Accounting Resource Guide: Accounting Standards and Rules

Provides links to pertinent federal laws and regulations, publications, and searchable public company filings.

Offers full-text accounting documents, news, and more.

Updates can be viewed online without a login.

The mission of the Financial Accounting Standards Board is to establish standards of financial accounting for the public, including auditors, issuers, and users of financial information. These standards govern the preparation of financial reports by businesses and other nongovernmental entities. They are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The mission of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board is to establish state and local government accounting and financial reporting standards that will prove useful to issuers, auditors, and users of financial reports. The website includes some full-text Technical Issues, summaries and status of Pronouncements and Statements, texts of recent Exposure Drafts, and news.

Contains standards for audits of government organizations, programs, and activities, and standards for organizations which receive government assistance. Published by the General Accounting Office, the standards, known as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), are to be followed by auditors. This site includes texts of the current standards, previous standards, comment letters on Exposure Drafts, legal decisions, and press releases.

The International Accounting Standards Board consists of 9 countries who set global accounting standards that require comparable information in general purpose financial statements. The website provides summaries of standards and interpretations, and some full-text documents open to comment and current exposure drafts.

Knowledge Guides provide information on international standards in the field of accounting and auditing. They are compiled and maintained by the Library and Information Service of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). The Guides aim to help the user find the information on international standards, keep up to date with the latest issues in the field, and learn the ICAEW viewpoint.