Trueblood Committee

The Trueblood Committee was formed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 1972, and developed the Objective of Financial Statements. The committee's goal was to create financial statements that helped external users make decisions about the economics of companies. In 1978, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), whose purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles, adopted the key objectives established by the Trueblood Committee.^[1]

The Trueblood Committee was named for its chairman Robert M. Trueblood. His previous experience on the executive committees of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Accounting Principles Board (APB) earned him the position of chairman.^[2]

The AICPA began hunting for new objectives of financial statements because prior to the development of the Trueblood Committee many accountants were confused and dissatisfied with the current objectives.^[3] Identifying the objectives to financial statements was the purpose behind the creation of the Trueblood Committee.^[4] The committee's mission was to create the objectives in a way that would be more easily understandable by accountants and also more relatable to their work.^[5]

The two key concepts to take away from the findings of the Trueblood Committee are:

• The basic objective of financial statements is to provide useful information to external users for making decisions about a company.
• The management of a business is responsible for effectively using resources to achieve maximum profits.

References

Primary Sources

• 1. Parker, C. Reed. “The Trueblood Report: An Analyst's View.” Financial Analysts Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, 1975, pp. 32–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4477781.
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements. Objectives of financial statements: Report of the Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements. 1973. Full-text
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements. Objectives of financial statements: Report of the Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements -- Vol. 2 Selected Papers. 1973. Full-text

Secondary Sources

• Anonymous. "CPAs Investigate Financial Reporting." Tempo, Vol. 18, no. 1 (1971/72, winter), p. 20-22. Full-text
• Gellein, Oscar S. "Objectives of Financial Statements." Haskins and Sells Selected Papers. New York: Haskins and Sells, 1973, pp. 25–35. Full-text
• Trueblood, Robert M. "Trueblood on the Trueblood Report." Tempo, Vol. 19, no. 1 (1973), p. 01-05. Full-text

External links

• Discussion of the Trueblood and Wheat Committees
• Article from the CPA Journal about the history and future of accounting
• Summary of lecture at Harvard discussing further implementation of Trueblood Committee's Recommendations