If private companies should have different accounting standards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is looking for ideas on how those differences should be established. FASB published some early ideas for how financial reporting requirements should be differentiated for private companies, and it is looking for feedback on that preliminary thinking before moving to the next step.
The “invitation to comment” published by FASB maps out six critical issues that differentiate private companies from public companies, leading to the conclusion that accounting requirements for private companies should differ as a result. FASB says the type and number of users for financial statements are different for private companies than public companies, and they have more direct access to management to ask questions. Private companies have different investment strategies, and different ownership and capital structures. They have thinner resources than public companies to manage the accounting function, and as a result it takes them longer to get up to speed on new accounting pronouncements.
