GASB seeks volunteers to participate in ‘field test’ of proposed changes

The standards body for organizations that follow governmental accounting standards is seeking volunteers to test new rules.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is seeking participants to “field test” the standards it proposed in a new document, Preliminary Views, Revenue and Expense Recognition, that was issued in June.

The proposed standards aim to develop a comprehensive, principles-based model that establishes categorization, recognition and measurement guidance applicable to a wide range of revenue and expense transactions, according to GASB.

Volunteer organizations will test implementation of the proposed changes and provide feedback to GASB on their experience. Field testing will primarily evaluate the transactions of the organizations using the proposed model.

Feedback sought from preparers of such financial statements include:

• Potential implementation difficulties
• Costs associated with initial and ongoing implementation of the proposed standards
• Whether any of the proposed standards are unclear

GASB will use the feedback to help develop an “Exposure Draft” of the proposed standards.

The first field test will be distributed to participating organizations in September, with results returned in December. A separate field test will be available in December and completed in March 2021.

Interested organizations and those with questions should contact Pam Dolan, supervising project manager for GASB, at [email protected].