As anticipated, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has affirmed its plans to place the entire library of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles under new authority beginning July 1.

FASB has been on course to establish its Accounting Standards Codification as the sole authority for GAAP, making all historical pronouncements that have mushroomed over generations of accounting no longer authoritative. The Codification is the product of several years work to slice and dice all historical pronouncements of GAAP into a new structure organized around some 90 topics.

In a regular weekly session, FASB voted to accept the Codification as the sole source for authoritative GAAP, effective July 1. That means it will be effective for financial statements for interim or annual periods ending after Sept. 15, 2009, requiring companies to update all their references to historical pronouncements to instead refer to rules according to their placement in the Codification.

While the Codification currently is an online search tool, FASB staff told the board the entire Codification will be available in a print edition within two months of the effective date. The online version will remain freely available to the public via FASB’s Website, but an advanced version will be available for a subscription fee that has not yet been established. FASB staff said the Financial Accounting Foundation, FASB’s overseer, also plans to make the advanced version freely available to colleges and universities.

FASB Chairman Robert Herz said in a prepared statement the Codification is intended to make accounting research easier, which ultimately improves compliance with accounting rules. “The FASB is confident that preparers, auditors, and users of financial statements—who for years have had to wade through hundreds of pieces of disparate GAAP literature to resolve an accounting issue—will find the Codification provides a much more efficient, user-friendly method of researching up-to-date solutions,” said Herz.

While the Codification is not intended to alter existing accounting rules, it reorganizes them and eliminates levels of authority that currently exist under GAAP, causing some to wonder if the Codification will lead to new interpretations. FASB also heard from some constituents that accountants need more time to learn and use the Codification because they have been busy dealing with economic crisis issues and aren’t ready for the cutover.