The Financial Accounting Standards Board has added guidance on business combinations to its online codification research tool, which is intended to simplify research of and compliance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

The codification is intended to serve as a single source for all authoritative GAAP. FASB developed the tool over a period of several years and is giving it a one-year test run to work out glitches. It is available free of charge during the test run, or verification period, via the FASB Website, until the Board completes it in April 2009.

Literature on business combinations initially was omitted from the codification because Financial Accounting Standard No. 141R, Business Combinations, was still in development at the time. The addition of business combinations to the codification integrates a number of standards in addition to FAS 141R, including FAS 109, Accounting for Income Taxes; Financial Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes; and various literature from FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force and Securities and Exchange Commission Staff Accounting Bulletins.

Tom Hoey, codification project director at FASB, says the Board is still looking for feedback on whether the business combinations and other content in the codification provide an accurate and adequate roadmap for U.S. GAAP. The free, one-year verification phase is open until Jan. 15.

Related Coverage: Fears Over Contingency Accounting (Aug. 19, 2008)Related Coverage: FASB, IASB Finalize Business Combinations (July 6, 2005)