Accounting Foundations: Understanding the GAAP
Learn what GAAP is, who sets it and how its principles shape revenue and expense recognition, asset valuation and financial statements, so you can read financial data with confidence.
Speaker
Justin Muscolino
Compliance training executive · 20+ years in compliance and training
Overview
GAAP is the backbone of U.S. financial reporting, built to make financial information consistent, reliable and comparable. This 60-minute GAAP basics webinar explains not only how financial data is presented, but why.
It starts with what GAAP is, who establishes it and why standard rules matter, including how they prevent arbitrary or misleading practices in recognizing revenue, recording expenses, measuring assets and liabilities and making disclosures. You'll review key principles such as relevance, faithful representation, consistency, comparability, materiality and conservatism.
The session then applies them: timing and valuation, accrual versus cash accounting, matching expenses with revenue, when revenue can be recognized, and how GAAP shapes financial statements, with real examples from fintechs and financial institutions.
Why attend: Many professionals rely on financial statements without knowing how the numbers are built. Without a grounding in GAAP, it's easy to misread figures, miss red flags, struggle in due diligence or vendor reviews, or make weaker budgeting and forecasting decisions. This session suits compliance, risk, AML, audit, operations, product, fintech partner and vendor management professionals, analysts, and anyone who reviews or relies on financial data and wants to join financial discussions with confidence.
What’s covered
- What GAAP is and who establishes it
- The purpose of standardized accounting rules
- Key GAAP principles such as relevance, consistency, materiality and conservatism
- How GAAP shapes revenue and expense recognition
- Accrual vs. cash accounting and why it matters
- Basics of asset and liability valuation
- How GAAP informs the structure and content of financial statements
- Real-world examples of GAAP for fintechs and financial institutions
Who should attend
What you get
About the speaker
Justin brings over 20 years of wide-ranging experience in compliance, training, and regulation in the financial services sector. Most recently, he served as Head of Compliance Training at Bank of China, where he led the compliance training function and created and monitored the annual training plan through a thorough training needs analysis. Previously, he served as Macquarie Group’s Head of Americas Compliance Training and J.P. Morgan Chase’s compliance training manager. He also worked for FINRA, a US regulator, where he created Examiner University to train examiners on how to perform their function.
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