Research Methodology for Using the FASB ASC

Research Methodology for Using the ASC

• Begin by navigating through the American Accounting Association website to the official FASB Accounting Standards Codification website.

• Utilize the search function of the ASC website by entering in key terms. For this case, phrases such as “impairment of property, plant, and equipment,” and “criteria for held-for-sale assets” were used.

• Navigate through the search results to find the general topic that information is needed for. In this case, going to the “Subsequent Measurement” section of the “Property, Plant, and Equipment” topic proved quite useful. This topic (360) contained a wealth of authoritative literature on accounting for fixed assets. Also helpful was topic 350, dealing with accounting for “Intangibles—Goodwill and Other.”

• Use the drop-down navigation menus to browse more specific subjects and paragraphs within each topic. Particularly, these navigation links were crucial when it came to locating specific paragraphs regarding “Measurement of an Impairment Loss” for both fixed assets and intangibles.

• Take note of specific paragraphs and their section numbers (i.e. 360-10-35-17 discusses impairment losses on fixed assets) so they can be reproduced in exhibits to the case analysis and referenced in the case write-up.

• Note: Oftentimes within a paragraph, links to other resources are included. This occurred, for example, in 360-10-35, a discussion of impairment of long-lived assets that are classified as held-and-used. This paragraph included a link to paragraph 360-10-45-9 which conveniently listed the six criteria that long-lived assets are required to meet, should they alternatively be classified as held-for-sale.