The Securities and Exchange Commission has published a post script of sorts to the new Accounting Standards Codification, clarifying the Codification doesn’t trump anything the SEC published previously.

Many in accounting and financial reporting circles are still getting accustomed to the Codification developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to serve as the sole authoritative source for all Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States. The Codification re-assembled the entire library of historical GAAP pronouncements into a more orderly collection of accounting rules organized by topic. It includes accounting-specific guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC published interpretive guidance on the Codification that says although the Codification includes SEC guidance that applies to accounting rules, it does not supersede SEC rules or regulations. “We understand that the FASB Codification, as a service to users, includes references to some Commission rules and staff guidance,” the SEC wrote. “However, the FASB Codification is not the authoritative source for such content, nor does its inclusion in the FASB Codification affect how such content may be updated in the future.”

The SEC says it will update its own rules and staff guidance to reflect new citations based on where accounting rules reside in the Codification. But in the meantime, “references in the Commission’s rules and staff guidance to specific standards under U.S. GAAP should be understood to mean the corresponding reference in the FASB Codification,” the interpretive guidance says.

Bruce Pounder, president of accounting education firm Leveraged Logic, said the SEC’s interpretive release “is consistent with what FASB has been telling everyone about the Codification.” It clarifies that the SEC is still the authority on guidance that comes from the SEC, and that such guidance still applies only to publicly listed registrants, not others subject to accounting rules.