Teaching Undergraduate Accounting Majors How To Interpret The Accounting Standards Codification: An Alternative To Research Cases

Abstract

Professional accountants regularly search the FASB’S Accounting Standards Codification to find answers to financial accounting questions. Accounting educators know this and frequently use research cases in an attempt to help students begin developing this ability, but many students struggle with these cases because they have not been taught how to interpret the Codification and apply its provisions. As a result, research cases often fail to accomplish one of the main purposes for which they are assigned. The authors believe that teaching undergraduate accounting majors how to interpret the Codification is best achieved through an in-class explanation of the process by which the Codification is converted into formulas and journal entries – an approach that they have named the “classroom approach” and that is described in this paper.