The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US-based Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced their agreement to re-expose their revised proposals for a common revenue recognition standard. Re-exposing the revised proposals will provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment on revisions the boards have undertaken since the publication of an exposure draft on revenue recognition in June 2010.

It was the unanimous view of the boards that while there was no formal due process requirement to re-expose the proposals it was appropriate to go beyond established due process given the importance of the revenue number to all companies and the need to take all possible steps to avoid unintended consequences.

Consequently, the boards intend to re-expose their work in the third quarter of 2011 for a comment period of 120 days.

Commenting on the decision, Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the IASB, said: “It is important that we get this right, first time. That is why the boards and staff have undertaken an unprecedented level of outreach to get us to this point, and why we are keen to treble-check that our conclusions are robust and can be implemented with minimal disruption.”

Leslie Seidman, chairman of the FASB, said: “Given the prominent role of revenue in financial statement analysis, the boards decided that it would be appropriate to re-expose the proposed standard, and afford our stakeholders the opportunity to review the changes in context.”

Further details will be available shortly from the revenue recognition project sections of the IASB and FASB websites.