US GAAP
In accounting, US GAAP means generally accepted accounting principles in the United States — for nongovernmental entities, the FASB Accounting Standards Codification; for SEC registrants, also the SEC's rules and interpretive releases.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
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- 4
Authority
This definition follows FASB Statement No. 168, ¶6; ASC 105-10.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
The lesson that teaches this
Accounting, 0 to 1 — a free course taught end to end on one month of one company, with the spreadsheet exercises to work it yourself.
US GAAP, in use
Quoted from the 4 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
IFRS requires it unless a liquidity-order presentation is more reliable (IAS 1, carried into IFRS 18 from 2027); US GAAP permits unclassified balance sheets in some industries.
Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles are not amortized — they are tested for impairment (US GAAP private companies may elect to amortize goodwill over up to ten years).
Schedules, accruals & roll-forwards — 6. Intangibles and amortization
Hyperinflationary economies differ by framework: IFRS (IAS 29) restates for inflation, then translates; US GAAP (ASC 830) remeasures as if the reporting currency were functional, with differences in the P&L.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- US GAAPGenerally accepted accounting principles. In the US that means the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, which sets how companies recognize, measure and present their numbers.
- Cash flow statement explained: why profit isn’t cashHow the cash flow statement starts at net income, adds back non-cash costs and working capital, splits three activities and ties to the balance sheet.
- Chart of accounts for startups: a starting templateA starting chart of accounts for a US startup: number ranges, the expense accounts you need, and when to add an account versus a class or tracking tag.
- Audit-ready books before your Series AInvestors, lenders and auditors ask for the same things: accrual statements, reconciled accounts and support for every balance. How to be ready first.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- GAAP alone where IFRS is meant
- GAAP rules
Nearby in the catalog
No component names this concept outright. These are the ones in its part of the system, which is a weaker claim — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Also in Foundations
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.