CCH® Accounting Research Manager® Standard

Whether you need official literature, interpretations or the results of recent standard setter meetings, you'll find it in an instant with CCH Accounting Research Manager.

ARM Accounting Standards — Your "window to accounting literature," providing summaries of all significant accounting matters by topic. Each topic section links to specific paragraphs of all related authoritative and interpretive literature from the FASB, IASB and Accounting Research Manager.

There are 90 chapters in Accounting Standards, and they are presented in the same order as the FASB Codification topics, such as: 

• Business combinations
• Intangibles-Goodwill and other
• Compensation-Stock compensation
• Equity
• Earnings per share
• Financial instruments
• Income taxes
• Inventory
• Leases
• Not-for-profit entities
• Compensation-Retirement benefits
• Related party disclosures
• Revenue recognition 
• And more

ARM Accounting Standards includes summaries of significant IAS/IFRS accounting matters which correspond to the U.S. GAAP summaries. Users can see, side-by-side, how U.S. GAAP treats a topic vs. how IFRS treats this same topic. Links to the authoritative literature, as well as the ARM interpretations, are reflected.

Accounting Research Manager includes U.S. and international authoritative and proposal-stage literature, plus interpretive guidance on:

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) — The FASB Codification is updated on ARM within hours of new material being added to the Codification by the FASB, plus historical FASB statements and interpretations, staff positions, technical bulletins, special reports, implementation guides and related proposal-stage literature. 

AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) — Audit and Accounting Guides, Statements of Position (SOPs), technical questions and answers, and related proposal-stage literature.

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) — SEC content you won't find in competing databases — like SEC background and interpretive materials, hot topics and literature updates. Rules, regulations and releases of the 1933 and 1934 Acts, Financial Reporting Releases, Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, Staff Accounting Bulletins, Staff Legal Bulletins, Staff speeches, SEC releases of final and proposed rule changes and much more. Plus, our "SEC Practice" with its extensive interpretations and electronic links, including SEC proposed and final rules and our plain English summaries. We also include important tools or resources used by the SEC staff in the Division of Corporation Finance, notably its "Financial Reporting Manual" and numerous Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations.

The FASB's EITF (Emerging Issues Task Force) — Minutes and Issues Summaries. Our EITF Flash Report is issued immediately after each EITF meeting.

The PCC (Private Company Council) — Minutes and Issues Summaries. 

IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) — Accounting standards and related proposal-stage literature.

Your link to our industry-leading guidance on Business Combinations, Derivatives and Hedging, Leases, Compensation Arrangements, Financial Assets and Liabilities, and Accounting for Income Taxes.

Accounting for Business Combinations, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets — Interpretations of U.S. and International Accounting Standards

Our latest edition features the newest guidance on the most current literature on this subject. This book offers comprehensive guidance on accounting for business combinations, as well as intangible assets and goodwill under both U.S. GAAP and accounting principles issued by the IASB.

This covers a broad range of transactions, including:

• Acquisitions of businesses by acquiring assets or stock
• Acquisitions of non-controlling interests
• Leveraged buyouts 
• Reverse acquisitions
• Rollup transactions 
• Transfers and exchanges between companies under common control

Derivatives and Hedging — Interpretations of U.S. GAAP

FASB Topic 815, "Derivatives and Hedging," dispels the myth that accounting for derivatives affects only financial service companies. It includes hedge accounting and addresses the definition of a derivative to cover embedded derivatives and many commodity contracts. As a result, Topic 815 affects many commercial companies. This publication interprets Topic 815 to give readers a resource for understanding and applying the FASB's requirements.

Topics covered in this publication include:

• Recognition and measurement of derivative instruments and hedging activities 
• Cash flow hedges
• Foreign currency hedges
• Identifying and bifurcating embedded derivative instruments 
• Determining and recording fair value
• Determining and accounting for impairment
• Implementation guidance and disclosure rules

Accounting for Compensation Arrangements

Accounting for Compensation Arrangements offers professionals comprehensive guidance for applying the complex and expansive requirements of FASB Topic 718, "Compensation — Stock Compensation." It discusses the financial reporting implications of stock-based compensation arrangements for employees, employee stock purchase plans, certain other compensation arrangements for employees and share awards to non-employees for goods and services.

