Accounting

The AICPA accounting standards executive committee issues SOP 01-6, Accounting by Certain Entities (Including Entities With Trade Receivables) That Lend to or Finance the Activities of Others, effective for financial statements issued for the fiscal year beginning after December 15, 2001. The SOP applies to any entity, including insurance companies, corporate credit unions, mortgage companies and financial institutions, that makes loans or provides financing. This may consist of making secured mortgage loans or unsecured commercial loans or extending credit to trade customers, producing trade receivables. Copies of the SOP (product no. 014933JA) can be ordered from the AICPA order department at 888-777-7077.

FASB authorized three new projects in January. The first will focus on resolving inconsistencies in existing conceptual guidance for revenue and liability recognition. (A related proposal is available on the FASB Web site ( www.fasb.org/proposals/proposalrecognition.html ). Comments on it are due by March 29. Another project will set standards for improving disclosure about intangible assets not currently reported in financial statements. And, in response to its constituents’ concerns about the quantity, complexity and unwieldiness of U.S. accounting literature, FASB begins a series of administrative projects to codify and simplify guidance from its emerging issues task force, the AICPA and the SEC. ( www.fasb.org/news/nr011402.html )