Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) is a United States federal advisory committee whose mission is to develop generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for federal financial reporting entities.

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 required annual, audited financial statements for the United States Government and its component entities, referred to as federal reporting entities. In order to apply the statutes of the CFO Act of 1990, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Comptroller General established FASAB to develop the “applicable accounting principles” for the newly required financial statements.

The AICPA Council designated FASAB as the body that establishes accounting principles for federal entities. The AICPA's hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles in Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 91, The Federal GAAP Hierarchy, governs what constitutes GAAP for U.S. government reporting entities. The hierarchy lists the priority sequence of sources that an entity should look to for accounting and reporting guidance.

FASAB issues the Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS).