After a period of remarkable change and turmoil, it’s not a bad idea to take a step back and assess the scene. The Center for Audit Quality and PricewaterhouseCoopers recently provided some resources that will help those responsible for financial reporting run a checklist to assure they haven’t missed any important new accounting rules.

The Center for Audit Quality recently tallied up 21 new accounting pronouncements taking effect in 2009, among them four statements of accounting standards, eight staff positions amending earlier guidance, and nine interpretations from the Emerging Issues Task Force. New standards focus on business combinations, noncontrolling interests, derivatives and hedging activities, and financial guarantee insurance contracts. The fair value measurement of nonfinancial assets and nonfinancial liabilities under Financial Accounting Statement No. 157: Fair Value Measurement also takes effect for 2009.

Staff positions taking effect in 2009 include a number of pieces adopted in a hurry as the economy sunk and critics pointed to fair value rules as the culprit. Other guidance taking effect in 2009 address contingencies arising from business combinations, repurchasing financing transactions, useful life of intangible assets, convertible debt instruments, and share-based payments. EITF issues are narrower still, addressing collaborative arrangements, maintenance deposits, redeemable securities, third-party credit enhancements and more.

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently hosted a webcast summarizing the latest guidance and events that preparers should keep top of mind as they head into the second half of 2009. In addition to many of the items raised by CAQ, PwC partners also addressed changes expected soon in off-balance-sheet accounting, changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the migration toward International Financial Reporting Standards, and accounting standards still in development that should be considered even today.

Ray Beier, PwC’s leader for “national thought leadership,” said the current direction of standard setting gives companies good reason to pay attention to the rulemaking process. New standards in revenue recognition, leases, and liabilities and equity, for example, may affect contracts or transactions companies are striking in the present.

“You will be making decisions today about contracts or transactions that will be based around rules as they exist today,” he said. “But those transactions and contracts and arrangements very well may have long-term tail. Therefore they may end up being impacted by standard-setting changes that are coming down the road.”

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