GASB Statement No. 76, The Hierarchy of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for State and Local Governments
GASB 76 reduces the authoritative GAAP categories in the GAAP hierarchy for state and local governments from four to two. The first category of GAAP consists of GASB statements of governmental accounting standards. The second category of GAAP comprises GASB technical bulletins and implementation guides, including AICPA guidance cleared by GASB. The new standard also addresses the use of authoritative and nonauthoritative literature for situations when GAAP does not specify the accounting treatment for a transaction or other event.
GASB 76 was developed to help governments apply GAAP with less variation. Consequently, this should improve the usefulness and comparability of financial statements.
The GAAP hierarchy governs what constitutes generally accepted accounting principles for all state and local governmental entities. It lists the order of priority of pronouncements that a reporting organization
should look to for accounting and financial reporting guidance.
For more information on GASB 76, see below: