The collective decisions passed down from the APB and FASB form the principles now followed as the holy grail of accounting. Other governmental and non-governmental organizations impact FASB decisions, but it is the FASB's responsibility to issue opinions and render judgments. Since then, the FASB has been the primary policymaking body on acceptable accounting practices. In 1973, The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) replaced the APB.The APB began issuing opinions on major accounting topics for business accountants to adopt, which the SEC could then impose on publicly traded companies. After 20 years, the Accounting Principles Board (APB) took over.As a result, the American Institute of Accountants established the Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP) in 1939. The SEC decided to assign this responsibility to the auditing community in the private sector.This resulted in the creation of several auditing boards to impose accounting principles, which went through several changes over several decades: As a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) was given the authority to set standards for accounting. The government was looking for ways to regulate these practices. The US government believed that one of the causes of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the following Great Depression was the poor accounting practices of some publicly traded companies. It is only mandatory for publicly traded companies in the United States of America. GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are a well-recognized set of rules, standards, and procedures for financial reporting.