This in-depth resource provides professionals with a practical reference reference by selectively combining information from the official text of the FASB standards, along with other information drawn from the SEC, AICPA and lessons learned from leading accounting practitioners.

Accounting for Leases — Interpretations of U.S. GAAP

Accounting for Leases offers paragraph-by-paragraph interpretations of FASB Topic 842, Leases. It clarifies many implementation issues companies face, often on a very frequent basis. It also discusses how to treat leasing transactions in areas not specifically addressed by the FASB or the SEC, and areas that require further explanation. For companies involved in leasing transactions.

Financial Assets and Liabilities: Sales, Transfers and Extinguishments — Interpretations of U.S. GAAP

Accounting for sales, transfers and servicing of financial assets and extinguishments of liabilities can be highly complex. FASB Topic 860, "Transfers and Servicing," establishes a financial reporting model for these types of transactions and covers a wide breadth of transactions. As new transactions are introduced into the marketplace, entities face new and challenging implementation questions in this area. Transactions involving financial assets and liabilities — such as refinancing of liabilities, factoring of receivables and pledges of collateral — are not limited to financial institutions. Financial reporting professionals need to understand how Topic 860 works. To help you, Financial Assets and Liabilities provides practical, real-world interpretations of Topic 860 in question and answer format. Transactions covered in this publication include:

• Collateralized borrowing
• Purchases or sales of receivables, loans and securities
• Loan syndications and participations
• Securities lending
• Debt extinguishments and refinancing
• Wash sales

Accounting for Income Taxes — Interpretations of U.S. GAAP

Accounting for Income Taxes provides guidance on the application of FASB Topic 740, Income Taxes. It also provides numerous interpretations of this complex subject. Topic 740 establishes financial accounting and reporting standards for the effects of income taxes that result from an entity's activities during the current and preceding years. It requires an asset and liability approach for financial accounting and reporting for income taxes. This in-depth resource gives professionals indispensable guidance on the complex requirements of FASB Topic 740 and clarifies the implementation issues resulting from the accounting industry's literal approach to applying the requirements therein.

GAAP Financial Statements Disclosures Manual

This guide provides a complete, quick and valuable reference source for financial statement disclosures. The Manual contains more than 750 examples of realistic sample footnote disclosures to assist in the preparation of financial statements. It facilitates compliance with authoritative pronouncements by integrating, in each chapter, the specific disclosure requirements with the sample disclosures. The example disclosures provides sample disclosures that are technically sound, understandable and comprehensive and cover a variety of scenarios, from the most common to the most unusual. The manual is designed for ease of use. You can locate information based either on the disclosure topic or on the disclosure's location in the financial statement or notes to financial statements. In addition, each chapter is structured as a standalone section, providing you all of the information you need for a specific topic. Each chapter consists of an executive summary, a listing of relevant authoritative literature, a listing of disclosure requirements mandated by GAAP and specific examples of disclosures. The Manual also includes a financial statement disclosures checklist that provides a centralized resource of the required and recommended GAAP disclosures currently in use. It is designed to assist the user in determining whether the required financial statement disclosures have been made. All of these documents can be used as templates and modified to fit your needs.

Our audit content covers auditing standards, attestation standards, preparation, accounting and review services standards, audit risk alerts and other vital auditing-related guidance issued by the AICPA or the PCAOB.

• ARM Engagement Standards
• GAAS Practice Manual
• Knowledge-Based Audits of Commercial Entities
• Knowledge-Based Compilations & Reviews
• CPA's Guide to Effective Engagement Letters
• CPA's Guide to Management Letter Comments
• GAAS Update Service

You will also have access to AICPA Accounting and Audit Guides as well as standards and other releases of the PCAOB.

ARM Engagement Standards — Your "window to audit and attest literature," providing summaries of all significant audit and attest matters by organized topic. Each topic section links to specific paragraphs of related authoritative and interpretive literature from the AICPA, PCAOB and CCH Accounting Research Manager.

There are dozens of chapters in ARM Engagement Standards organized into sections by assurance level including:

• Audit Engagements — AICPA
• Audit Engagements — PCAOB
• Attestation and Nontraditional Engagements — AICPA
• Attestation Engagements — PCAOB
• Preparation, Compilation and Review Engagements

This resource helps you quickly locate guidance and resolve practice issues relating to audit engagements, attestation engagements (Including SOC engagements), and preparation, compilation and review engagements, conducted in accordance with U.S. professional standards. Within each section, "ARM Engagement Standards" provides an overall summary of numerous subtopics and links you to the authoritative and interpretive literature that addresses the subtopic. The interpretive literature provides practical guidance and an effective approach to applying and complying with the authoritative standards. Numerous practice aids are included.

