Approaching their last call for feedback on a brand new way to recognize revenue, accounting rule makers are hosting a series of public meetings globally this spring to answer any last-minute questions or concerns before the rules are finalized.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have scheduled a series of outreach roundtable sessions for March, April, and May in a total of six locations to discuss their proposals for how to recognize revenue under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards.

FASB will host a session at its Norwalk, Conn., headquarters on April 26, and a second session in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 8 dedicated to U.S. private companies. IASB will host a meeting at its London headquarters on April 20, and the Accounting Standards Board of Japan will host a session in Tokyo on April 4. Additional sessions are pending for late March in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The sessions are meant to facilitate dialogue in an open forum between the boards and those who have submitted comment letters or who plan to submit comment letters on the proposals. The two boards have already held a number of workshops, webcasts, conferences and other sessions on the proposals, in addition to accepting comment letters along multiple phases of the proposal. FASB also recently published a side-by-side-summary of the existing requirements and the proposed new guidance to facilitate comparison and consideration of the implications.

FASB's proposal is still open for written comment through March 13. The board has been working with the IASB for years to develop a new standard for revenue recognition, in part to bring together and improve a patchwork of U.S. accounting rules that have mushroomed over decades but also to develop an approach that would be comparable with international standards. FASB issued a discussion document in 2008, a proposed standard in 2010, and a revised standard in 2011. The new standard sets out a common approach for all entities to follow to determine when and how to recognize revenue, putting to rest differences in how revenue is recognized across industries.

The boards are accepting registrations for both participants and observers at the roundtable sessions. To facilitate the airing of a wide range of views, the boards will limit all organizations to register no more than one proposed participant and three observers. The sessions will be recorded and made available for playback via both boards' websites.