The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has released three proposed updates that are intended to simplify the financial reporting for employee benefit plans. These three updates intend to simplify contract value, investment disclosures, and measurement of investments and related accounts. Comments on the proposal that was released on April 24, 2015 are due on May 18, 2015.
As discussed in “FASB Proposes Targeted Simplifications To Employee Benefit Plan Accounting Rules,” posted by Denise Lugo on BNA.com, these proposed new rules are aligned with the FASB simplification initiative, which is aimed at reducing the cost and complexity of financial reporting, while maintaining the usefulness of this data to the users of financial statements. FASB proposes that contract value, not fair value, be used to present and disclose benefit-responsive investment contracts. They also want to eliminate the requirement that net appreciation or depreciation for participant-directed or nonparticipant-directed investments be disclosed by general type and would eliminate the need for disclosure of financial strategy if an investment is measured using net asset value per share or its equivalent. Finally, FASB wants to increase the transparency of measurement of investment and related accounts, including data plans use and changes that occur between the measurement data and the plan’s fiscal year end. Additional information about these proposed changes and conditions can be found in the article.
Simplifying reporting is not only beneficial to the employees, but also to the businesses that manage these benefit programs. usinesses can save time and manage employee benefit plans with greater efficiency by deploying today’s modern technology to streamline data management and reporting. By adding an affordable add-on solution to your Microsoft Dynamics® GP Payroll solution, you can streamline employee benefit management such as Enhanced Retirement Plans and Life Insurance Tax Calculator. The Enhanced Retirement Plans solution, for example, can automate the relationship between employee deduction and company matches across multiple deferred compensation plans, including 401K, 403B, or Roth retirement plans.
Streamline financial reporting, employee benefits, and other common human resources and payroll activities by deploying today’s powerful management technology. Contact Integrity Data to learn more about the technology solutions you need to simply these common tasks.
By Integrity Data, Illinois Microsoft Dynamics GP ISV developing software for Payroll and HR