Letter From the Editor

• Author: Edwards Jim
• Date: 01 May 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22276
• Published date: 01 May 2017

5

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22276

Letter From the Editor

Dear JCAF Reader,

The Journal of Corporate

Accounting is steadily mak-

ing progress. Overall, usage

is growing with a more than

20% increase in downloads

via Wiley Online Library from

2015 to 2016. However, growth

in usage appears to be declin-

ing in the United States and the

United Kingdom, while grow-

ing in China and Australia.

Data analysis tells us that those

four countries are among the

top five publishing countries

within the JCAF subjects (with

Germany as the fifth). During

the past two years, manuscript

submissions to JCAF hav e

been on the increase from

authors in Asia.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

SCENE

Press release of the America n

Institute of CPAs:

AICPA Issues New Rev-

enue Recognition Guide

Publication Will Help

Promote Timely Assess-

ment and Implementation

of FASB’s New Standard

NEW YORK (January

4, 2017) – With compa-

nies and not-for-profit

entities facing a top-to-

bottom review of their

revenue recognition

because of a looming

accounting standard,

the American Institute

of CPAs (AICPA) has

issued the first online

edition of an Audit &

Accounting Guide on

Revenue Recognition to

assist entities and audi-

tors understand, imple-

ment and audit the new

rules.

The changes

are the result of the

Financial Account-

ing Standards Board’s

(FASB) Accounting

Standards Update

(ASU) No. 2014-09,

Revenue from Contracts

with Customers (Topic

606) and subsequent

ASUs amending FASB

Accounting Standards

Codification (ASC)

606. Public companies

are required to apply

the new revenue stan-

dard to annual report-

ing periods beginning

after December 15,

2017, which means that

many companies are in

the process of making

accounting policy deci-

sions as they prepare

for the effective date.

Speaking at last

month’s AICPA Con-

ference on Current SEC

and PCAOB Develop-

ments, U.S. Securities

and Exchange Com-

mission (SEC) Chief

Accountant Wesley

Bricker reminded

attendees that, “Timely

implementation of

the new standard is

important,” and noted

that a survey of public

companies released in

October found that

8% of respondents still

had not started an ini-

tial assessment of the

new revenue recogni-

tion standard, while

three-quarters were still

assessing.

“This project is an

unprecedented effort of

our Financial Report-

ing Executive Commit-

tee (FinREC) and the

many volunteers on

our Revenue Recogni-

tion Working Group

and 16 industry task

forces, all of whom are

committed to helping

the financial reporting

system adapt to the

standard,” said James

Dolinar, CPA, chair-

man of FinREC and

a partner at Crowe