The Conceptual Framework Project seeks to revise the Conceptual Framework, setting the standards for financial reporting in the industry. The goals and objectives of the project are to answer a series of questions that will have a profound impact on financial reporting. These include the clarification of the objective of financial reporting, and if financial statements should be prepared from an entity or proprietor perspective. It will detail what are the most important characteristics of accounting information, as well as what is an asset and a liability. The project will discuss whether or not all assets or liabilities be recorded irrespective of the probability that they may be realized or paid, and if matching principle is dead. It also looks to answer if the revenue-recognition principle will survive, or be replaced by the asset-liability view, as well as if an asset should be measured at cost or fair value. Lastly, the project hopes to clarify if " depreciation an outdated concept tied to the matching principle, or is it a legitimate valuation technique" (Gore & Zimmerman, 2007).
             The Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) is also significant to financial reporting. Meeting six times a year, the EITF was formed in 1984, as a response to the FASB's task force recommendations regarding the need for timely financial reporting guidance. As the FASB states, in their Emerging Issues Task Force (n.d.) document, the EITF's primary objective is to become aware of emerging issues, in the industry, before they become widespread, and before divergent practices regarding these issues become entrenched. Consensus on an issue, by the EITF, then becomes considered part of GAAP.
             It is the requirements of GAAP that are often blamed, in part, for the standards overload problem. In recent years, the FASB, SEC and AICPA have been criticized for imposing too many accounting standards on the business community, resulting in a standards overload pr...