Article / Updated 11-04-2019
The authoritative standards and rules that govern financial accounting and reporting by businesses in the United States are called generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). When you read the financial statements of a business, you’re entitled to assume that the business has fully complied with GAAP in reporting its cash flows, profit-making activities, and financial condition — unless the business makes very clear that it prepared its financial statements by using some other basis of accounting or deviated from GAAP in one or more significant respects.