You do not need to memorize the Codification before you can use it. You need a clear accounting question, a way to read an ASC address, and the discipline to check whether the guidance fits the facts. This page gives you those starting points and shows you where to go next.
Follow the course from foundations to application
Begin with the three foundation modules if the Codification is new to you. Then use the Topic applications to practice the same research and accounting decisions with different transactions.
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Foundation · No ASC experience required
Start using the ASC
Read an ASC address, distinguish authoritative guidance from teaching material, and choose a useful starting route.
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Foundation · Begin after the course introduction
Find the guidance that governs your facts
Turn a reporting question into a reproducible search, then test scope, definitions, dates, and related guidance.
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Foundation · Begin after ASC research
Complete every accounting decision
Carry one transaction through scope, recognition, measurement, presentation, disclosure, and later changes.
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Topic application · Uses the three foundations
Decide how to report a contingency
Decide whether an uncertain loss requires recognition, disclosure, or neither under ASC 450.
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Topic application · Uses the three foundations
Account for revenue and contract costs
Move from a customer contract to promises, price, revenue, balances, costs, and disclosure under ASC 606 and ASC 340-40.
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Topic application · Uses the three foundations
Follow a long-lived asset from cost to exit
Connect acquisition cost, depreciation, impairment, held-for-sale classification, disposal, and reconciliation under ASC 360.
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Topic application · Uses measurement and presentation
Follow a borrowing from contract to payoff
Connect debt terms with opening measurement, interest, classification, changed terms, settlement, and disclosure under ASC 470.
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Topic application · Uses measurement and disclosure
Build a fair value measurement from the evidence
Choose the market, valuation technique, inputs, hierarchy level, and disclosure required by ASC 820.
Choose where you need to begin
You do not need to browse the whole Codification. Start with the work you need to do, then follow the narrower path.
Learn how to research the ASC
Learn who sets the requirements, which sources have authority, and how facts become a supported conclusion.
Browse by ASC Topic
Use a Topic path when you know the transaction or reporting problem and want its rules, examples, and practice.
Find the concept you need
Use a concept page when you need a definition, boundary, prerequisite, example, or practice question.
Work through a complete research case
See how missing documents, separate transactions, materiality, and source authority affect a year-end research problem.
If you already have a citation, begin by reading its address. If you only have a transaction or account, use the research path to find the right Topic before you apply a paragraph.
Read an ASC paragraph address
ASC 606-10-25-1 is an address. Each part narrows the location of the guidance.
Topic
Start with Topic 606
Revenue from Contracts with Customers
Subtopic
Narrow to Subtopic 10
Overall guidance within Topic 606
Section
Open Section 25
Recognition requirements
Paragraph
Read Paragraph 1
The first paragraph in that Section
An address is not a conclusion. The locator tells you where the paragraph sits. You must still check the entity, transaction, scope, definitions, reporting period, effective date, and related paragraphs.
The Section number often tells you what kind of accounting question the paragraph addresses. For example, Section 25 usually addresses recognition, Section 30 initial measurement, Section 35 subsequent measurement, Section 45 other presentation matters, Section 50 disclosure, and Section 55 implementation guidance and illustrations. A Topic may omit a Section or use only part of this pattern, so confirm the labels in the Topic you are researching.
That warning matters because you will use several kinds of sources in this course. Each source can support a different kind of claim.
Decide what each source can support
| Source you are using | Claim the source can support | Claim the source cannot support by itself |
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| Applicable Codification guidance | The accounting requirements for the entity, transaction, and period | Facts that the company has not supplied |
| Company filing | What that company reported and disclosed for the stated period | That the same treatment applies to another company or that the treatment was correct |
| This website | An explanation, worked example, and route to related practice | Authoritative accounting requirements or a conclusion for an unstated fact pattern |
You are now ready to see how these distinctions work inside a complete accounting problem. Begin with a smaller decision family, or move to the broader contract model.
Practice with a complete Topic family
Decide how to report a contingency
Decide whether an uncertain loss requires recognition, disclosure, or neither.
Account for revenue and contract costs
Move from a customer contract to promises, price, revenue, balances, costs, and disclosure.
Follow a long-lived asset from cost to exit
Connect acquisition cost, depreciation, impairment, held-for-sale classification, disposal, and the ending asset balance.
Follow a borrowing from contract to payoff
Connect debt terms with measurement, interest, classification, changed terms, settlement, and disclosure.
Build a fair value measurement from the evidence
Move from the governing Topic to the market, valuation technique, significant inputs, hierarchy level, and disclosure.
Continue with the records behind this course
Read FASB Accounting Standards Codification for the locator structure and research trail. Read authoritative accounting guidance before treating a source as governing. Browse the standards records to see which guidance this site reviewed and when that review occurred.
Choose your next step
You can now read the parts of an ASC address and explain why a paragraph, filing, and teaching page support different claims. If you are still learning which sources can govern, continue with Find the guidance that governs your facts. If you already research the ASC, move to Complete every accounting decision. Return here when you need another Topic path, concept, or complete case.