The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted to remove the requirement that private companies perform a preferability assessment before using four different GAAP alternatives, according to the Journal of Accountancy. The affected standards are:

• ASU No. 2014-02, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Accounting for Goodwill.
• ASU No. 2014-03, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Accounting for Certain Receive-Variable, Pay-Fixed Interest Rate Swaps—Simplified Hedge Accounting Approach.
• ASU No. 2014-07, Consolidation (Topic 810): Applying Variable Interest Entities Guidance to Common Control Leasing Arrangements. 
• ASU No. 2014-18, Business Combinations (Topic 805): Accounting for Identifiable Intangible Assets in a Business Combination.

Prior to this, private companies needed to first assess whether and why the use of a GAAP alternative, such as those drafted by the Private Company Council (PCC), was preferable to the current standards. Stakeholders said this does not take into account economic changes that can change just how preferable an alternative would be at a given time, said the Journal of Accountancy.