EITF assignment of accounting students

A number of students have been looking for specific EITF (Emerging Issues Task Force) documents from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today. Although the FARS disk has EITF materials, it is only current as to Nov. 2003. I would suggest that the students search either CCH Business & Finance or RIA Checkpoint. I have placed several extra copies of my searching FARS handout in the drawer with the FARS discs. This covers the basics of searching RIA and CCH.(The free FASB site, www.fasb.org, doesn't have all the abstracts available.)

Here are the paths for CCH and RIA :

Once logged onto CCH Business & Finance, click Securities tab.
Then scroll down to the SEC Accountants' Module (near the bottom)
Select Financial Accounting Standards (FASB)
The EITF Abstracts are one of the sections that can be search.
Either select the EITF Abstracts and look for the numbered abstracts or
Click on Find by Citation and type in the number of the abstract that is needed in the appropriate search box for the EITF.
(You could search by Citation as soon as you are logged on to the database, but this will result in several pages of search boxes, and scrolling down to the EITF. I think since this is the first time the students are using the database, going first to the Financial Accounting Standards is easier.)


The advantage of using RIA Checkpoint is the internal links in the EITF abstracts, which CCH does not offer. These links are a quick way to get to any referenced material without doing a new search.

For RIA Checkpoint.
After logging on, Change the practice area to WG&L Rptg & Management. (The default is tax, which won't get this assignment done.)
The fast way here:
Click More under Find by Citation, FASB Original Pronouncements. (Far left column, under Keyword Search)
This provides the search boxes for the EITF documents. Type in the desired number.

Alternative route (more scenic route?)
After logging on to RIA Checkpoint,
change to WG&L Rptg & Management.
Click on Table of Contents,
Select W G & L in the list,
Then select FRM Source Materials
Then Select FASB
Then select EITF Abstracts
The list of EITF abstracts appear. They are numbered by year and then within a year.
The appropriate EITF abstract would need to be selected.

I hope that this is helpful.
I do not plan to offer any more FARS workshops this year. The attendance was light at the workshops that I gave and no students contacted me when I posted the schedules to the accounting students' email to suggest alternative times.

Rita