The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized a smattering of new guidance in the past few weeks with some narrow audiences in mind, clearing its rulemaking agenda for bigger changes to come.

While FASB traditionally has sought to answer some narrow questions or confusion around implementing accounting standards, it has avoided taking on such projects in recent months as it tackles more substantial new principles for some major area of accounting, like revenue recognition, leases, financial instruments, and numerous others. The board is working on nearly a dozen major new standards that will be finalized in mid-2011 in conjunction with the International Accounting Standards Board.

Still, there are lingering issues FASB is wrapping up, evidenced by the handful of Accounting Standards Updates that have emerged in the past few weeks to address some detailed questions around stock options, oil and gas requirements, casino liabilities, and insurance entities.

The most recent crop of guidance is arising from the work of FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force. However, FASB did waver from its resistance to narrow guidance and rushed out an ASU recently for the handful of companies that were perplexed about how to report on the effects of new healthcare legislation.

Recent updates to the Accounting Standards Codification include:

ASU No. 2010-16 – Entertainment – Casinos (Topic 924) – The EITF and FASB sought to reduce diversity in approaches and clarify that entities should not accrue jackpot liabilities before a jackpot is won if it’s possible for the entity to avoid paying the jackpot. Instead, jackpots should only be accrued and charged to revenue when the entity has an obligation to pay the jackpot, the update says.

ASU No. 2010-15 – Financial Services – Insurance (Topic 944) – This gives insurance companies some instructions on how to approach new rules regarding consolidation of variable interest entities. It tells insurance companies that their policyholders' accounts and interests should not be considered the insurance company’s in deciding whether to consolidate a particular entity.

ASU No. 2010-14 – Accounting for Extractive Activities – Oil & Gas – Here FASB is updating language in the Accounting Standards Codification to reflect a release from the Securities and Exchange Commission to modernize reporting requirements for oil and gas operations.

ASU No. 2010-13 – Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718) – This update would affect companies issuing stock options when they have payroll and securities trading taking place in different currencies. It helps companies sort out how they should classify their options.

ASU No. 2010-12 – Income Taxes (Topic 740) – This is guidance rushed out by FASB and the SEC to help the handful of companies that have an interim or annual reporting date that falls in the nine-day gap between the signing of the two pieces of legislation that ushered in healthcare reform. Companies were confused about which dates mattered most in determining how to report the tax effects of that legislation in their financial statements.

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