentation read that accounting "should be decided from the viewpoint of society in general — not from that of any one group of closely involved individuals."

The whole document of ARBs is accessible on the University of Mississippi's website.

Features

• The ARBs were distributed to assist with making an unprejudiced set of principles that would administer corporate accounting.
• The ARBs were supplanted in 1959 by Accounting Principles Board, which was active until 1973.
• Today, two organizations — the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Government Accounting Standards Board — make accounting reporting standards.
• The Accounting Research Bulletins were records distributed by the Committee on Accounting Procedure somewhere in the range of 1938 and 1959 on issues that emerged in the accounting world.