FASAB addresses intragovernmental exchanges, component reporting

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) issued technical bulletins Wednesday related to accounting for intragovernmental exchange transactions and assigning assets to component reporting entities.

In Technical Bulletin 2017-1, Intragovernmental Exchange Transactions, FASAB provides guidance to help federal reporting entities determine whether intragovernmental arrangements are exchange transactions. The bulletin addresses whether value has been sacrificed and received by the parties to a transaction.

“TB 2017-1 will help agencies identify intragovernmental exchange transactions in a reasonably consistent manner and improve the reporting of revenue and cost information by ensuring that transactions are appropriately classified,” Wendy Payne, FASAB’s executive director, said in a news release.

Technical Bulletin 2017-2, Assigning Assets to Component Reporting Entities, clarifies which component entity should report an asset. According to the bulletin, assets may be assigned by a reporting entity to its component reporting entities on a rational and consistent basis.

“TB 2017-2 will help large and complex organizations align reporting with their operations,” Payne said. “It also fills a void that existed in current standards.”

—Ken Tysiac (Kenneth.Tysiac@aicpa-cima.com) is a JofA editorial director.