Financial Reporting

According to a tentative FASB decision in April, goods and services received in exchange for all forms of stock-based compensation result in a cost companies should recognize as an expense if they consume such goods and services ( www.fasb.org/opening_statement.pdf ; www.fasb.org/full_text.pdf ). The board’s determination comes as it begins a project to improve accounting for such transactions, whose value it says is properly measured on the basis of their fair value. FASB will deliberate this topic at upcoming public meetings and plans to issue, by the end of the year, an exposure draft that could become final in 2004.