General Descriptions of Exposure Documents

Exposure Drafts—An Exposure Draft is a draft of a proposed Statement or Interpretation for an FASB technical project that proposes standards of financial accounting and reporting, an effective date of application, and a method of transition. An Exposure Draft also includes background information, an explanation of the basis for the Board’s conclusions (including its reasons for accepting certain alternatives and rejecting others), and a summary of the more significant and relevant points of view communicated to the FASB at public roundtable discussions and in written comments and position papers.

Preliminary Views—Also called Tentative Conclusions, these documents are issued early in the consideration of a major project when the Board has tentatively resolved the major issues or a subset of the issues in a project and concludes that public comments should be sought on those conclusions before the remaining issues are deliberated and an Exposure Draft is prepared. A Preliminary Views does not follow the same format as an Exposure Draft, but it does present preliminary views on proposed requirements for an accounting standard. A Preliminary Views does not contain a basis for conclusions but does contain alternative views. A Preliminary Views contains a notice for recipients that includes a question asking for information from constituents about the costs associated with the various alternatives presented.

Invitations to Comment—An Invitation to Comment is the most common type of initial document used to solicit comments with respect to a certain matter and may include advisory conclusions or tentative leanings of the Board without the full, comprehensive discussion of arguments and implications for each method described. Its use is not restricted to certain cases.

Proposed FASB Staff Positions (proposed FSPs)—These draft documents are used to solicit comments on proposed narrow and limited revisions to GAAP literature (including Statements, Interpretations, EITF Issues, APB Opinions, and AICPA Statements of Position and Audit Guides) in a more timely and consistent fashion than other draft documents. Many of the proposed revisions would have previously been made through Staff Implementation Guides (Q&As), Staff Announcements (EITF Abstracts, Topic No. D-XXX), and Technical Bulletins to address specific issues, to interpret GAAP literature, and to modify certain aspects of FASB Statements, respectively.

EITF Tentative Conclusions (Draft Abstracts)—Prior to reaching a consensus on an EITF Issue, a tentative conclusion must be established and then, based on that tentative conclusion, a draft abstract is issued for public comment. Prior to issuing the draft abstract for public comment, the FASB Board must ratify the tentative conclusion and approve of its exposure for public comment. The Task Force will review comments on a draft abstract at a future EITF meeting to determine whether to approve the tentative conclusion as a consensus.

Statement 133 Implementation Issues—These Q&A style draft documents represent tentative conclusions on implementation questions on FASB Statement 133. Their status is tentative until it is formally cleared by the FASB and incorporated into an FASB staff implementation guide.