Historical frame
- Kind
- organization
- Period
- 1939-1959
- Jurisdiction
- United States
The CAP represents an early organized attempt to reduce accounting diversity through issue-specific bulletins, while its limitations encouraged later institutional redesign.
Questions to carry forward
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of solving reporting problems one issue at a time?
- Why does the design of a standard setter affect its output?
Claim disciplineEvidence boundaries
- The CAP was not the SEC and did not possess legislative power.
- Its replacement did not make every earlier bulletin concept disappear immediately.
The Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) issued Accounting Research Bulletins to address particular reporting problems. It worked within the professional organization that preceded today's American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Its members served part time.
The bulletin program helped reduce differences in accounting practice, but resolving one issue at a time did not provide a general framework for every reporting question. The Accounting Principles Board succeeded the committee in 1959. Today, research the applicable Codification requirements rather than treating a historical bulletin as the current rule by itself.