This innovative resource provides a complete, quick and valuable reference source for the practitioner of the currently effective pronouncements including Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS), Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE), Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS) and the interpretations of these standards.

Throughout, the Manual features various efficiency and effectiveness practice tips to help the practitioner better plan and execute auditing and attest engagements and to quickly integrate the standards into practice. In addition to providing answers for over 600 frequently asked questions on how to implement the standards, the Manual contains over 350 illustrations, including checklists and practice aids.

Knowledge-Based Audit™ Guides and Toolsets provide practitioners the most cost-effective approach for conducting high-quality audits, preparations, compilations, and reviews of nonpublic entities:

Guides:

• Knowledge-Based Audits of Commercial Entities
• Knowledge-Based Preparations, Compilations and Reviews

Toolsets:

• Knowledge-Based Audit Methodology: Commercial Entities
• Knowledge-Based Preparations, Compilations and Reviews Methodology

These products feature various efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-saving measures to help reduce the tendency to over-audit. They also includes numerous practice aids — programs, questionnaires, workpapers, sample correspondence and sample auditor's reports — to take the practitioner through an engagement, from the initial evaluation of a client to the issuance of the auditor's report.

All applicable preparation, compilation, and review standards are examined with demonstrations on how to conduct engagements in the most efficient and thorough manner possible. "Knowledge-Based Preparations, Compilations & Reviews" uses a highly effective methodology for performing preparation, compilation and review engagements in concert with specifically developed practice aids. The approach uses knowledge of the entity applied to a specific process designed to facilitate the flow of information and increase efficiency and effectiveness. Included are more than 300 practice aids — checklists, questionnaires, workpapers, sample correspondence and sample reports — to take the practitioner through all aspects of preparation, compilation and review engagements. It features careful discussion of the relevant professional standards, in-depth analysis and numerous illustrations.

We've included every type of engagement letter you could possibly need, from audits, tax preparations and bookkeeping, to business valuations and assurance services. And here's the best part – every letter can be easily customized and printed. This innovative resource features a collection of case studies on liability issues that illustrate what to do and what not to do with your engagement letters. Over 50 types of letters are covered.

Developed by a seasoned auditor with more than 30 years of experience in auditing practice for clients in a broad spectrum of industries, "CPA's Guide to Management Letter Comments" makes it remarkably easy to draft clear management letter comments in no time at all. In one convenient, logically organized volume, you'll find the correct words and phrases to use in virtually any management letter comment you'll ever need to construct. The guide supplies the specific tools to build the basic structure and body of management letters, from the opening paragraph to specific comments for all of the critical areas generally encountered during an audit, as well as suggested closing paragraphs. With these expertly prepared comments at your fingertips, you can make clear, concise recommendations to improve operational efficiencies or strengthen control weaknesses, while actively promoting your additional services where opportunity exists.

Issued twice a month, you'll receive the latest coverage of Audit Risk Alerts, SASs, SSAEs, Industry Audit Guides and more.

CCH Accounting Research Manager dramatically expands your research capabilities. It's like adding your own staff of researchers whose sole purpose is to track important accounting and auditing developments for you. Our outstanding team of writers takes pride in updating the system on a daily basis, so you stay as current as possible. What's more, our experts attend many standard setter meetings and summarize the results for you. This means you'll learn of newly released literature and deliberations of current financial reporting projects as soon they occur!

Weekly Summary Email Alerts — The most current developments in financial reporting, conveniently emailed to you at the end of each business week so that you can quickly learn of topics that could affect your company. 

CCH Financial Reporting Brief — Each day, our expert staff will choose key accounting, auditing, international, regulatory (e.g., SEC) and governmental news that may affect your organization and bring them directly to your desktop by email. In addition to clear and concise news reporting, where appropriate, links will be provided to Accounting Research Manager's exclusive deeper analyses of the developments and to the relevant source materials.

A Closer Look — Our series of thought-leading whitepapers that delve into significant and relevant topics in accounting or auditing, and are published several times a year.